Darkness is a 2002 supernatural horror film directed by Jaume Balagueró, and starring Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, Iain Glen, Giancarlo Giannini, and Fele Martínez. It follows an American family who move into a house in the Spanish countryside, where six children disappeared during an occult ritual forty years before; the teenage daughter and young son of the family are subjected to increasing disturbances in the house.
The film was an international co-production between Spain's Filmax and the American studio Dimension Films, with Miramax's Dimension Films division slated to co-produce the latter and provide forty percent of the budget. At that time, it was noted that the film was scheduled to shoot in Barcelona in early 2001. in addition to Anna Paquin. Prior to Paquin's casting, Natalie Portman was considered for the lead role.
Filming
Principal photography of Darkness began on 26 April 2001 in and around Barcelona, on a budget of $10.6–$11 million.
Director Jaume Balagueró cited The Amityville Horror (1979) and The Shining (1980) as key influences on Darkness.
Release
Darkness had its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival on 3 October 2002. It was then given a wide release in Spain the following week, on 11 October 2002. The film was released in a number of European countries throughout 2003, but its United States release was shelved for nearly two years. On 24 November 2004, Dimension Films premiered a theatrical trailer for the film online, before launching a television advertising campaign over the following several weeks. Dimension Films released the film on 25 December 2004, in a heavily censored PG-13 version. It was given an even later release in the United Kingdom, on 18 March 2005, also in the truncated 88-minute cut.
Home media
In North America, Buena Vista Home Entertainment released Darkness on DVD in two different editions in 2005: One consisting of the original cut then-unrated by the Motion Picture Association of America, and one in the PG-13 cut released in theaters.
Echo Bridge Entertainment issued the film on Blu-ray for the first time in July 2012, featuring the extended cut. On 28 May 2024, Shout! Factory re-released the film on Blu-ray as a web store exclusive limited to 1,800 copies.
Reception
Box office
Despite receiving largely negative reviews and very little promotion, Darkness performed well at the box office. and concluded its theatrical run with a gross of €4 million. In the United States, where it was released on Christmas Day 2004 (a Saturday) in 1,718 theaters, it was the seventh-highest earner that weekend with $6.1 million (at $3,625 average per theater).
The Los Angeles Timess Kevin Thomas awarded the film one out of four stars, deeming it "trite and flat," and "too mechanical to be persuasive or scary." Ned Martel of The New York Times noted: "Darkness, which crept into theaters nationwide on Christmas Day, tries to spook holiday revelers with a guessing game about which member of a handsome American family, relocated to Spain, will kill another. But the real mystery is why such a mangled film was not junked altogether." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said the film is "a horror movie so vague about the nightmare it’s spinning, it seems scared of its own shadows... Darkness was clearly tossed together like salad in the editing room, since it’s little more than the sum of its unshocking shock cuts." David Blaylock The Village Voice also gave the film a middling review, writing: "Moments hint at a metaphoric statement on child abuse, but the film proves mainly to be a commentary on poor electrical wiring." Bilge Ebiri of The New York Sun similarly noted the film as containing elements of "a disturbing family drama," adding that it is "at its best when exploring Dad's bouts with his inner demons - but it's quickly stifled by tired attempts to jolt the audience and more narrative dead-ends.
The Guardians Peter Bradshaw derided the film as a poor imitation of The Shining, and awarded it a one out of five star-rating. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film's cinematography, but criticized its script: "Although director Balaguero displays a talent for spooky visuals and creating an atmosphere of quietly simmering tension, his screenplay (co-written by Fernando de Felipe) is a compendium of barely connected scenes that ultimately lapse into incoherence." Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle called the film "Eurotrash for the new millennium," comparing it negatively against Lucio Fulci's The Beyond (1981) and Dario Argento's Inferno (1980), summarizing: "Despite the very occasional shock... Darkness is a god-awful mess, the kind of monstrous misfire that makes your mind ache and your teeth grind." Jennifer Green of Screen Daily conceded that the film features "cleverly crafted" and "haunting" visuals, praising the work of cinematographer Xavi Gimenez and editor Luis de la Madrid, but felt the performances were lackluster "considering the caliber of the cast."
Michael Gingold of Fangoria gave the film a rare favorable review, noting that "the dynamics among the various family members are plausibly played out, even if specific scenes between them don’t always ring true," and concluded "It’s once he’s gotten past the exposition that Balagueró really gets cooking, and the final 10-15 minutes are full of genuine shivers. The movie’s title isn’t just a random scary moniker; the plot ultimately proves to actually hinge on darkness, and Balagueró and Gimenez’s use of light and the lack thereof is expert throughout."
Accolades
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="width:75%;"
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! style="width:25%;"| Institution
! style="width:5%;"| Year
! style="width:25%;"| Category
! style="width:49%;"| Recipient
! style="width:10%;"| Result
! style="width:1%;" class="unsortable"|
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! scope="row" style="text-align:center;" rowspan="2"| Barcelona Film Awards
| rowspan="2"| 2002
| Best Film
| Jaume Balagueró
|
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
| Best Cinematography
| Xavi Giménez
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| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;"| Fantasporto
| 2002
| Best Film
| Jaume Balagueró
|
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;"| Goya Awards
| 2002
| Best Sound
|
|
| style="text-align:center;"|
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;"| Sitges Film Festival
| 2002
| Best Film
| Jaume Balagueró
|
| style="text-align:center;"|