When Darkness Falls

This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. The plot is completely contrived and seems to be written by a writer whose goal was to introduce as many plot twists as he could and try to top the "wow factor" with each successive one. This made the film completely illogical. The acting was wooden and the fight scenes were completely unrealistic.

I've traveled internationally, and one of the most fundamental concepts anyone who's traveled overseas knows is research the culture and the particulars of where you are going. Here you have two female American women trekking through the Scottish countryside with barely a clue as to what they're doing. Separating in a small rural town where they know NO ONE is one of the most illogical things I can imagine.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one and save yourself one hour and forty-five minutes of your time!!!

People have got to remember that this is an extremely low budget B movie. It's not going to have Hollywood-style production, directing and acting. You can count the production staff listed at the end almost on both hands, with some of them (eg Nathan Shepka - writer, actor, producer, director) doing more than one role.

People have already pointed out the strengths and weaknesses. The scenery was great (but then it's hard to get that wrong in the Scottish Highlands!). The music deserves recognition too. Some of the actors were better than others and they all had their good moments and bad moments. I think you've got to be prepared for some weak acting in places and just live with it.

The plot deserves more recognition as well. Yes, it had a few plot holes, but the vast majority of movies do. Most movies require us to suspend disbelief in the occasional moment. However, otherwise the plot actually had some exciting and gripping moments, with a few twists, and we are kept on edge and kept guessing.

A serious fault in the movie is the sound production and foley. Sorry to whoever did it, but it was just awful. There were moments where the editor tried to style it out by overlaying music or skipping the 'sound' in order to avoid the bad effects. The dialogue volume was inconsistent in some areas. The directing could be stronger of course as well (but remember, low budget), like making sure actors playing dead actually try not to blatantly breathe or by at least trying to make fight scenes realistic. The moment where one of them brings a crowbar down "on someone" (over his head) repeatedly - at 1mph - was hysterical.

But I'm giving it some stars because I managed to watch the whole thing and had a few moments that kept me guessing and really kept me going. Some of the actors and production team certainly showed great potential. Just remember, if you watch it, that you've got to be prepared for a very low budget affair with average acting.

This is the worst movie I've ever seen, I'm pretty sure I made up more compelling and believable dialogue playing with my Star Wars figures when I 8 years old. The "acting" is slightly better than a first grade play and I'm only giving it that much credit because the actors were probably able to remember their lines. While watching this abomination I kept thinking to myself that this isn't how people talk or move because of how stiff everything is, nothing came off as having a natural flow, everything was just so forced. With most movies there is at least one character you like, not this one. Every character your supposed to empathize with or not have a feeling about one way or the other comes across as having stick permanently stuck up their ass. The sound is also god awful.

There are less than 10 characters in this movie and all are ancillary except 5. Figure out the plot. Very poor acting. And just a ridiculous story too. I can't imagine ever leaving a friend in a bar with strange weird men and walking off into the country alone. This has way too high a rating and was one of the worst movies I've seen this year. It has a lot of ridiculous and silly dialogue on top of the poor acting. They also act like the women are far out alone in the country but you can see the road and a car going by. No attention to any detail on top of the poor plot. Very low budget and unwatchable.

I caught this on Roku, intrigued by the title and artwork. I was expecting something more horror-centered, but to my surprise this plays out as more of a mystery thriller (and engagingly so).

The locations look great. Everything looks barren and it suits the nature of a missing person thriller like this. It could probably have done with slicing 5-10 minutes off the run time, but it does slowly build up pretty well.

The final 20 minutes in particular, after, yep...darkness falls, is tense. Given the budget it's well made, engaging and the cast is decent. It's a little far fetched in places but I guess that's a pre-requisite for this type of B movie thriller. I just enjoy seeing something where everything is on screen, out on locations (and I'll watch most things shot in Scottish countryside). There's too many green screen films these days.

Well worth checking out.