Darkness

Anna Paquin stars as an American girl named Regina, whose family takes up residence in an oddly-shaped, spooky house in the remote Iberian countryside in Spanish writer-director Jaume Balagueró's would-be thriller. Darkness was filmed in English, but it feels like a badly dubbed, clumsily reedited version of some longer foreign-language original that tosses together elements from far more distinguished predecessors (such as The Shining, Poltergeist, and The Omen) to create a largely incoherent narrative about a Satanic group that plots to unleash demonic forces upon the world in conjunction with an upcoming eclipse of the sun. Just like Jack Torrance in Stephen King/Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Regina's father is somehow involved in this obscure conspiracy, becoming a rage-filled obsessive under the house's evil influence, while her younger brother Paul is visited by ghostly apparitions (think of a minor league Danny Torrance). Much of the storyline involves Regina's efforts to figure things out, a task she is far more successful at than the viewer, as the final reel of the film ends up being so visually garbled that it's almost impossible to discern what's going on or why. Not recommended. [Note: Available in either an R-rated or unrated version, DVD extras include a four-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, and trailers. Bottom line: a disappointing extras package for a mess of a film.] (F. Swietek)