Review of And Soon the Darkness (2010) by Jim H — 06 Jan 2011

AND SOON THE DARKNESS is not a film that breaks any kind of new ground in the horror/thriller genre, but at the same time it's also one that manages to rise above the the rather low expectations it had going for it upon its release.

The most notable thing that AND SOON THE DARKNESS does well is in the filmography department. The scenery on display here is just gorgeous and is quite diverse and is always visually striking in one way or another.

Where the film falters is in its script, as there's nothing truly groundbreaking being done in this film. Amber Heard and Odette Yustman turn in solid performances, with Heard doing a fine job of carrying the second half of the film pretty much on her shoulders. Karl Urban is also solid here, although rather underused in his role. All three actors try to bring something new to the proceedings here that we haven't seen in countless other films of this type, and while Yustman and Heard do succeed quite well at creating likable characters that gain the sympathy of the viewer, nobody is able to overcome a script that really gives the characters nothing meaningful to do. The main problem would be the film's short running time, as perhaps more time could have been spent on the investigative portion of the film instead of having the characters miraculously find themselves in the place that they need to be without having really earned the information that would have actually led them there.

AND SOON THE DARKNESS is a film that, while covering absolutely no new ground, does do a few things quite a bit better than some of its predecessors in the genre. Thankfully, the gore count is quite low, and after Hollywood's never ending obsession with the torture genre, this is something that came as a pleasant surprise.