‘Face evil. Head on.’
Darkness Falls is a 2020 Belgian thriller film about a grieving detective determined to track down his wife’s cold, calculating killers. The movie was previously known as Anderson Falls.
Directed by Julien Seri (Night Fare; Scorpion; The Great Challenge) from a screenplay written by Giles Daoust, the movie stars Shawn Ashmore (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Gary Gole, Richard Harmon (Bates Motel), Daniella Alonso (The Collector), Sonya Walger, Vahina Giocante and horror icon Lin Shaye.
Plot:
After his wife’s apparent suicide, Detective Jeff Anderson (Shawn Ashmore) becomes convinced that she has in fact been murdered. Obsessed with his investigation, Anderson finds out that his wife was the victim of a team of father-and-son serial killers. He’ll have to break all the rules to stop them from killing other women…
Release:
Darkness Falls premieres on VOD and Digital on June 12th 2020 from Vertical Entertainment.
Reviews:
“The death grip Darkness Falls puts on heartstrings tugs so desperately, it’s a wonder each rental doesn’t come with a custom tissue box. How does Darkness Falls roll a saving throw against all of these arrows of apathy? Even stuffed with stereotypes, the film earns its stripes from a competent cast of reliable, often undervalued character actors stepping up into spotlight roles.” Culture Crypt
“All in all, Anderson Falls is a curious beast with some serious failings but a lot of potential. Some viewers will love it for reasons its director did not intend; some will find it a satisfying enough police procedural, and others will be left trying to overlook its clumsiness in order to appreciate its beauty.” Eye for Film
“Anderson Falls treads familiar ground, often in a head-scratching manner, including a black-and-white sequence showing multiple shots of Anderson’s Face, Ashmore performing breakdown scenes that border on comical, some corny dialogue delivered by fine actors doing their best with the material, and one convenient occurrence after another.” Horror Fuel
“With the clumsiness of the script aside, Darkness Falls is a beautiful film to watch, an overall satisfying work from a director and a creative team bursting with potential.” Killer Horror Critic
“The whole affair falls apart at the screenplay level. Just as we can more or less forgive the actors for their poor performances, we can almost understand Seri’s instinct for trying to amplify every element of the filmmaking in Darkness Falls.” Mark Review Movies
“Clichés are already shorthand, so when you shorthand the shorthand, assuming audiences will just take the leap into whatever “reality” you are trying to create, you end up with a cop-thriller like Darkness Falls: a bizarre series of cliché after cliché, with no real work done to fill in the blanks with complexity, nuance, or even basic human reality.” RogerEbert.com
Notes:
Not to be confused with the 2003 horror film of the same name.
Our rating:
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