I think this will be a fairly short movie review. Hated It. I've seen deathbed repenters with better redemption potential than this film. Darkness Falls is not just the name of a town, but a play on words too, as well as a play on our wallets.
The film starts out with a narrated, well-done photographic collage sequence. We learn that long ago, a kind, childless woman would give the townschildren gold coins for their teeth, and was affectionately named "The Tooth Fairy". However, after an accident left her badly burned, sentiment towards her changed and she was executed for a crime she didn't commit. Before dying she cursed the town, vowing to take the children after they lost their last baby tooth.
Then we cut to the opening horror scene that sets the story for us to follow, where a young boy encounters the tooth fairy, and his life is changed. That, I admit, was scary, but after the first 5 minutes, and save for one other brief instance of the movie, it wasn't even enough to keep me mildly nervous. The only anxiety that I felt was that the movie wouldn't end.
The acting was flat and dull, perhaps if there were some names or faces that I recognized, it wouldn't have been so bad. One of the main characters, Kyle (Chaney Kley) returns to the town at the request of his childhood sweetheart Caitlin (Emma Caulfield), to help her little brother, Michael (Lee Cormie) overcome a fear of darkness (the kid's in the nut-hut). Michael is diagnosed psychotic because he is deathly afraid of the dark, and is convinced that the Tooth Fairy is out to get him. Kyle is still literally haunted by the Tooth Fairy and during his visit home, he encounters his past, as well as her. Of course, things do downhill for Kyle and we spend the rest of the movie seeing how he busts the ghost and helps the kid.
The movie is so full of inconsistencies and contradictions that it is not just worth seeing. For one, why is Caitlin taking care of a little brother so young, he could be her son, and where are her parents for the delicate and serious treatments he's undergoing? Also, they are at this podunk little hospital that has an MRI-like device, but doesn't have a generator when the electricity goes out. (I hope they weren't doing any major surgery). If the Tooth Fairy is dead, and therefore a ghost, how can they successfully kill her? Finally, being that Darkness Falls is a small town, and people there are aware of its curse, you would think that SOMEONE would have listened to the kid when he talked about the Tooth Fairy.
I say save your money and keep your good impression of the Tooth Fairy.
Grade: D -
Czarina's Caustic Comment or Captious Compliment: This movie should have been put under a pillow.
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