This is an intriguing little movie from 2003 that deals unceasingly in contradictions. It was brutally slammed by critics, yet opened at #1 and made back its full budget in one weekend. It has an undeniably excellent opening sequence, yet everything that follows is a study in mediocrity. Its lead actor, Chaney Kley, was a Ryan Reynolds-style hottie who seemed destined to use this silly flick as a stepping stone for greater things, yet passed away tragically a few years later of sleep apnea, which is eerily similar to the issue faced by his and other characters in Darkness Falls.
The opening set-up unfurls a small town legend involving a scary, malevolent-ghost tooth fairy who will show up in kids' rooms on the night they lose their last baby tooth. If you don't look at her, you get a gold coin, but if you see her, she kills you. It seems simple enough - sleep through the whole thing and cha-ching. Yet sadly, it is very difficult to sleep through home intrusion by a creepy ghosty lady.
However, the tooth fairy's Achilles heel is that she's afraid of the light. So, it's insanely easy to get rid of her, which no one will take advantage of except for the main character.
Anyway, thanks mainly to a compelling, sweet performance by Emily Browning, the first fifteen minutes or so of Darkness Falls feel like the beginning of a genuinely awesome movie. It's creepy and even romantic. Then we jump twelve years into the future, where Emily Browning has oddly morphed into Emma Caulfield, despite the fact that they look nothing alike. Moreover, Emma Caulfield (her character's name is Caitlin) has a ten year old "brother" who must be about twenty years her junior. Wha? Why didn't they just go the single mom route?
Down at the rudimentary and stereotypical psychoward, Caitlin's bro is being studied due to his night terrors, so she calls up her old childhood love, Kyle, (Kley), who is the only one who ever survived the tooth fairy, but no one believes him, how shocking. Caitlin just wants some advice on night terrors, but Kyle decides to come back home to dispense his wisdom in person, immediately pissing off the tooth fairy, who goes after her only escapee full force, miserably failing to kill him but succeeding marvelously at killing everyone else in town.
Every scene after this is an extended lark wherein Kyle tells everyone to shine lights on the tooth fairy but no one will listen, so they all die like total idiots. The tone has no discernible personality to it, so it's hard to suss out the emotional beats or attempts at humor (did someone completely different write the beginning of the movie?). The cool, frantically sped-up way the tooth fairy is shot makes for a nice visual aesthetic, but she's too much of an easy mark (due to the whole light fear aspect) to be frightening enough.
There's a decent last battle set in a lighthouse, but an underwhelming final scene underscores the sadly lacking hour and fifteen minutes that have been so much filler after that fantastic first couple of scenes.
5 malevolent pumpkins out of 10
