The Darkness (2016)

There's a decent pedigree here. Director Greg McLean, stars Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell, the not-inconsiderable backing of the Blumhouse brand (I know, I know, that name isn't a sign of quality, but it at least allows the end product to be glossy potential fun). But let's not beat about the bush, The Darkness is rubbish.

A family are enjoying a vacation, part of which involves them visiting the Grand Canyon. The youngest member of the family, an autistic young boy named Mikey, finds a small cavern, in which he finds some rocks with symbols drawn on them. Taking them home, young Mikey inadvertently endangers his whole family, because the rocks seem to be a link to some demonic entities that then start to cause trouble by doing things as varied as repeatedly turning on the taps, making black handprints appear on different surfaces, and setting a wall on fire. The two worried parents race to find a solution to their serious problem, although it's hard to think that they should have just raised their kids not to go exploring strange caves and taking unauthorised ownership of strange rocks.

Written by Shayne Armstrong and S. P. Krause, as well as McLean, The Darkness is yet another mainstream horror movie highlighting the worst things that you can find in mainstream horror movies. The characters aren't very interesting, the tension is pretty non-existent, it's not scary, and it's just all too silly to go along with for any length of time. I am all for suspending disbelief and enjoying a wide variety of cinematic entertainment, but the writers still have to put the work in to get you ready to put you in that mental state.

McLean directs with competence, I'll give him that. That's the minimum praise I can give him, and it's the minimum praise that he deserves. Considering his past releases, The Darkness is undeserving of his involvement. Although everything is generally in the right place, it could have been anyone at the helm. It's THAT generic, and the third act just reminded me of the fact that it's been far too long since I attempted to rewatch every season of The X-Files (you'll see what I mean when you watch the film).

The cast are okay, trying their best with the weak material. David Mazouz is young Michael, and has to just be quiet and look blank (which he does), Lucy Fry is perfectly fine as the older sister, Stephanie, and Bacon and Mitchell are the best thing in the movie, as ill-served by the script as anyone else, but managing to fare a bit better thanks to simply being who they are.

Really not worth your time, unless you're looking for a fairly dull thriller that won't scare you in any way, The Darkness was a film that I was unaware of until last week. Now I have seen it, I know why that was the case.

3/10

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Sci-Fi September: Pitch Black (2000)

Derivative of a whole heap of sci-fi movies, Pitch Black takes all of its separate parts and mixes them together into something cool and highly entertaining. The casting of Vin Diesel in the central role of anti-hero Riddick is vital to that, but let's not take anything away from the script or direction.

A spaceship crash lands on a planet that seems permanently hot and sunny. Thankfully, it's due to have a major eclipse. Not so thankfully, it also happens to be inhabited by some dangerous creatures that can only come out in the dark. The passengers will all have to work together to stay alive, which may be a bit of a problem when one of them is a psychotic killer, Riddick, who probably cares for his freedom more than the safety of anyone around him.

Directed by David Twohy, who had already been brought to the attention of some movie fans with two previous sci-fi movies (Timescape AKA Disaster In Time AKA Grand Tour: Disaster In Time and The Arrival), this is a film that makes the most of budget, cast and premise to create a real treat for movie fans. The myriad of influences are nice to spot, the script - by Jim and Ken Wheat, as well as Twohy - is spot on, with almost every line of dialogue, or action, revealing something about the characters struggling to survive until the end of the movie.

Vin Diesel is the rock at the centre of the film. He's cool, likable, and also believably dangerous. Riddick is a great anti-hero, one that both Twohy and Diesel care a hell of a lot for, as evidenced by the work that has subsequently gone in to creating a full background and mythos for the character. Radha Mitchell does well enough as someone who tries to take charge of the situation, and she's someone I always enjoy seeing appear in movies anyway. As is Mr. Cole Hauser, here having fun once again as a man who wants nothing more than a way off the planet with Riddick still in his custody. Elsewhere, the cast is fleshed out by Claudia Black, Keith David, Rhiana Griffith, and one or two others. Nobody does a bad job, with everyone feeling like a real person instead of just a cardboard cut-out awaiting possible death from the impressive, vicious creatures.

The special effects are pretty solid throughout, with the practical work holding up better than some of the CGI, and everything onscreen is for the benefit of the story, from each piece of extra characterisation, to the lighting (of course), to the sound design, to the dry, rocky terrain, full of holes, that makes up the landscape of the planet.

Everyone pitches in (no pun intended), but I think it's fair to say that the majority of the praise can be heaped upon Twohy and Diesel for their efforts to give audiences such a memorable sci-fi character, dropped into such an entertaining first adventure.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Riddick-Complete-Collection-Blu-ray-UltraViolet/dp/B00GHP8T1Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1409556532&sr=1-1&keywords=riddick+complete+collection

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)

I enjoyed the movie version of Silent Hill. I have fond memories of playing the game many years ago and the movie recreated a lot of imagery that I'll always remember with fondness (fondness = paralysing fear as I played the game at night with the lights out and then started to panic whenever I heard a siren signalling the approach of "the darkness"). So when I started to hear the negative reaction towards this sequel I still held onto hope. Some people had, after all, hated the first movie.

Alas, the majority were right on this occasion. Silent Hill: Revelation is rubbish. It's a lot of cool imagery from the games created thanks to some varying CGI with nothing substantial to call an actual plot. Of course, the plot of the first movie wasn't exactly anything to write home about, but it did enough to get by while the atmosphere was heaped on in thick, thick spoonfuls.

Adelaide Clemens plays a young woman who lives a transient, anonymous life. This is all done because her dad (Sean Bean) has warned her that Silent Hill wants to claim her. He's right. But changing address and keeping a low profile isn't enough to stop Silent Hill reaching out and trying to get what it wants. The darkness starts to fall, bringing strange visions with it.

Written and directed by Michael J. Bassett (who, of course, had the mythology of the games - adapted into a movie idea by Laurent Hadida - to work from), this film just doesn't work as a film. There are individual moments that manage to impress, such as a sequence involving the famous, creepy, nurse characters, but these are few and far between. Any twists and turns can be predicted well ahead of time, the CGI varies wildly between great and godawful and there are exactly zero characters that viewers will care about.

Clemens is okay in the lead role, she's just stuck with bad material, and Sean Bean and Radha Mitchell don't have much time onscreen as her parents, but everyone else is wasted, with Martin Donovan almost managing to be the exception. When a film with so much potential manages to squander the talents of Deborah Kara Unger, Carrie-Anne Moss AND Malcolm McDowell then it deserves any critical lashing that it receives (and this did receive a fair bit already). As for Kit Harington, his role is such a bag of cliches and signposted moments that he's not really required to give any kind of performance, he just has to hit his marks and spout horrible dialogue. Okay, okay, he has to give SOME kind of performance, of course, but it's impossible to judge thanks to the treatment of his character, which seems to have been written by a particularly low-level Auto-scripting program.

There's enough here, on the surface, to almost make the movie worth a watch. It's below average, but some of the visuals are enjoyable and I, for one, like getting to revisit parts of Silent Hill. Your best option, however, is to simply rewatch the first movie. Or, if you're a gamer, replay the videogames.

4/10

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Silent Hill (2006)

I'm not a big gamer. I've never been that talented when it came to playing videogames so I never threw myself into them as some of my friends did. In fact, playing FIFA was just like reliving a miserable childhood at high school in which I was always picked last for the football team, because of my innate inability to actually play all that well. But there were some games that managed to get me hooked. Games like Destruction Derby and Gran Turismo on the Playstation. Games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider. And, yes, even Silent Hill, which was a nerve-jangling blend of images culled from the nightmares of the most fevered brain. A number of videogames from that generation have been made into movies, with varying degrees of success. I never thought that Silent Hill would lend itself particularly well to the medium of film, but I was happily proven wrong when I saw the final result.

The film begins with two parents (Sean Bean and Radha Mitchell) worried about their adopted young daughter (Jodelle Ferland). She's prone to sleepwalking and has been muttering about a place called Silent Hill. At her wit's end, the mother takes off with her daughter to visit Silent Hill and find out just where their little girl came from. As she approaches the town she is a suspicious police officer (Laurie Holden) attempts to stop her, which leads to a bit of a driving malfunction. Moments later, the mother is looking for her daughter in Silent Hill, the police officer is pursuing the mother and the father is setting off to find his family, having not been informed of the plan. It's not long until the sirens wail in Silent Hill and The Darkness descends.

Written by Roger Avary, with some creative input from director Christophe Gans and Nicolas Boukhrief, Silent Hill may not be the most densely plotted horror movie ever, but that's not a problem when the visuals and atmosphere are so impressive. Everything is in line with the game, or at least my memories of the game, and there are plenty of nice touches here and there for fans to spot and enjoy (the radio crackling static when danger is nearby being one of the most obvious).

The cast is solid for a film of this type. Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean are pretty bland in their roles, as is Laurie Holden, but Jodelle Ferland outshines her adult co-stars, and support from Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates and Alice Krige helps a lot. Krige, especially, revels in a role that feels as if it was written with her in mind. And then there are the many physical performers who managed to bring alive the stranger inhabitants of Silent Hill, the creatures and humanoids who can raise goosebumps just in the way they move around. Fans of cenobites will love the bizarre and horrifying menagerie of monsters on display here.

With a decent backstory teased out en route to a grand finale, Silent Hill manages to be more than just a bunch of impressive visuals (unlike the sequel, THAT review is coming soon). It's respectful to the games that it sprang from, and it's also respectful to horror fans in the way that it keeps creating the chills while also never skimping on some great, gory moments.

I understand people being hesitant to check out any movie based on a videogame - we've all been burned at least one time too many - but this is one well worth checking out.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Hill-Blu-ray-Radha-Mitchell/dp/B001E8V6GE/ref=sr_1_3?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1382909454&sr=1-3&keywords=silent+hill