Darkness is a film that had been so universally shit-hammered by every critic in the free world that I reluctantly entered the theater with expectations lower than a whales's dick. I mean how bad can it be with a cast that includes Lena Olin, Anna Paquin and the fantastic Giancarlo Giannini. But since the collective opinion of the world's illuminati is that Darkness sucks the big one, I simply sat back and waited for the sucking to commence. Perhaps I wasn't in the proper critical frame of mind, but the sucking never really kicked in for me.

By way of apology, I've sat through so many straight-to-video horror flicks lately that my objectivity has definitely been compromised. The most frightening thing about this film, I have to admit is the way it was treated by Dimension Films. Shot in 2001, the film was originally slated for release in 2002, but was cursed to dwell in studio limbo, finally dumped in theaters on Christmas Day 2004. I suppose the strategy here was that Satanists disinclined to celebrate the birth of Christ, might have something to do on their day off.

The film involves a mysterious Spanish home, built by anonymous persons according to ancient ritualistic architecture. 40 years ago a solar eclipse was marred by a grisly murder of six children (all killed by their fathers). The ritual was intended to invoke the spawn of Satan but was foiled when one of the children managed to escape his fate. Flash to the present, 40 years later where we find an American family moving into the home (it's first residents since the murders) and the father of the brood happens to be the selfsame child who once escaped the confines of the house all those years prior.

The father (Iain Glen)in question has a history of suffering bizarre seizures that medication has been more or less been successful in keeping in check. Of course returning to the scene of the crime has left him at the mercy of his horrific memories and right away he begins to fall apart. For her part his wife (Lena Olin) attempts to play down the seriousness of her husbands relapses, but the daughter (Anna Paquin) is leery of the whole scenario and begins to investigate the history of the house with the aid of her new Spanish boyfriend.

Soon the young son of the family is beset with strange visions and begins to wake in the morning sporting bruises around his neck. Admittedly the pacing of the film is sluggish from the get-go, but picks up steam as Paquin starts poking around. She is able to learn a good bit about the history of the house, thanks to a crippled old geezer who was the houses original architect.

Their grandfather (Giannini) is a highly respected doctor and Paquin seeks out his council, but naturally he remains mysterious. I won't spoil any more of the film because I'm sure you're dying to get out to your favorite video store for a copy, but suffice to say that I thought the acting was solid, the story didn't offend what's left of my intelligence and I thought it was a fairly effective spooker. Who knows maybe I'm just evil.