Just a dreadful movie in virtually every conceivable way.The setup: Many years ago, in the town of Darkness Falls (yeah, right, a town is going to name itself THAT!!!), a rich, kindly elderly woman gave money to children who came to her with their missing teeth...earned nickname "Tooth Fairy." Later, woman is horribly disfigured in a fire, and is seldom seen, and if she is, she's wearing a porcelain mask. When some kids go missing, the Tooth Fairy is blamed and promptly lynched by the town, who, as the ultimate humiliation, also tear off her mask, exposing her horrible injuried for the world to see. Later, the children are found safe and sound, but by then, she has cursed the children of Darkness Falls. If, when she comes to collect their last tooth, a child sees the Tooth Fairy, they will be killed, unless they always stay in the light. She hates that light, see.
Oh my. But even if one accepts the silliness of this device, perhaps we'll get some decent chills along the way? Well, no. We first meet our lead character, whose name I don't remember a mere hour after enduring the movie, when he manages to see the Tooth Fairy as a child. His mother is killed and he is blamed (for NO good reason) and taken to an asylum, where he spends some amount of years hiding in the light and having a hard time sleeping...you'd think you might get used to sleeping with some lights on, but what do I know?
Years later, another boy is in the same situation, only this time, his much older sister (who happens to be the lead characters' long-ago sweetheart) drags our lead character back to Darkness Falls to "help" her troubled younger brother. Naturally, no one believes these two sufferers of the tooth fairy curse, but everywhere they go, the tooth fairy swoops down and takes another victim.
The movie is PG-13, so the killings are pretty tame, and pretty much the same. Tooth Fairy can sorta fly, so she usually drops on her victim and then up into the air with them she goes. Naturally it's always dark when she does this, so we don't see any of it very clearly. But no one cares anyway.
At one point in the movie, we meet our adult male lead, now living far away from Darkness Falls, and we see that he's got drawings all over his wall of a porcelain faced figure. When he sees that the little boy has also drawn a similar figure, he apparently decides to make it his life's mission to save the boy. What is it in horror movies that the hero so often draws sketches of the "horrible" thing they've seen. If I saw something horrible, I wouldn't be able to sketch it...can't draw worth a hill of beans. Or maybe being scared would make me artistic? Or maybe only artistic people get scared? This is such a cliche, and in this film, if falls even flatter than usual.
Mostly the movie involves every one running around, trying to stay in light and shooting guns at her...to no effect. Nearly everyone dies and we, the viewer, are unable to muster up even one ounce of concern or caring. The movie generates not one smidgen of tension. And there is no humor, either...it takes itself VERY seriously. Everyone involved in the movie: director, screenwriter, actors (all unknown to me), cinematograher, editor, scorer have NO business in show business!!!
(The only worse horror I have seen is FEAR DOT COM, which is equally incompetent, but I hate even more because some of the cast members are actually good actors (usually) and because the movie is so ICKY.) DARNESS FALLS is a GREAT way to fall asleep early. Avoid it at all costs!!!!
