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Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 42The A.V. ClubA.A. DowdThe A.V. ClubA.A. DowdIt’s vaguely endearing to watch Bacon and Mitchell actually try to act their way through the film’s family drama, as though it weren’t a perfunctory pretext to jump scares. The Darkness needs their chops. It needs anything to distract horror fans from the fact that there’s nothing new here.
- 40Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayLos Angeles TimesNoel MurrayWhile McLean and company admirably aim for some relevance by tying the Taylors’ haunting to their personal demons, ultimately The Darkness is just the same old show: things that go bump in the night, and the tasteful decor they defile.
- 40New York Daily NewsEdward DouglasNew York Daily NewsEdward DouglasThe Darkness offers very few new scares, mainly because it's so haunted by the ghosts of far better horror movies.
- 40The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanBacon, Mitchell and especially young Lucy Fry are all quite effective in these dramatic scenes. But this isn’t a drama. It’s a dumbass, inexpensive horror flick which means anything real is thrown away so that poorly rendered CG ghosts can hover about and smash up windows.
- 38Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreThe scariest thing about The Darkness turns out to be the trailers to this summer’s more promising horror offerings, “Lights Out” and “Don’t Breathe.”
- 30VarietyScott TobiasVarietyScott TobiasAt some point in the production process, co-writer/director Greg McLean must have believed he was making John Cassavetes’ “Poltergeist,” but this odd fusion of psychodrama and supernatural hokum gets away from him.
- 30Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAustin ChronicleSteve DavisIt’s like being haunted by outsized chimney sweeps that never bathe. And for the most part, it’s about that scary.
- 25RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiRogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiThe Darkness is pretty much a total bust—it isn’t scary, it isn’t exciting and it plods along at such a snails pace that even though it clocks in at just over 90 minutes, it plays like it runs at least twice that.
- 25Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThis enterprise is so listless that one can't even work up a proper head of self-righteous steam over the spooky Native American clichés that drive the plot.
- 20The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAmid the rarely very creepy buildup to the Amityville-ish showdown to come, the screenplay piles on more unrelated domestic drama than the picture can take.