THE DARKNESS (2016)

Studio:       Blumhouse Tilt
Director:    Greg McLean
Writer:       Greg McLean, Shayne Armstrong, S.P. Krause
Producer:  Jason Blum, Bianca Martino, Matt Kaplan
Stars:     Kevin Bacon, Radha Mitchell, Lucy Fry, David Mazouz, Ming-Na Wen, Jennifer Morrison, Matt Walsh, Paul Reiser

Review Score:

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Summary:

An autistic boy unwittingly disturbs a supernatural evil from Native American legend that haunts his troubled family.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Architectural designer Peter Taylor, his recovering alcoholic wife Bronny, their daughter Stephanie, and their autistic son Michael enjoy a Grand Canyon getaway with Gary and Joy Carter and their teenage son Andrew. Left alone, Mikey falls through a rock floor and discovers an underground cavern with a strange altar and walls adorned with Native American cave paintings. Mikey pockets the five carved stones embedded in the altar.

After the family returns home to Los Angeles, Mikey’s behavior grows increasingly odd and he begins speaking of an unseen entity named Jenny. Strange smells, fleeting shadows, and sudden noises also plague the Taylor house.

At work, Peter’s boss Simon Richards introduces Peter to his attractive new co-worker Sammy Levin. Still working on his marriage after Bronny discovered a previous affair, Peter ultimately rejects the temptation to have an affair with Sammy.

Paranormal activity continues at the Taylor house. Stephanie sees handprints on the bathroom mirror and on her comforter. A crow perches itself on Peter’s car. A dog belonging to next-door neighbor Jeff barks constantly.

Bronny discovers Stephanie is bulimic. Peter takes Stephanie to the hospital for treatment.

Bronny drops off Mikey at her mother Trish’s house for babysitting. Paranormal activity begins there, culminating in the sudden appearance of a snake, shocking Trish and sending her to the hospital. Mikey is found trying to kill Trish’s cat.

Back at home, Mikey sets fire to his bedroom wall. The damage takes shape as a large black oval. Peter worries that his son is becoming dangerous.

Bronny begins suspecting a supernatural force is influencing Mikey. She researches Anasazi Indian legends regarding supernatural demons and also learns that autistic children are supposedly sensitive to paranormal phenomena.

Peter and Bronny have an awkward dinner with Simon and his wife Wendy. When Peter and Bronny return home, they find Mikey mysteriously covered in dirty handprints. Mikey tells them, “the blue star is close now.”

During the night, the house’s doors somehow open, allowing Jeff’s dog to get inside and attack Stephanie.

Peter starts considering Bronny’s suggestion of supernatural activity plaguing their family. A video Bronny provides tells Peter about the Anasazi legend of “The Darkness,” an infestation of shadow beings who took children and tormented victims until they were driven mad or killed. Anasazi priests trapped the demons inside ritual stones used to communicate with the beings and hid the stones deep within a cave. If the stones were removed, the demons would be freed. The only way to lift the curse is for someone without fear to return the stones to their rightful place.

Paranormal activity reaches a fever pitch, forcing the Taylors to flee their home and take refuge in a hotel.

Peter and Simon arrange a meeting between their wives where Wendy recommends a psychic healer to Bronny.

Teresa Morales, the psychic healer, comes to the Taylor house with her granddaughter Gloria Ortega acting as translator. The two women tell the family about the five Anasazi demons, explaining that the evil entities take the form of a crow, coyote, snake, buffalo, and wolf, animals that the family has previously encountered in various instances.

Paranormal activity escalates as Teresa and Gloria perform a cleansing ritual. While the women are occupied, Peter goes to Mikey’s room and sees his son entering a portal into the Anasazi cave with the five demons. Peter follows, bringing the ritual stones with him after spotting them on the floor. Peter attempts to put the stones back into the altar, but is supernaturally stopped. Instead, Peter exchanges himself to spare Mikey and begins walking off with the demons. Because he is fearless, Mikey takes the stones and places them in the altar, banishing the demons and rescuing his father. Peter and Mikey return home through the portal.

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Review:

Peter and Bronny Taylor have dealt with their autistic son Mikey’s behavioral issues before.  But after the boy brings home a strange set of ceremonial stones found in a cave on a Grand Canyon getaway, problems in the Taylor household go from difficult to demonic.

When those stones came home, an ancient Anasazi evil came with them.  These middle class family members formerly concerned with infidelity, alcoholism, and eating disorders now face supernatural strangeness peaking high at Katie/Micah levels of paranormal activity.  To save Mikey from possession and to protect their teenage daughter Stephanie from torment, Peter and Bronny immerse themselves in the mystery cursing their family, hoping to destroy the darkness before it tears the Taylors apart.

“The Darkness” is a mostly run-of-the-mill mish-mash of vague Native American myths mixed with typical thriller tropes.  At one time, its starting point may have been a creative take on haunted house horror populated by interestingly flawed people.  But the movie is marred by the distinguishing characteristics of something that went through a wringer of rewrites and re-edits, paring it down into a predictable supernatural drama.

One sure sign of behind-the-scenes tinkering is a roster of characters who disappear and are forgotten with the frequency of NBC sitcoms during pilot season.  The revolving door of unimportant support starts spinning from the get-go, as the Taylors’ vacation sees them joined by Gary and Joy Carter and their teenage son Andrew.  I had to check IMDb for those names since the movie puts up no effort to make this trio memorable.  Why are the Taylors on holiday with anyone else at all?  Surely there is a more economical way for the script to provide backstory bits about local legends and Bronny’s bottle addiction than by adding three one-scene-and-done roles, right?

Except the cards that turn over as the movie rolls forward prove “The Darkness” started life as a much different beast where ancillary personalities probably mattered more.  Paul Reiser and Ming-Na Wen, who appear as Peter’s boss Simon and Simon’s wife Wendy, are apt examples.  Reiser and Wen are actors of some caliber, and anyone would be crazy to believe their agents allowed them to sign up specifically for six minutes of screentime playing parts whose only purpose is exposition.

Peek past the chopped up plot looking for shadows of what once was or what might have been, you can see the forgotten footprint of a character-driven drama that required real talent in their respective roles.  The principal players all face individual demons in addition to the literal ones.  Bronny lusts after vodka.  Peter struggles to not be a repeat philanderer.  Stephanie knows better than to put two fingers down her throat.  Kevin Bacon, Radha Mitchell, Lucy Fry, and David Mazouz as Mikey have the presence to give these people the depth they deserve.  “The Darkness” just doesn’t take that depth further than superficial skin.

What remains is a single-scene grandmother traumatized by a snake before vanishing, a nondescript neighbor with a dog more important than he is, and a couple of characters in the credits who I’m not even certain appear in the final film.  Something definitely happened to change the structure of the story after contracts were signed and the camera started rolling.

This doesn’t make “The Darkness” confusing, though it does make it bland.  The film is steadfast about straying away from uniqueness in favor of by-the-book boos and is determined to remind you repeatedly that you are watching a movie, not being consumed by believable fiction.

Every time a television appears onscreen, which is remarkably often, content always conveniently features cartoon ghosts, Godzilla film clips, or something else that makes thematic sense for a horror movie, yet no practical sense for realism.  What is the likelihood that stock footage of atomic blast testing would randomly be playing on a hospital lobby TV?

As for those by-the-book boos, “The Darkness” dog-ears nearly all of the usual pages.  Waking from a nightmare.  Shadowy figures suddenly appearing in reflections.  Tiptoeing through dark corridors.  There’s even an internet research sequence to fill in blanks that Ming-Na Wen can’t cover in her serendipitous speech about a Hopi Indian seminar, as well as a pair of psychics who perform a “Poltergeist”/”The Exorcist”/”Insidious”/”You Name It” cleansing ritual during the climax.

Formulaic isn’t automatically unforgivable, and “The Darkness” isn’t either.  Characters, the ones who stick around anyway, are initially interesting and portrayed engagingly.  The performances, like the micro and macro storylines, simply aren’t afforded space to do anything but bare bones basics while ensuring rote beats are hit right on cue.

While it doesn’t earn a ranking on any “Best of” lists, “The Darkness” also doesn’t deserve a spot any “Worst of” ones.  It is a mid-card movie where your mood at the time of viewing will influence whether you tolerate its trappings enough to find it passably entertaining, or merely become miffed at the missed opportunities to do something cleverly creative instead of conventionally cliché.

Review Score:  50

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