This Canadian film stars Kevin Zegers of ‘Wrong Turn’ fame (and the
forthcoming ‘Dawn of the Dead’ re-make) as Dale Billings, who is left to
watch his younger brother Brian one night. Ok, sounds easy enough, but
Brian suffers from an acute fear of the dark, and with good reason.
Tackling the same subject matter as the recent ‘They’ and ‘Darkness
Falls’, (but according to one British journalist’s review much better),
the film acts as an excellent example of less is more.
Set over one night in one house with only two main cast members and three
supporting characters, Director K.C. Bascombe achieves what many main
stream film makers cannot due to ‘too many crooks’ syndrome.
Basically, it is the same old same old as no-one believes Brian’s claims,
when he tells them that something lives in the dark…..until they are
forced to believe him in the most horrible ways imaginable!
Whilst the film works mainly due to the acting capabilities of Kevin
Zegers and Jesse James as Dale and Brian respectively, they are suitably
aided by the very beautiful and talented Rachel Skarsten.
The film also benefits greatly from K.C. Bascombe’s competent direction,
wonderful lighting and cinematography and good effects work on the
villains of the piece.
OVERALL SUMMARY
In the end however, despite a nasty twist, the film is hampered greatly by
the competition. ‘They’ has been out for less than a year and ‘Darkness
Falls’ only hit Video and DVD last week in the UK and is doing well, which
means people will be far too critical of this if they even bother to watch
it, as it will be sadly dismissed as a rip-off.