Directed By: Marcos Efron
Starring: Amber Heard, Odette Yustman, Karl Urban, & Adriana Barraza
MPAA Rating: R
My Rating: 3 / 10
Full Disclosure: I have never seen the 1970 film, And Soon the Darkness, upon which this film is based.
And Soon the Darkness is a textbook example of how to squander a perfectly pleasant first half. This film skillfully builds tension throughout its first half, introducing us to two believable heroines and then constantly suggesting that bad things are about to happen to them. Sure, it overuses the old "villagers stare ominously" shtick, but it works nonetheless. In fact, I was almost convinced that I was watching a great thriller...until the so-called "thrills" actually began. Then, And Soon the Darkness loses all of its carefully-mounted momentum, hitting a narrative brick wall of sorts and becoming a standard, run-of-the-mill torture flick...except without the torture. So, what we have is actually a movie that becomes all about our heroines running and bad guys chasing them, with utter lifelessness and absolutely zero tension. It isn't that And Soon the Darkness is a poorly-made film. Indeed, it's a beautifully-shot and well-acted film. Its problem is that there isn't a single spark of interest, creativity, or originality in any second of its 90-minute runtime. This movie practically defines the word "blah."
