The Dark (2005)

one of my absolute favorites!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

First off - to the positives. This movie is beautiful in terms of cinematography. The locations where they filmed looked like really beautiful places. However The cinematography is not all this movie has to stand on (Why would I give it 7 then?).The acting of this movie - in terms of the genre is actually very redeeming. I have seen a couple of horror films in the past and I have seen actors look blankly when they're supposed to be scared (I've seen a few of the "worst movie of all time" votes). Maria Bello and Sean Bean are very good actors and it shows in this movie.Without the scares this movie in terms of writing also is very good (becausee this is the same person who wrote Ginger Snaps 3 I was very surprised) you know the emotions that Adele and James are going through. A previous reviewer compared it to the Spanish movie El Orfanto (The Orphanage), The drama portrayed in El Orfanto is much better in comparison. I just thought I'd point that out.So as far as movies that are basically devoid of any scares (but mainly due to the sound engineer putting in every cliché imaginable) this is worth the watch.

I absolutely love this movie. I bought it several years back when it came as a Silent Hill double DVD bundle. It is similar to Silent Hill as a mother goes to the depths of the underworld to save her child. It remains a unique story in it's own right, introducing the American public to an almost Lovecraftian segment of Welsh Mythology.The acting is good. Sean Bean is always a treat. I read the user review of the author, and I am disappointed that they didn't like the way the movie turned out. I got all the ideas described and more, although it is subtle will be lost on a disengaged audience. I found the story absorbing. I sympathized with the characters. They were all complex and written very well. If you like Silent Hill, you may like this one as well.

This horror-mystery-thriller has plenty of potential but never really makes good use of it, despite solid production values and a couple of decent actors in the leading roles. THE DARK, much like the Demi Moore-starrer HALF LIGHT, finds sinister mystery and ghostly goings-on on the coastline of rural Britain, although the setting is Wales this time around. The story sees estranged couple Maria Bello and Sean Bean shacked up at a creepy old farmhouse with their daughter Sarah, and it's not long before it becomes clear that something has designs on the young girl.So far, so good. I always love the isolated locales of films like this, and the wind-swept setting (with Devon and the Isle of Man standing in for Wales) is well achieved. It helps to have the excellent Bean playing a non-villain for once, and Bello is almost his match as the complicated mother. But for a film that's all about the fate of a young girl, they made the character of Sarah really obnoxious and not somebody you particularly want to see rescued or saved.This film's biggest failing is the story, which is all over the place. It starts off with a mysterious standing stone, which turns out to be a red herring and has nothing to do with the plot line at all. Then we throw in some weird-acting sheep (which just aren't menacing, and can only be used as villains in a film if you go for an out-and-out comedy like they did in BLACK SHEEP), a tragedy in the past involving a religious cult, and the apparition of a little girl who's more irritating than frightening.The plotting falls to pieces as the story goes on, and no amount of atmospheric creeping-about in old abandoned rooms is going to make up for it. By the end, it's become farcical; the scriptwriter obviously has no idea how to tie things up, so we get around five different endings, one following the other, until the viewer feels bludgeoned by the sheer bloody-mindedness of it all.

THE DARK has a lot going for it . It's directed by John Fawcett the man who made cult werewolf movie GINGER SNAPS and stars Sean Bean . It also has an interesting premise of a couple who's young daughter hasdrowned which while not original - Everyone remembers DON'T LOOK NOW - has a lot of potential . Unfortunately this is a film that proves unless you have a well structured and compelling screenplay then all the other aspects of movie making are redundant The problem with THE DARK is the longer it continues the more confused everything becomes . According to the trivia section this is the first film in history to involve the concept of " Annwyn " an underworld from Welsh mythology . I'd certainly never heard of this legend and I doubt if many people watching the film had done so either . Worse still it becomes obvious that most people who made the film don't know either . To hide this fact Fawcett starts throwing every cliché he can think of to disguise this fact and the audience have to endure startling sound effects/ noises , dark interiors of houses , apparitions and < insert our own cliché here > , so much so that you'll be at a loss what's going on long before the end credits There is another major flaw and that is the " monsters " in the movie are sheep ! No I'm not making this up , I'm being deadly serious . Some films have aliens as villains , or spiders , or rats or any other skin crawling creatures you can think of while THE DARK has fluffy , four legged mammals famous for chewing grass and running away when anyone goes near them as objects of terror . It might seem amusing to see people being trampled by sheep but everything about the movie is constructed , framed and written in overly dead pan dramatics that it's impossible to raise a smile at this ridiculous plot turn To be fair THE DARK is a fairly good film on a technical level . Both the cinematography and editing are impressive as is the sound mix so I've awarded it 4/10 . The down side is that I'm probably giving it a higher mark than it deserves since the storyline incidents are incomprehensible and has been stated most of the audience will be totally confused as to what's going on . Let's hope this is the last film to revolve around Annwyn . To be blunt a film about Ann Robinson would be more interesting