*this is for the 102 minute version since I finally f*cking saw it!!

I have always loved this movie, but I’ll be the first one to tell you that it is a mess, because the American version really is. I mean, it’s got great style and mood and all that jazz, but it barely makes sense and everyone in the cast just comes off as super weird. And stuff happens like ‘oh ok we’re doing this now’ quite often.

Well, that’s because the original European release was 102 minutes so what did 2002 Hollywood execs do? They said “that’s way too much time to tell a story who are we selling to? Toddlers?! We’re gonna toss it out on Christmas…

I has the urge to watch this (again) after watching The Cellar because they have similar themes and I just love this movie. I don’t care what anyone says even if they’re probably right.

Because this movie is a mess. It didn’t have to be, but I’ve never seen such an obvious example of studio butchering as is seen here, in this case to achieve a PG-13 rating. The original cut is 102 mins while the theatrical version clocks in at 88 minutes and that missing 14 minutes really shows, but damn if this movies isn’t a fucking MOOD.

A haunted house movie with lots of haunted house things happening and more than enough style and visual flair to keep you…

A father lashes out with increasing fury towards his family after their arrival in a new Spanish home. Is it his progressive neurological disease or the place's dark manifestations? You already know...

Very handsome poor man's husk of Kubrick's Shining that elicits much thumb twiddling and phone checking. Star Anna Paquin as the man's daughter floats right on through, Lena Olin as her mother tries the hardest, Giancarlo Giannini is on his usual coarsely speculative auto-pilot, and Iain Glen as Hack Torrance will make you wanna saddle up to the bar again with Jack. Any mystery between brain illness and paranormal is squashed by obvious ghostly kid connections made straight away during his sudden episodes.

Darkness boils down to Fantastic…

"Darkness" is a 2002 horror film directed by Jaume Balagueró. Before Balaguero made his name more predominately know with his film "[REC]" (2007) and series to follow, he made this interesting supernatural occult film. I wouldn't directly call "Darkness" independent but being put out by Miramax in 2002 and having an international director at the helm, it was tonally of something of a different energy than the more direct studio system selections. For myself, I saw this probably once as a rental around release, but I absolutely forgot everything about it in every shape and form. So much so that I actually compartmentalized this as being a different film when I picked it up for some reason, but either way…

This came up in a conversation about movies with awful reviews that I really enjoy. I didn't know it was so completely eviscerated by the critics until many years after I'd seen it. I've seen it a few times and always thought it was a cool concept with a nice set and some creepy atmosphere.

However! I had a copy of the Unrated version, the only version I'd ever seen, but could not find it last night. So we watched the PG-13 cut, and boy do I understand better. I still think that the movie got a bad rap from critics, as it is a relatively average horror movie in this cut. There are some cheesy jump scares, but still…

Jaume Balaguero's "Darkness" is a good looking and moody horror film that is also too empty and scattered for its own good. There never seems to be much going on beneath the film's jump scares and forced jolts, and the film's characters run around feigning alarm at situations that are only frightening because the script declares them so. Still, "Darkness" is watchable; it simply does not compel enough to earn any but the most patient fans.

Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, and Iain Glen star in this horror tale the finds a young woman discovering the truth about both her rambling country home and her family. Secrets from the past come uncovered, threatening the sanity and safety of those in the…