246: Darkness Falls (2003)

SPEAKER_01 0:04

If the darkness falls and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a noise?

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. I can't believe you came. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Totally killer. Fun intended.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slash enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Crazy isn't what he used to be.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

The cowardly creeper Ryan. Okay, we'll stay under the bed. And the classic horror connoisseur Sean.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

All of this over a fucking tooth?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Support for Hacker Slash is brought to you by Manscaped, who is the best in below-the-waist grooming. The people have spoken and our patrons have decided we're covering a 2003 film that paints a famous childhood figure in a sinister light. Before we get down to business though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Let's follow up on a movie. Recently, we reviewed Barbarian from 2022, and we wanted to know what you all thought of it, okay? Because our I think our reactions were kind of mixed as well. Uh now 23% of you gave this a hack and 77% slashed it. Oh, it's a little on the slashy side.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

No, just a little bit. I was expecting more of a true 80-20 split. I was surprised to see we got as many hacks as we did.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Honestly, sometimes when they're at a 80-20, you just gotta settle for that 77-23. Um, over on Instagram, we have a couple comments. Ash said, Started off well, but then I started to lose interest in the second half. Binks said, it keeps you on the edge of your seat and a combination of every emotion you can imagine. And Katie says, failed commentary on something serious, the changes in mood felt stunted.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

You know, even that grouping of three Instagram responses is a little bit of a mixed bag.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Over on the Discord, Taylor says, Okay, so I've been trying to think a lot about how to approach this because it's delicate. I know that I wasn't in the right headspace to have seen this movie, and that's my disclaimer. I can see how this movie is compared to malignant, but I wish that it wasn't. They are both sensational and shocking at times, but that is the extent of their similarities. Malignant in a lot of ways shows far more restraint and respect for sensitive issues. I am very conflicted in how I feel about this movie. It has some amazing scenes, scenes that legitimately gave me an audible fright, and it's hard to walk away from that because I have been searching for a horror movie that could scare me since I was four years old and decided goosebumps work for babies. Still, I can't shake the feeling that what this film has to offer does not make up for the way it tramples over delicate issues and disrespects women at every turn.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I think tramples is the exact thing that they did. They ran all over these important, serious things.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

They sure did. That was a sensational review, and there's so much more to it. So if you are curious about what else Taylor has to say, definitely check out our Discord.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

Well, Ashley says, All right, I finally got to actually watch this and I loved it. Watching this felt like a fever dream of so many of my worst nightmares. First, I have to say how excellent Georgina Campbell, Bill Scarsgard, and Justin Long were. Second, the sound design. They played with music and spooky sounds in a way that both misled you, but also ramped up the tension at exactly the right times. Third, I love how they subverted your expectations so many times and made you think things were going to go one way for totally flipping the script and making them go another. If I had to give a negative, it would be the design of the villain because I feel like it's been done and seen in so many movies and I'm kind of over it. But overall, I was entertained. I was spooked, and there were a few instances where I cackled myself straight onto the floor. It's a slash from me.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Onto the floor. To the floor. Not that funny. If at all.

SPEAKER_04 3:43

And finally, Diana said, I think with me, I'm going with a soft hack. Barbarian was a wild ride, but I just felt the message of the movie was either too on the nose or just trying to be over the top. But hell, this movie had a lot of memorable moments that I will never forget.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Yeah, I don't think I'm ever gonna forget the first time I laughed so hard I cried in a movie theater. You know what? Actually, in retrospect, Ashley, I'm right there with you with Cacklin.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

On a side note, it's hard to take Justin Long seriously these days after watching Walrus.

SPEAKER_04 4:11

I can respect that. And finally, we want to say hiya to some new patrons, Georgie and Benson. Welcome to the family.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Hiya, Georgie.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

And that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Well, this week we're checking out an early 2000s classic that features a prominent vengeful spirit who's taking her revenge on a sleepy town. This week, after winning quite a bit of the overall patron vote, we're talking about Darkness Falls. This movie was nominated by our patron Janelle, and she has this to say.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Hi, my name is Janelle, also known as Jelly Unicorn, and I nominated the film Darkness Falls from 2003. Why you ask? Well, in fourth grade, it was my favorite movie. My mom took us to see it in theaters because torturing her children is a pastime of hers. Though it scared all the baby teeth out of me, it became one of my favorite films. Did I have to deal with a horrible darkness phobia for a few weeks? Absolutely. Did that stop me? Not at all. If anything, it prepared me for the nightmares I get when I watch zombie films. My absolute favorite horror subgenre, specifically uh train to muscle. I feel like there is a word for this behavior. Starts with an S or maybe an M. Anywho, I recently re-watched this movie with a friend in Holy Fork Balls, it did not hold up. The cringe was alive and well, the scenes did not hit like they used to, and the special effects, yes. Anywho, everyone I've asked about it remembers it so fondly. Like everyone loves it and thinks I am being critical. Me, the critical one. Never. I'm curious to see if I'm not the only one that struggles with an all-grown-up rewatch. Does the darkness fall heavy and all-encompassing like we remember it? Or will this film feel like a soft trip onto a moist stained carpet in a dimly lit room? The cringe. I look forward to finding out with you all when we get to, you know, hack it or slash it. For me, it's a hack.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Janelle, I am so looking forward to it as well. Now, let's find out together. Who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_03 6:07

I definitely have seen this a multitude of times. I remember watching this film uh way back in the day when I was probably like 14 or 15. Um I probably watched it at least half a dozen times. Um that being said, it's been at least 15 years since I've seen it.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

I'll be honest, the title sounded so familiar, but when I hit play, I realized I have never ever seen this before.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Get the hell out of here. Really? Not a single time.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

For real. I mean, part of the problem is probably that this came out as I was like getting close to graduating from high school, so maybe I just was kind of aged out a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

The question is, if the darkness falls and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a noise? I was just looking up. This movie came out at the very beginning of 2003, so like really 2002, and I was in second grade, and I was eight, and uh my family didn't set me up like they did Janelle and I did not see things like this. Most importantly, I never even heard of this. I feel like I don't know. I mean, the name has probably c I've come across the name at some point in life if I had to guess, but it doesn't like have enough significance to be something I had any idea what I was going into here.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Okay, beginning of 2003, I was in eighth grade. The Marlins were gonna win the World Series a few months later. 2003 was a great year. I watched this movie in 2003, I watched it in 2004, I watched that shit all the way up to 2008. I loved this movie when it came out. I was obsessed. I remember thinking, this wrong turn, this is peak horror. Early 2000s horror didn't treat me very well beyond this. But going into it, hearing and reading uh Janelle's recommendation, her nomination for this film, I was like, no, surely, not my darkness falls. My darkness falls was great. I expected to go into this with like um almost feeling like falling into a warm embrace of an old friend. You know, I thought it was gonna be cozy, magical, nostalgic. I really thought I was in for a treat here.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

A treat? I'm sorry. Okay, I read the description, uh Tooth Fairy came up. So all I expected was like an incredibly weak antagonist. And 2003, of course, so I expected it to be hilariously dated when it comes to like script and dialogue. But really, Tooth Fairy? Is that this is horror? This is what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Hey, at the time, it was a great moment, all right? You have this idea of like such a fanciful children's tale or icon figures, kind of like the Easter bunny, but no, make it a horror movie. I was into that shit.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Honestly, Mac, I put this movie on and like right before I hit play, I just happened to scan over the description and saw Tooth Fairy, and I was like, what in what world was I going into a Tooth Fairy movie? Like, I could not have been less prepared. And the title, Darkness Falls, did not lend itself to Tooth Fairiness. So I I can easily say I expected absolutely nothing and was very confused up until the very second that I hit play, literally.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

I'm right there with you, Chris. I think I didn't really have any strong expectations going into this film outside of like having a fond remembrance of it. I I remember loving it when I first saw it. I remember watching it, like I said, a good amount of times afterwards and really enjoying it. But really, I was just more curious on how it was going to hold up uh after this some odd 15 years or so.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Which I think is a really fair question. You know, going into it, I obviously thought surely this is gonna be great because I don't remember it being or feeling as potentially problematic as even Wrong Turn did for as much as I loved that in the early 2000s. But this time around, I felt a mix of things. Because on the one hand, I feel like the fall from grace was in a way, Janelle, maybe a little bit for me. I let it overhype, I let it feel like overhyped to me. So I walked in expecting it to be like a warm embrace, but in the back of my mind with this notion of like, okay, well, if it's gonna be bad, then it's gonna be terrible. And I found myself not feeling that terribleness, but also not feeling the warm embrace that I really hoped for. And I actually felt pretty bored.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Yeah, I agree. I I found it really hard to pay attention throughout the whole film. My initial feeling was like, dang, this really this this movie really had two prologues, like two?

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Two. You know, double or nothing really.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

I guess so. Uh that being said though, Darkness Falls is gotta be. I mean, that's a cool name for a town, right? Darkness Falls.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

I would love to live in a town called Darkness Falls. That gives charming.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, that do give charming. Something that this movie didn't give really is charming. This movie didn't make me feel very much, except for like I was watching a million other movies put together. Like this movie the entire time just felt like you know, um, we've said this a lot lately, but it really felt like AI writing a horror movie in 2000 you know, three or so. Like it was almost like they were racing themselves to hit the cliche points of a scary movie. Like they couldn't do it enough. Like they every time they hit a cliche point, they were like, but we'll do it again. Don't tempt me. I'm ready to. Like, I don't know. It was a weird one. It couldn't have been more 2003 in its feeling, I think.

SPEAKER_04 11:28

Us talking about this has now just fed a Netflix bot somewhere, and the AI is going to create a Virgin River style TV show called Darkness Falls.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

It's gonna be called Virgin Falls, actually.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

This, I don't know. When watching it, it felt like a like a made-for-tv horror movie that would have been played on the sci-fi channel. That's the whole vibe I got while watching it.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

It definitely felt it it gave me B movie vibes for sure. The soundtrack was so early 2000s it hurt. I I don't know about you. I initially was watching this on my laptop. I had to switch to the TV because I mean darkness really fell upon this movie. This movie was so dark, it was so hard to see at times. I don't even get me started. It was it was so hard to see.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Sean, let me tell you my mistake. I'm watching it daytime, you know, midday, sun's out. I don't have a room with like I I don't believe in blackout curtains sometimes. Like I think they're not good for you in a way. So I don't have blackout curtains. I don't have a room in this house that doesn't have light that comes through windows. So the darkness was fallen, and unfortunately, all that meant was I could see the reflection of my room in this movie all day, the whole time I was watching it. And it yeah, the darkness was intense. It didn't make for a good watching experience, I'd say, considering it was already a very grungy scene as it was.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

I'm I'm gonna give it some credit. I was surprised that it had kind of a high for a tooth fairy number of kills. I wasn't expecting it. I thought the tooth fairy was gonna do some some silliness, but she was out to get some people, and that I think is a pleasant thing.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Listen, man, the tooth fairy doesn't fuck around. She's got a job to do, and what she took in kindness, she now takes forever in revenge. There is a manifesto of sorts for this tooth fairy, and while it's impossible for me to be surprised by how less good this movie feels now, it was still just enough to feel disappointed. Not necessarily in the Tooth Fairy aspect of it, but really in our main character Kyle. I really remember him being stellar, like for some reason having really attached like good memories of him. And I found myself not really caring about him this time around.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

Yeah, that's that's interesting. But look, there's way more to this film uh that they could have played off of than just the Tooth Fairy, right? Like I would have loved to see more on like specifically how the town hid the secret, uh that you know, maybe how they had to deal with this curse or whatever. So I don't know. The story it felt like to me needed to simmer a little bit more, and I know that's tough to say because we all like like a nice short horror movie, right? It was like what, like an 85-minute runtime or whatever. And at one end of the spectrum, it felt like it needed a little bit more to develop on that backstory. Um, but at the other end, I was counting down the minutes till the end.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

But here's the element about that, right? Like this movie is too short to actually be like a theatrical-length film without the end credits. Like they had to pad the end credits to make this movie longer. So yeah, you're right. Like, obviously, it couldn't be too long, but they had an extra five minutes they could have played with, and that can go a long way.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

I mean, like, we could have had maybe like, I don't know, one scene at the beginning of the movie before we saw the monster or the killer. Like, we we could have had one moment of like, here's who these humans are, or anything like that, really. Bloody kissing doesn't do it for you? It doesn't do it for me, and that it we saw her immediately after that. So, you know, same, same.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

I wanted a whole scene of the tooth fairy chewing teeth. I'm sorry, that's just a thing that I think would have made this movie a little bit scarier. It's kind of like a like a saw level moment where she's really getting into it, you know. Like if she's gonna be called the Tooth Fairy, you gotta roll with it, you gotta mess up some teeth. I just like didn't find it scary at all in any way. And I think it actually made me less afraid of the dark.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Wow. Uh, I mean, this felt like a very flawed monster movie. Like it had it was entertaining at times, but overall just filled with a bunch of cheap jump scares. Um, it it was was the scariest part of this movie the black cat jumping across the car? Like, is that the is that the scariest part of the film? Even even that is a tired and played out trick that we've seen time and time again, right? And that's what we saw throughout the entire film. Just a bunch of worn-out cliches. Um, the movie's not scary at all. I remember it being scary when I was younger, and maybe I'm just numb to horror at this point. Maybe it is scary to other people. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

I think the the fright factor of this one's pretty obvious based on its time period. Like in 2003, I can see why you would be horrified by this. And like, again, I think it's one of these ones where if you were at the right age at the right time when it released, this is gonna haunt you. It's gonna be like me with the ring. Like, I for years would not go in a room if a TV was off or on white noise. Even last night, white noise came on my TV and I was like, I will not be in here. Thank you. Goodbye. I haven't seen white noise on a TV since like the 90s. I accidentally hit the source button too many times. What the fuck are you doing? Even then, I was gonna say. I was switching sources and I don't have cable. Okay, sorceress. I can see how this could be the same thing. Like, I would absolutely be afraid of the dark if I saw this when I was in fourth grade, like Janelle and friggin', you know, I'm gonna go everywhere with a flashlight. Like, absolutely I get it. But right now, I understand we're completely tainted by watching this in hindsight as adults, but it is the least horrifying movie I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Okay, look, you all have great points, and I'm not saying that I was even scared of this movie when I was younger. But the compliment I will give is I think our tooth fairy sounds are a little spooky. It had me thinking about that damn cat story that uh Sean shared in the witch episode B-sides. And I I think about just like the raspiness of the Tooth Fairy, and I think adds an element that's just a little unsettling. And while the rest of this movie isn't scary, I think the aesthetic of the tooth fairy isn't very scary. I think it gives enough of a foundation that really could have worked as a short film. And I'll give respect to it though, because a horror movie about the tooth fairy, pretty solid idea.

SPEAKER_04 17:48

Well, I think they needed to add something to it because, in terms of a pretty solid idea, I feel like this was perhaps a nightmare on Elm Street made by somebody who had a dental stigma.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

It also just kind of felt like here's a cliche story of someone who's gonna haunt this town, and then we made them the tooth fairy.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

You know, you you make a great point, Ryan. It is very reminiscent of Michael Myers has haunted this town for 40 years, Evil Dies Tonight. And I think that's something where think about the other horror movies that were out at the time. Yes, this concept is played out for sure. I'm not even saying it was original back then, but in consideration of some of the other movies that came out around the time, I feel like it was different enough to do its thing.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

Yeah, I got the film has to get some originality points. While we've definitely seen this type of backbone of a story, if you will. Like we we haven't seen anything quite like this. Um, we've seen some variations on like a multitude of other films. I think like I think of like Candyman vibes, nightmare and Elm Street vibes, uh, where someone is killed by a town collectively and then makes a supernatural return to seek revenge, right? On the town. So it it has some originality points while it's still sticking to some stuff we've seen before.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

And I feel good about the fact that you said that because it's not really a spoiler. It's in the first two minutes of the film when they tell you the whole backstory via text before the second prologue begins.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

It's in the pre-prologue.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Yeah. The pre-pre. It's the pre log. That's all it is.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Really? And you know, we think about the approach that we've taken to describing the endings of movies, right? Typically we have the end, the end end, the pre-end, and the end, end end. But this movie having a pre-prologue is absolutely insane. And I think one of the interesting things is that they do so much to start the movie, and then they don't do a whole lot to really end the movie. It doesn't really feel like a good mmm.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

Yeah, but they also end it twice. Because you know what? If you have two beginnings, you gotta have two endings.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Yeah, you gotta follow through.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Yeah, this movie really uh rhymes with itself in a few different ways because they kind of double up on some other bullshit throughout it.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Yeah, I have some very strong feelings about this ending, and um uh a lot of them are not positive. They're they're a lot of questionable things that went on there.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

I do I I feel like though, if you're aiming for like the classic kind of blockbuster style horror movie, you need it to be a little bit predictable because like the audience wants that satisfaction of like whatever happening happening in a way that they think is going to happen. And I think the actual ending of this movie, not like the Frodo Bagan style end at the very end, the actual ending happens in a way that you'd expect by the time you get there. And like if you're going out for Mass Appeal, I think that that works.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Yeah, I mean, look, the ending wasn't the best ending, it wasn't the worst ending either. I mean, it had a conclusive end at the very least. Um, didn't really leave any real cliffhangers or anything like that. So, you know, I I can get down with the ending, I guess. It wasn't the worst thing in the world.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Okay, well, it sounds like we have some mixed feelings up to this point, but let's go ahead and start making our way to our ratings as we consider whether this movie is a hack or a slash. Sean, how would you describe the gore score for this Tooth Fairy?

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Uh well, you know, given that you don't really see most of the kills in this film like on screen, and the ones you do see are really not that bad. This film is PG. Um that being said, the gore score is super low for this film, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

All right, and what about the animal report? Animal Report is all good to go. Let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. Darkness Falls from 2003, nominated by Janelle, selected by the patrons. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_04 21:31

I wish I had seen this when it came out because I might have felt differently then. But this film is is mediocre. It's you know, that's not always enough to be a hack, not necessarily, but I think the antagonist was just nerfed by design and the character work was was pretty weak. And I think you can look back in retrospect and and see that. But um, they could have tweaked this though. They could have taken this from a five to an eight with some changes. I wouldn't actually mind seeing somebody take another crack at it with 2022 vision. Um, it's not a joke. But it pretty much is a waste of time for me, and I think you'd spend your time better on franchises that this film emulates. It's a hack.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

If you're asking me, did the darkness fall? I would say the darkness merely stumbled over a bit of dust. There was not much for a fall. There wasn't an impact. I uh wasn't concerned if the darkness was gonna fall and be okay. Everything was perfectly fine because this movie is a bit of nonsense. And some people, some of you people are gonna say it's campy. No, it's not. We're talking about 2003. These people did not know better. This is literally what they thought was a good movie. No one was doing camp then, okay? So I don't want to hear it. No, no campiness argument, okay? I understand. I I'm on the exact same page as Mac. I wish I had seen this in 2003 because I would have been scared of that dark. Okay. I would have been like hiding in rays of sunshine, okay? That would have been me. But uh it's not, unfortunately. I'm an adult and this movie sucks. So there's that. That's a hack.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

I want to point out that plenty of people were doing campy at this time, but I I agree this movie is not campy at all. Well, you know that I don't think camp exists, so there's that.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

Alright, so I did see this movie in 2003, and overall this film didn't really hold up for me. I like I said, I remember loving this film as a young teenager and watching it multiple times back in the day, but watching it now, it just felt it felt cheesy and not in a good way. There is camp and then there is bad, and this was just bad. Uh the acting, the effects, just not the best, right? Uh this film really had potential to be a really good horror movie. I agree with you, Mac, but it just wasn't. Um, the story was good, but overall the delivery was just bland. Um, this movie's a hack.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Wow, a lot of strong feelings so far. This movie was amazing in 2003, at least to uh 13-year-old Chris. It was one that I really remember fondly, and it definitely does not age very well in 2022. Watching this, I did feel a bit bored. But at no point was I ever just so bored that I was like, all right, I'm tapping out of this experience. And not because I was obligated to watch it, right? Not because I had to finish it to really like assess my thoughts, but because it did just enough to keep me going. There are some things that I absolutely hate. Uh, you know, for example, there are some really quick early 2000s editing with like the pacing of its cuts and you know, kind of like a macro focus on uh a certain bottle of pills. It's just a little much. And we think about the pipeline from beloved icon to villain and murderer, it's a little quick, it's a little bit of a short ride, but ultimately, despite how despite how hokey the effects are, this is not the worst movie I've ever seen. And I wouldn't even say that it's a terrible movie. This movie is not a total joke, it's not a waste of time, it's a few chuckles, you know what I mean? It's it's getting towards there, but for me, it's still better than 13 ghosts, so it's a very soft slash.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Wow, it's a bit generous.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

I'm shocked. I'm I thought this was headed to universal hack territory.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

I agree. That's where it deserves.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

When I think about like what this is on the road to becoming, it wasn't as bad. I think there was enough that can be redeemed in this movie, and enough that I enjoyed. Like there's some elements of it that are hokey and weird that then kind of turn into it being a little bit charming. Not being so bad that they're good, but there's a character in this movie who does not have an accent, but as the movie goes on, this person has more of an accent, and it's like, where the fuck did this come from? But it's okay because I like it.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

Listen, you're just a softie out here giving soft slashes.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

You know what? And that's okay. It's okay for me to have fun with a tooth fairy. And with that, Darkness Falls from 2003, as nominated by our patrons, and actually the first hack ever nominated by our patrons, it's earned three hacks and one slash. Now, you can find this movie streaming on Cinemax, or I'm sure you can find it elsewhere, but go check it out. Then join us in the second half so we can dig into this too fairy together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

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SPEAKER_02 28:07

Welcome back, folks. You are now entering the spoiler zone for Darkness Falls, which is earned three hacks and one slash. Now we have a lot to get to here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, Sean take us through the kills.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

Once in the initial prologue as a mortal, and then again at the end as a supernatural evil force, that is the Tooth Fairy.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Which is wild to consider. Like, not only do you just get got in the beginning, but then you really just wrap it up. They say that all good movies end just the way they began, so there you go.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

Absolutely. I gotta say though, my favorite kill in this movie was the doctor saying, like, why don't we just keep driving? We're safe in the car, and then immediately being snatched and pulled out of the car window to his death.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

That was a good one. I'm gonna have to go with when the tooth fairy was burned, like the wicked witch of the east. That's gonna have to be my favorite kill because it was nonsense, and all of a sudden it was just a burning, screaming uh well, it was kind of Freddie Krueger at that point. It was a lot of things, but that was definitely the best one for me. Especially since all the other ones that I think would have been good were pretty dark and off-screen.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah. See, mine was actually Larry, not because he even had that great of a death, but because I was not a fan of him. He seems like the guy who's in the friend zone who's just always lurking, waiting for his opportunity, and fuck that guy, honestly.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Insert Cartman reference here, but my favorite kill was Kyle's mom. So it's like the only real tooth fairy kill I think that we get to see on the screen. And it kind of shows us what she's capable of. And I don't understand why we didn't get more of that. We just got a lot of like pick you up, fly away like a banshee, and scratch your face a little bit. And that was just a bit a bit too weak.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Okay, but I will say that the police station scene with all those deaths, it reminded me of what we could have gotten back in the day in one of the later Halloween films when they get to the station and they realize that everyone's been killed. Absolutely wow. But then you never like see Michael's like Michael's actions, you just see the aftermath and it's terrible. And then in this one, you just have people kind of disappearing and noping their way into the darkness, but you don't really get to see the satisfying result of it.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Yeah, I uh I agree with that. It's interesting, right? I actually really enjoyed the editing in the film, which I thought, but maybe it was maybe it was due to just like one section of the movie that you're kind of describing, right? In that police station. And I can't tell if it was on purpose or if it was like the end result of like a hack job that just happened to work out in their favor. But the that that specific part that I'm talking about is is the police station that really showcases what I mean, right? When they're when they're in that police station, the editing made it feel so chaotic that it really amplified the intensity of the film for me, which, like I said, I don't know if that was on purpose or not, but I really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

I think it was absolutely on purpose. Unfortunately, that's actually what I hate the most about this film, that like chaotic editing and the quick cuts. And I think it makes more sense in the police station than when we first see it, which is when we're introduced to adult Kyle in his little studio with his flashlights and his antidepressants.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

You know what note that police station scene really hit for me, which I was not expecting at all. It was malignant. It was like the malignant chaos. Not quite as as far as that, but there were so many times where I felt other movies in this, and that was one where I was like, okay, I hate it too, so that works. But there were some visuals in this movie that I think weren't horrible. My personal favorite thing that stood out, and I think this is kind of like a cheap pick, but it is what it is. It was impactful to me and it was obvious right away, was that super white bathroom that he's in at the very beginning when he's a little boy and he's hiding. And I just thought it was so intriguing immediately because he comes out of the darkness, runs into the super bright room, and I was like, dang, that is like the whitest bathroom I've ever seen. And it is the whitest bathroom anyone's ever seen, but it's intentional, right? It's it's the to show that the light uh fights against the truth, the tooth fairy. But I just thought it was a very intriguing thing to have in the screen after we had had so much darkness, and you know, we already saw the creepy face and everything at that point. So I like that part.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Oh, for sure. That's actually a really great moment, and I gotta admit it, this might be unpopular. I think my favorite visual is actually the tooth fairy. But not the like end explodey tooth fairy, not that weird, disgusting monster tooth fairy, but just the subtle flashes of the porcelain mask, specifically the tooth fairy kind of scaling the wall and the cloak or the body of the tooth fairy kind of billowing in the darkness. I really love that. I think the tooth fairy would have been a stronger visual had they limited the exposure of the tooth fairy to just glimpses like that.

SPEAKER_04 33:18

Chris, you read my freaking mind. The Dementor effect was like fantastic. I love that. I think the flowiness and the floatiness was awesome. That scene we get where Kyle's in the bathroom as a kid and the tooth fairy is like floating above the door, and you get that fabric movement. That that's an amazing look. I just wish they never showed us the mask. I just wish we never got to see the face in any way, and we just got to see like a glimpse of of like her floating body and like the fabric moving in the ghost wind. But that was that was also my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

That plus like just the eyeball. I could do like when we got that little creepy eye. For some reason, that mask, it just like separated me from any feelings of what I what could be fear. Like, I don't know, it just felt like a generic mask that anyone could buy at a store, and therefore took away like I felt like the character of what the monster should have.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Yeah, the eyeball was giving general grievous.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Yeah, definitely. That's pretty awesome. Um, I'm with you all, right? Like, they could have done less visuals of the tooth fairy. I'm with you, Ryan. Like, it it felt like when we saw too much and that full-on shot of the tooth fairy, it just felt like a cheap Halloween prop you could buy at like your spirit Halloween store. It was just so cheesy seeing the whole, the whole vision of the tooth fairy. But I gotta say, my favorite scene in the in the whole movie is when Kyle and the others are trying to jump the flights of stairs to get from one section of light to the other while the tooth fairy is like swooping down on them, right? Like that's just that's the perfect type of just enough of the tooth fairy that you need to see, and building like the intensity of like trying to escape the darkness and get into the light.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Yeah, getting snatched up like a wig is a great moment. And I think that that is one of the highest moments of suspense in the movie overall. There isn't a lot there that can really scare you, but I love that like swooping moment, Sean. I think that's a great one. For me, my favorite scene is actually the beginning. It's when we see Kyle as a child and what happens to his mom. Not because I really am fond of Kyle by any means. In fact, I saw that kid and thought, hmm, he definitely touches hot stoves. Just to see what it's like. I'm not a fan of him. However, I think the suspense in that moment, I think the uh fear for him, you know, really if he had just fucking not peeked and heeded the warning, everything would be fine. But I love the play down the hall, down the dark hall, and it back into his bedroom and the tragedy of his mom dying. Everything up between him pulling out his own tooth in school, which was disgusting, to seeing his mom's dead body on the floor, really, really solid.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Once again, you read my notes. That's what it seems like, because literally listed as my favorite, and I I don't understand how we're so alike sometimes and so different in other times. But uh you have you have good taste, I'll say that. But I just feel like that that scene where he wakes up to being terrorized by the tooth fairy, I wanted the whole movie to be that. And the adult like chasing and running back and forth and like nonsensical behavior, I think should have been replaced by more kids. I think this would have been much scarier had the entire movie been about actual children who still believed in the real Tooth Fairy, because that was I think the most effective part of the movie.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Okay, so you want a coming-of-age film, a la it from 2017.

SPEAKER_04 36:51

A hundred percent. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

It's giving wake me up before you go go, is what it's giving.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

I actually have a different scene that was my favorite, and it's the car wreck. Because first and foremost, flying out of windows, what a time. It's one of those things that you never think about happening until it happens. And then, of course, the truth fairy is there, and he's like yelling, like, don't look at her, and I don't know. They're never really clear about if you only get killed if you look at her. You clearly it's not only, I know, but it does uh have a big impact. Um, and I don't know. I think just as a whole, it was kind of a moment uh that I wasn't expecting. And I thought it was kind of one of the creepier times because you just poof and you're gone in a little car accident started the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

That was a great little moment of him flying through the windshield though. It was almost comical in the fact that he like got up afterwards.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Yeah, he just like brushed it off.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

It's also funny because like effects-wise, a lot of times like there was a couple scenes where there's like broken windows, and they do the thing where they just show glass breaking as you know, someone flew through that window, and then all of a sudden, literally, he flies through the front window of the car. And I was like, All right, we get we got the stunt team on that one. I appreciate it. Done go unnoticed.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Really pulling out all the stops there. But what they didn't pull out all the stops on was really investing in like quality character work. Again, looking at Kyle as a child, found him annoying, but almost like a lack of performance from adult Kyle, except for one moment, and that was actually when he was sitting in the bar across from Larry, and you see these triggers he has. It's a little bit on the nose, right? Obviously, we have like the windows being covered up, it's getting darker, but it's more like the agitation on his face and like the I'm trying to keep it together, and I'm I'm constantly stimulated by all of these things that trigger my trauma, right? And he's kind of like controlling like a physical response to that. I found that moment really, really compelling, but otherwise, he was kind of bland, which really disappointed me.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

He definitely falls flat, and unfortunately, I think all of the characters here fall pretty flat. Like uh there was nothing compelling, I think, about like the love interest returning back home. Like, I don't know, even like him trying to save the kid. I I don't know. It just they all kind of just feel like it's 2003 and they're not good actors, which I know is like bull that I know that that's not it, but it does just kind of feel that way. Like these just don't feel like very fleshed-out characters, and just in the same way that at the beginning it's not fleshed out, we're just thrown into it.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Okay, but Michael in particular, I found very, very cute, even when he was delivering particularly dark dialogue. Like, I'm just ready for her to take me. I just want to sleep. And that made me really, really sad. It was also endearing in a creepy way. But Michael is the character I was talking about where he does not have an accent at all. And then the further he gets into the movie, you start hearing some kind of accent around the time that he says, Caitlin, no, I don't know what it is, but it had me completely tickled.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Also, like I just need to say this really quick because this is not gonna come up at any point. Why does everybody in this movie have a sibling that's like 20 years younger than them? It's such a weird through line of this movie that everyone just has baby siblings and they're grown adults. I know it happens, but I'm just saying it's weird. It's a weird thing.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

I was a baby with a fully grown sibling.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

They were all for the most part kind of cheesy and lame for me, the characters, right? Um, almost one-dimensional acting for some of them. Cheney Clay, who played Kyle as an adult. He just didn't show up for the film for me. Like, to your point, Chris, he had his moments, right? He where he had some good scenes, but I just didn't get much out of him really. Like maybe it was just me, but I just wasn't invested in him as a protagonist. Emma Ford probably gave me the best performance, but even then we didn't get to see her true potential in the film, in my opinion. Uh, she was almost there just to support the other actors throughout the film, which was kind of a letdown for me. So yeah, I'm just I'm I just wasn't invested in these characters.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

Kyle, though, when he's in his studio, gave me some vibes of like Andrew Lincoln and Love actually for some reason. It was like they got to see a pre-screen and they're like, let's try to do that, but like the cheap, crappy version of it.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

I think my beef with Kyle, like, I'm not gonna connect to him as an adult because they didn't give us time to connect to him as a child. Like, we had like one second, and it was him being weird and someone sneaking in his room and some trauma. And it's just not enough for us to like care. Like, I don't know anything. I know he had a mom, that's it. I don't know anything. And then they, as he's an adult, they just throw like all these details at us in one scene all of a sudden it's like, okay, cool, but like Jesus Christ, could we get a second? Like, can I get to know the guy? Like, let me know what is he like to do? Who was he before? Give me something.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

You know who I wanted to get to know more? The tooth fairy herself. Because this is another movie that could have been avoided by people just believing women. We have two witch movies in a row. Well, witch and then witch adjacent with his tooth fairy. But to go from beloved uh neighborhood icon, uh, someone who children are very fond of, who she pays for their teeth, which is fucking weird, let's be real. But to go from this public figure to all of a sudden two kids are missing, so like the same day, they're like, Oh, we're just gonna kill you, and then the kids are found the next day, absolutely ridiculous. But you know, they must have gone over there and accused her. I mean, they did not murder her silently in her sleep without her knowing what's coming. So they just were like, Yo, you killed these kids. She said, Absolutely not, and they're like, nah, you did, so we're gonna kill you. What a tragedy. Again, different times.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

And instead of just telling us that, I wish they had just shot it, you know, just like made that part of the movie instead of giving us that exposition in such kind of a boring way, that would have padded the runtime as well. I think it would have been interesting. Maybe like a flashback handyman style would have been a good way to do it, not obviously with this super cool little like shadow puppets, but some other kind of way. I think it would have been more more interesting. There's no like moment of them like learning the history of the antagonist. They just like happen to all know that, yeah, this is the tooth fairy, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

I think a flashback of some sort would have been really helpful because honestly, I think it was told in a way that unless you're paying attention because you do a podcast and you have to talk about stuff, it was so easy to just write off the beginning of this movie. Like it was just such an unintriguing way to start a story about a clearly thought-out villain. They went through all the effort of like coming up with this thing, and then they just basically just have someone voice over it, and there's not much on the screen that's that interesting. It just made everything start at a at a point of uncertainty, and it just continue that way. Like, I don't understand when she kills kids. I don't understand if she only kills kids like when it's their last tooth. Is that why this is happening? There's just A lot of uncertainties about this Tooth Fairy and you know, some of her rules don't seem very uh consistent.

SPEAKER_04 44:06

We'll give some props to the Tooth Fairy in this movie though, because uh I think one of the best parts was the fact that her kills were so swift and so sudden. And had they not shown us her face so much, it would have been actually well done. Like how fascist she's like swoops in and steals them, and you get that blur and you get that movement and that floatiness. And that would have that would have been really nice to not know that she was wearing that Dollar Tree mask. Without that though, like that that was actually a cool feature of this antagonist is the fact that she's not bound by gravity.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

Yeah, so you were all talking about like wanting to see a little bit more of the tooth fairy, right? Or a little bit more of that kind of backstory just to kind of like maybe go, even you, Mac, uh, alluded to like going into a slightly different direction, right? And that so that's tough for me, right? Because if I had to pick a best part of the film, it would have to be the story itself, right? And especially the backstory, because I really loved the lore behind it. And I, as I said earlier on, I really wish they went in a slightly different direction and explained more of how the town specifically chose to hide the secret and how they had to deal with the horror of this curse, right? I think if they played on that and to your point, like made this more about the children in the town, this would have been a much better, more successful horror film. And it's even more sad that this film was like loosely based off of an actual Matilda Dixon from the 1800s in like a small town um in Australia by the name of Port Fairy. So uh obviously Darkness Falls is a way better name, but this to an extent actually happened. This poor woman was falsely accused of children going missing and was hanged to death over it.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

I would argue Port Fairy, spelled F-A-I-R-Y, would be a great title for this movie. It is. That'd be a great little little nugget, you know? I definitely agree with you. There's really some things like that just b bothered me. I I just think she could have been done so much better, and I I wish we had hadn't lost that. Maybe we need our Darkness Falls remake. A prequel. That's what we need here. A prequel. It's prequel time.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Yeah. Give us a prequel with much better visual effects for the Tooth Fairy herself, you know, when she's actually expiring at the end for a second time. Because truly the image of her exploding into green light and dust, very much the worst part of this movie.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

It when forced by people who I love to say a best part of this movie, the best thing that I have is the the lore that would be the tooth fairy that never came to fruition was good enough. I don't know. I'm gonna be honest, this one's a rough one. I I struggle with the best part of this. Uh maybe also agree with Mac with the flying around, but then that's cheating too. I'm just gonna succumb to it. This is a bad movie. I don't have a best part. It was short. It wasn't even short in a good way, though. It was short, but the end felt like it was forever.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

Well, yeah, but so just to play off of that, right? Like I think to your point, that is the best and worst part of the movie. The best part is the story and the lore, but the worst part on top of that is how they delivered that story and how they didn't play off it in the right ways to make a successful film.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

So it's kind of like a play on metal joke, you know, the food here is horrible and the portions are so small. Kind of like that, but like reversed.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

What are you eighty two years old?

SPEAKER_04 47:35

I I am indeed.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Never heard that joke.

SPEAKER_04 47:38

Uh 82. You know what? When I'm 82, guess what I won't be watching? This movie.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

Yep. I'm gonna have to solidly agree. I I would be interested in a prequel. Give us something. Or maybe even a remake, really. I feel like there is something here, but this ain't it.

SPEAKER_03 47:53

Yeah, look, I don't think that I'll be watching this film again anytime soon. Um, I think that this could be fun to watch with a bunch of friends while drinking and snacking, and especially for those friends that are not really that into horror in general. But um, you know what? I also think this would be a hilarious movie to watch with your kids when they're starting to lose their teeth. Is that torture? I'm not sure, but I think that would be an awesome movie for my kids when they're starting to lose their teeth. So until I have a kid, this one's not getting any more love for me.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

I love that idea so much, and I am very much committed to seeing you follow through on this. And I will remind you, if you ever tell me you're having a kid, I'm reminding you of it.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

If it's a son and they grow up, you should show them this when they're losing teeth, and then when they have got all their adult teeth and they're 18, show them teeth to see what happens if you treat women poorly. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah, this is great. Really, you know, build your parenting on a foundation of teeth. That's right. Look, I don't plan on watching this again anytime soon because I do not want the last bit of slash left in this movie to disappear from it. I feel like I loved it too much and for too long to let it evolve itself into a hack. So I'll tuck it away with the hope that one day we'll get a remake. But I am curious to see if there's anything of value that Mac has dug up for fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_04 49:13

Number one, this was the director's first feature film, and he didn't even want to make it. He's not a fan of horror.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

Oof. I'm gonna go fiction on that.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

I'm also gonna go fiction. This doesn't feel like somebody that is a stranger to horror.

SPEAKER_04 49:27

This one is a fact. His agent told him if he directed for a big old studio, he can make whatever he wants to after that. So what else does he make? Right after this, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the beginning. Oh. Right? So he really got away from horror. But he moved on to direct Battle Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You know, so everyone wants to like start out making dramas, but I think, you know, the bills gotta be paid and the viewers want what the viewers want.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 49:52

Number two, one of the titles that was considered for this during development was The Tooth Fairy. Every legend has its dark side.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

I can see them maybe struggling to come up with a name for this film. I don't know where they got Darkness Falls, but I'm sure it wasn't their first choice. I'll try and go fact, but I'm horrible at this game, so.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

Just for fun, then I'll go fiction, because I have no idea.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

This is a fact, along with other names such as The Tooth Fairy, Don't Peak, Fear of the Dark, and The Tooth Fairy, The Ghost of Matilda Dixon.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

The Tooth Fairy, Semicolon. For a second, I thought you were gonna say peekaboo.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

And for our next one. In an earlier version of the script, the Tooth Fairy would have appeared for nearly 15 minutes more on screen, but the director heavily objected and the script was altered.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

I don't know, that's interesting because we were talking about how they had to put the credits in to get it into a theatrical release, I guess, so I'm gonna go fiction. But maybe that's why they scrambled for that extra time.

SPEAKER_01 50:47

I am also feeling fiction.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

This one is a fiction, but not for the reasons you you thought. So an earlier version of the script called for it to be seen basically only in the end of the film, and that was vetoed, of course, by the studio.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

Right, who was like, no, no, no, put it on screen all the time.

SPEAKER_04 51:05

Of course. Which brings us, of course, to number four. Before the script changed, the Tooth Fairy was an angel of death with a much more sinister appearance designed by an FX master.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

This should be a fact, but I hope it's a fiction because they failed.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Yeah, I'm gonna go fiction, because if so, what happened?

SPEAKER_04 51:22

This one is a fact. Uh so it would have been acted by the amazing Doug Jones and would have been designed by the award-winning Steve Wang, who ultimately helped give us the creature greatness we get in Hellboy, Underworld, Predator, and notably the visually insane 1991 film The Gyver. One of his mentors, Dan Winston, was brought in for the redesign, but you can see the original thanks to the McFarland Toys figure that dropped before the movie, and we'll throw in a link in the show notes. Dang. And that's been fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Well, there you have it, folks. Darkness Falls, as nominated by our patrons, has earned three hacks and one slash. We've certainly had a lot to talk about here, but it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think. Did this movie hold up for you or did it age just as badly? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free over in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_04 52:12

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons. Visit patreon.com slash hacker slash to enjoy more of the show with early access, extended episodes, bonus content, and live shows.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

Our thanks again to Manscaped for their support of Hacker Slash. We'll see you next time, folks, and remember, when the Tooth Fairy comes, don't peek.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

And also remember, we stay in the light, we stay alive.