"Chief Silly Bull, is it true that we Native Americans name our children after the first thing we see when they are born?"
" We're not going to make that joke. Everyone's heard it before.Your name isn't even Two Dogs Mating. You're not funny, Little Beaver."
Every Horror film nowadays needs something unique to put it above the clouded mass of typical films, and all of the most iconic in the genre are perfect examples of this. The original Psycho had one of the first horror twists and a talented actor as Norman Bates. The Saw franchise (although you could technically call it a slasher, I prefer it as horror) used low budgets, a deranged mastermind and creative death traps. The Darkness provides us with an intriguing couple of ideas, but fails to deliver in more ways than one.
The film centers on Mikey, an autistic youth- which could have some potential as a module for horror. With a character who has a mental condition, a lot of things can be done that not only play on the character's existing condition, but the reactions of those around him as they debate whether Mikey's explanations of the situation are real or just products of his imagination and issues, as well as if he unknowingly caused the events himself. A much better horror film, Occulus, did this well, having characters with mental issues making you question if the horror was real or just in the lead's twisted imagination. In this case, however, Mikey definitely caused the events, and they're definitely real.
Mikey brings home some rocks from the Grand Canyon, which causes him to act strangely- counting to 5 at seemingly random intervals, an increase in violent behavior (he attempts to kill the family cat), and the appearance of what seems to be an imaginary friend known as 'Jenny'. His behavior is followed by strange occurrences around the family- animals appear from nowhere (a snake finds its way to Grandma's house) and strange, black handprints spontaneously materialize on the walls and ceiling. Eventually, the family learns that this may be the work of five Native American spirits (Crow, Wolf, Coyote, Snake and Buffalo) that Mikey unknowingly awakened by removing the stones from their burial grounds. These spirits aren't exactly happy with the family, and it's up to them to find a way to put the spirits back to rest without losing their lives in the process.
The film finds interesting possibilities with Native American lore and an Autistic child as the main character, but is crippled by it's tendency to fall into the stereotypical aspect category of horror films. Whenever something interesting happens, it's quickly shut out by so many cliche'd moments that you don't have time to enjoy it (when the animal spirits finally do show up in beast form, they're never mentioned again, and Buffalo is nowhere to be found). What ends up happening is that the good ideas all get buried under a slog of the typical. If the film didn't rely on bad scares and strange icons to frighten, it would be something different. Sadly, The Darkness gets beaten down by the typical stereotypes and becomes just another horror come-and-go. Dirty hand prints are not scary. Random black liquid is not scary. Chanting is not scary. The Darkness is a combination of all three for the scares, and thus is a combination of...you guessed it.... not scary. Maybe the Native Americans didn't use every part of the buffalo. Maybe they left the scary parts at home.
OVERALL RATING: 3/10
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Here's something to think about: why did the spirits decide on the name "Jenny"? You'd think Native American ghosts with animal personas would think of something more intimidating. Mikey sounds like the kid's just got an imaginary girlfriend.
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