Partially investigative drama and halfhearted thriller, The Fear of Darkness is a movie focused on a disturbed character, who may or may not be involved in paranormal activity. Horror movies tend to use this premise, but the main character Sky is neither charismatic nor enigmatically appealing. Despite much effort on delivering scientific based narrative, in which there is abundance of them, it eventually falls on insipid twist without accomplishing much.
For this type of thriller to work, the movie needs intriguing characters or having good chemistry between the cast. It has none of those. Sky (Penelope Mitchell) has two rigid expressions, utterly confused and overblown panic. There's barely any range on acting aside from looking distraught the entire time and it doesn't help establishing any nuance for personality. Meanwhile, the supposedly nurturing psychiatrist Sarah Faithful (Maeve Dermody) is plain and too formulaic of a character to stand out.
The movie moves agonizingly slow, switching from between possible haunting and the psychologist handling the case. There's actually a bulk of the runtime spent panning across bedroom without anything happening, not to mention there are interviews that feel redundant. Script either bombards the audience with heavy pseudo-science mumbling or constant shouting of the same question.
It chooses to bring medications or suggestive trance for the strange behavior, and at times it almost looks like it's going somewhere with these plot devices. However, it only amounts to basic mystery spectacle, lacking any substance for all the flamboyant talk. It does produce good soundtracks overall, they sound like something out of fantasy flicks and admittedly a pleasant surprise.
Only the most avid fans of mystery thriller would find some enjoyment here, because for all the psychological narrative, it only amounts to tedious dialogues.
