|
|
DOWN A DARK HALL
Director: Rodrigo Cortés Cast: AnnaSophia Robb, Uma Thurman, Isabelle Fuhrman, Victoria Moroles, Noah Silver, Taylor Russell, Rosie Day, Rebecca Front, Jodhi May, Pip Torrens, Kirsty Mitchell, Jim Sturgeon, David Elliot MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:36 Release Date: 8/17/18 (limited) |
|
Review by Mark Dujsik | August 16, 2018 An otherwise forgettable and routine horror movie, Down a Dark Hall does provide one spark of cleverness. We all know that ghosts in horror tales are typically bad—malevolent forces that want to possess or terrorize living people for revenge, to bring to light some dark secret, or, because an eternity as a spectral figure must get pretty boring, as some kind of elaborate and hazily motivated prank. The ghosts in this movie do all of the possessing and terrorizing that we would expect, and that's certainly part of the reason the movie as a whole feels as routine as it is. They also have a clear enough motive, and it's mostly neutral in its morality. Looked at in a certain way, it's also kind of beautiful and sad. Before we get to that, though (Also, it's difficult to tell how much to give away and when, since the movie presents the ghostly presence as a mystery to be revealed later), we have to cover the rest of this, which, again, just feels like any other uninspired ghost story. At face value, the selling points of this particular one include a group of troubled teenagers, a boarding school run by a group of shady characters, and the actual setting of the overwhelming majority of the story. The teens are appropriately and generically troubled. The faculty of the school is mostly overshadowed by its headmistress, played by Uma Thurman with mischievous aplomb and a wicked French accent. As for the school itself, it's one of those grand manors that exist in the middle of nowhere—surrounded by wooded hills and separated from civilization to such an extent that we don't quite believe any form of it has reached this place. It cannot be said enough (I've said it plenty of times and have no plans of stopping in the foreseeable future) that one of the key components of a successful horror tale is its location. Well, this school is a pretty good one. It looks like it belongs to a lost time. There's electricity in the place but only in certain parts. As one goes deeper into the structure, the light fades, until there are certain sections—closed off to the students—that seem to be a void of nothingness. Every student gets her own room, and in a dresser drawer, there are the essentials to life in this place: a flashlight, some candles, and a box of matches. It's oppressively dark in this place, even during the day in certain spots and especially at night, when the ghosts come out to scare the students for, at first, seemingly no reason. The main character is Kit (AnnaSophia Robb), a teenager who has gotten into a lot of trouble, including an accusation of arson. She's recruited to the school, simply called Blackwood, as a way to reform her ways. Her mother (played by Kirsty Mitchell) and stepfather (played by Jim Sturgeon) hope that it'll help, because they've run out of options and patience. The place is run by Madame Duret (Thurman) and has a faculty that primarily focuses on the arts. Her son Jules (Noah Silver) is an accomplished pianist and the music teacher. Kit, who hasn't played the piano since her youth, starts to play much, much better as her lessons progress, becoming a genius almost overnight. The other four students (played by Isabelle Fuhrman, Victoria Moroles, Taylor Russell, and Rosie Day) show a surprising increase in their abilities in other fields: One becomes a great writer, and another starts devising complex math proofs. What's going on here? That's the question, dragged out by Michael Goldbach and Chris Sparling's screenplay (based on Lois Duncan's novel) as Kit and her classmates become obsessed with their work, while having nighttime visitations from shadowy figures in the halls. Director Rodrigo Cortés indulges in the familiar tactics: shadows that move, strange and frightening encounters that turn out to be visions or dreams, and a few scary things popping into frame after a long period of relative silence (There's one shot of Kit against a curtain, in which the camera moves to and fro for what seems like a full minute, before revealing a screaming face on one side of the screen). None of it particularly scary, although there is some suspense in seeing just what other rooms this house has to offer, as Kit and one of her classmates goes looking for the truth. The actual truth is pretty obvious, despite the movie's attempts to keep it a mystery until Kit says it and another character confirms it. It has to do with the reason that the students are suddenly able to excel in fields in which they have little interest or have failed in the past. The ghosts aren't anonymous beings. They're specific people from history, taken from life before their time. They just want to find a way to continue their work. In other words, there is, arguably, a legitimate rationale for the motivation that's behind the big secret of the school. Down a Dark Hall presents a bit of a moral/intellectual conundrum here that's quite provocative. It's a shame, then, that the movie mostly evades that question with a lengthy build-up and a fiery climax. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
Buy Related Products
|
(for mature thematic content, terror and violence, some language
including a sexual reference, and smoking)
