Moving with her family to Spain, a teen and her family believe the series of weird occurrences there are the result of the ghosts of children killed in the house for a deadly ceremony and must prevent it from happening again to her family.Overall this one turned out enjoyable if slightly flawed. This one really manages to work quite well at building a pretty noteworthy atmosphere here by really going for a subdued approach to the haunting found within here, which range from the innocent to the subtle. While initially starting with the innocent fare of the discovery of the pictures and the drawings, or the subtle versions of ideas from the father's freak-outs and behavior around the family, the constantly flickering lights and the obsession over the beings under his bed all might seem like non-entities there's a great build-up throughout the first half which sets up the latter half of this one nicely. That gives the second half much more to work with as the investigation into the original traumatic incident and the ghostly visions of the children around the house manage to really ramp up the action and pacing even more for the finale. There are some good times here as this section features the battle to get the father under control during one of his freak-outs while setting up the chilling walk-through of the house in complete darkness while surrounded by the ghosts and their temptation tricks that make this one quite fun. Even as much good as this becomes, this section here really highlights the flaws present in the film. Among the biggest here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of action here, as the film is decidedly against the supernatural to prove the point of its haunting back-story. This one here is instead more like a drama by focusing on the idea that something's happening rather than do anything about it which simply makes this one go by without anything of any real interest throughout here. Not only is this section not filled with action but it's also part of the really low-key and dragging pace that doesn't offer up a whole lot of energy that doesn't move the plot along any better. These here are quite problematic here as they give this quite a dull pace without much of a true horror film here to start this one off which makes this problematic. The other real flaw to this one here is the utterly haphazard finale, not only filled with wretched editing during the action scenes but filled with cliché moments and action here that feels pretty common and not that original which really makes for some troubling times here in this section. These here are the film's biggest issues that hold it down.Rated PG-13: Violence, minor Language and themes of child abuse.

A teenage girl (Anna Paquin) moves into a remote countryside house with her family, only to discover that their gloomy new home has a horrifying past that threatens to destroy the family.The film was produced by Julio Fernández and Brian Yuzna. The Yuzna connection is interesting, but unfortunately does nothing to save it. (I am still unclear why he lives and works in Spain.) Darkness received extremely negative reviews from both critics and general audiences. It currently holds a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 53 reviews. It is one of only eight films to ever receive "F" CinemaScore, indicating overwhelmingly popular dislike. Sadly, I have to agree. I found this all very boring, even though I would want to like it.

:SPOILER: Lights Don't Work When Things Get Scary, But Carlos Is there...Usually When I'm Looking Around A New House And I Find A Giant Snake Emblem Under My Hardwood Floors, I Just Kinda Keep It To Myself Also..List Of Clichés: SPOILERS:Old Music, Flickering Lights, Poor Lighting To Hide Faces, The Knowledge Guy Whom For Some Reason Can't Tell The Characters EVERYThing, But Just Enough To Scare The BeJesus Out Of Them, Moving Objects, Parents Disbelief, Moving INto A New home. This Might Be The Worse Movie Mother Of All Time..Saying Freaking Instead of F***in Makes You Just As Lame As The Situation.. The PG13 Level Boobs Bouncing IN The Same halterTop All Movie is Terrible The Darkness Constantly Is Terrible The Mother is Unbelievably Stupid The Music Had Nothing To Do With The Movie The Boyfriend Was Stupid As Hell Her Willingness To Discover Things On Her Own Were Stupid The Father Going Crazy Was Like "OOOOOK" No Connection With Anyone In The Movie All Characters Were ClownsAnd Then Of Course Pour In The WhysWhy Did The Grandfather Kidnap Her Tell Her The Story Then Let Her Go? Why Didn't She Scream before He Tied Her Mouth? Why Did The Boyfriend Walk In So Unknowingly After He Found Out The Grandfather Knew Something? Why Didn't The Mother See The Snake Emblem?

This is not a perfect movie but it's by no means awful or "sucky" as a few reviewers have so eloquently suggested. There is a lot here to like. Fantastic cinematography, good direction (for the most part), interesting story line (or at least it starts off interesting) and some great acting, especially from Anna Paquin. For the first half I was really engrossed and enjoying the film and thinking this would be one of my higher scoring reviews but then something happened and I disconnected from it. I remember thinking well this movie is really well done and I feel all the tension and suspense etc but something isn't quite right. And I'm still not 100% sure what that something is.Part of the problem was the last half of the movie seemed to be a bit of a mess. At times it seemed badly edited, disjointed and rushed. I couldn't understand half of what was being said, which is a shame because there were some not very entertaining but important plot explanations buried in that muddy audio. I have to agree with others here that the ending, at least in the cut version, is a hard to follow and rather abrupt and anti-climactic. The bit where the scene keeps switching between Reggie/Grandfather, Mom & kid, Dad, bloke with the cane etc.... were just too jumbled and very difficult to work out what was going on. At that point the film slid into "silly" when before that it had been sophisticated and convincing. The father character seemed to become too over the top to the point of ridiculous. The mother's complete disconnect from her family was a bit hard to come at too even from the start. Maybe there was a backstory to her bizarre behaviour. I think it might have helped to have developed her character a bit more. Even showing her at her workplace to give her some context. (where did she work anyway??) Anna & the kid brother actor tried valiantly enough but it really couldn't pull itself back together in the final stages. I have since learnt that I watched the "cut" version which might explain why I found the last section of the movie so difficult to follow and erratic.Despite these issues, this movie is still a cut above the usual horror fare being regurgitated ad nauseum out there. There is almost no real violence and no gore at all but it's very creepy & suspenseful helped by a good but subtle music score. (An aside: I had to laugh at one negative review (rant) on here that complained about the ONE scene that had a bit of blood in it because they "don't like movies with blood in them" and then claimed to be an authority on what makes a great horror movie because they are "a huge horror movie fan" *snort*).If you like movies where it's more about the build up of suspense and dread, a chilling atmosphere and tension-building through good direction this movie is well worth watching even tho it employs some standard techniques. If you like lots of action, violence, shocks and bloody gore look elsewhere. :) Hope this review helps you make up your mind about whether to watch it. For my part, I think this is a badly under-rated flick that could have been much better but is a great improvement over most of the average offerings in this genre.