User reviews

And Soon the Darkness is a serviceable "vacation gone bad" thriller. The two lead actresses are VERY pleasant to look at. They bike and sunbathe and run very prettily. But the story is so predictable that it's almost comical, the bad guys and plot twists are apparent from the very beginning, and the protagonists make decisions so stupid that they almost seem to ask for the situation that they get involved in.

You should be very familiar with this kind of plot by now. A pair of attractive young American tourists (Odette Yustman and Amber Heard) get separated from their bike tour group in Argentina, meet some suspicious people, get separated from each other, and then one of them goes missing. They're not the smartest of tourists, that's for sure. 

Even if you can stand the by-the-numbers plot (for Odette Yustman, I can accept a LOT of clichés and obvious plot twists), And Soon the Darkness isn't a very thrilling thriller. There's not a lot of creativity or imagination to it, it's just the same movie we've seen before with some new faces. Watch it if you're a fan of Yustman or Heard, but don't expect a lot.

Good things first, some very nice cinematography of the landscapes. Cool looking deserted town that looks like something from a nuclear holocaust. Now that's out of the the way, on to the bad...

Clichéd characters. The Ellie character is just plain annoying and whilst I'm not a prude her behaviour just invited trouble - she's in an unknown country surrounded by strangers and acts like a complete whore. The good guy character hints at some promise but is taken out of the equation too easily. No inventiveness applied here, nothing you haven't seen a million times. Plus the female leads look like famine victims, especially Ellie - neither of them would have had the strength to fight off any kind of attack. I don't know if this is what Hollywood considers sexy nowadays but if so you can keep it.

Only rent if there is absolutely nothing else.

Two young attractive girls are biking through Argentina. They miss their bus to leave and stay a bit longer, when they get into a fight one of them leaves the other by herself. Big mistake, the girl gets herself kidnapped. Now her friend must try to find her.

The film never tries to elevate the genre that it is in, nor make it interesting. And Soon The Darkness manages to follow the footpath of every film before it, thus making it boring and predictable. First we have our two female characters. One is obviously a trouble maker and the rebel, while the other is more conservative. Guess which one gets herself kidnapped and which one has to rise to the occasion to get her friend back? The two female characters are played by Odette Yustman and Amber Heard, they fit their roles of attractive young females. The roles don't call for anything beyond that really.

The biggest letdown, had to be Karl Urban. His character is somewhat pointless. He doesn't advance the plot, his story line is left unfinished and Urban himself seems to be bored with the material. I like the guy, but he needs to pick better projects than this. Now that I have my biggest letdown out of the way, let me tell you where else this film went wrong.

The main reason for the girl getting kidnapped is due to the character's stupidity. The two girls get into a verbal argument, one storms off leaving the other. Who would leave their best friend in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country? On top of that, they state earlier that they were part of a bike tour group, but got lost from the pack? These point in the film had me scratching my head.

The film doesn't really know what it wants to be either, it reminded me a lot of Turistas. These characters are in a beautiful location, the film knows this and it is shot fairly well. There are bits of torture, yet the film never steers into that Hostel, or Saw territory. It comes off as very tame, I'm surprised it is even restricted. The film can easily be a PG-13 flick.

There are no surprises, you know from the moment you see the characters, who is responsible for what. The film tries to be clever to throw a curveball, but as I mentioned before, we have seen this type of film before and it's obvious where it was going. The film even lacks suspense. The kidnapping scene is poorly done, the climax is also a third rate cat and mouse game. The film fails to create any tension and that was a key element missing from here. Too many things were left unanswered for me. The two people who ran the hotel, do they know anything? Are they in on it? Does the wife try to warn them, but the husband put her in her place? Who knows.

And Soon The Darkness peaked my interest, but is failed to excite me. If Karl Urban was not in it, I would never have bothered with it. You should do yourself a favour too and skip it.

The only good thing about this movie is the editing, the camera work and the sound. The acting is okay, but the plot is shallow. The promise of twists is totally unfulfilled. It is predictable and rather pointless. What a shame. It is one of those movies that seems to have something, but you wait and watch and nothing happens. There is very little to say about the movie. I had to add this filler just so that the review could be accepted for having 10 lines of text. The characterisation is shallow. I suppose the scenery in some of the scenes is rather interesting. But other than that, this is a complete waste of your time.

Pretty much every horror title these days is getting a low score almost on every critic sites , To me it is very sad because most of us don't even read the critic review ,we just watch the score the movie got and decide whether to watch it or not. I think this movie is one of those movies that no one really got to see because it has low score . If you look closely it has pretty nice cast in it , Yes Amber Heard and Odette Annable are beautiful actresses but hey also got nice acting skills . The plot is pretty unique , i mean i personally haven't seen movie with this story before and i found this story interesting. This movie has clichés in it but still it is very fun to watch and it doesn't get boring all along... I think its underrated and i would recommend it to every one since its mostly Mystery title , i wouldn't call it a solid horror.

A woman goes missing on a bike trip around Argentina and her friend desperately searches to find her.

This is a fairly familiar tale as two naive girls find out the hard way that if you're traveling around a strange country you need your wits about you.

The Argentinian setting at least makes a pleasant change from normal USA thrillers and there is some nice cinematography. Amber Heard does a good job as the woman looking for her friend evoking the sense of desperation you'd feel looking for someone in a foreign country. Karl Urban as the man helping her is likable if a little wooden.

Based on the relatively low IMDb rating ( currently 5.2) I wasn't expecting too much. In truth although nothing outstanding this is fairly engrossing and at times tense thriller. It does at least try and spring a few surprises that you don't see coming.

The ending is fairly predictable but this is still a fairly enjoyable ride.

"And Soon the Darkness" tells the story of two American girls on bicycle trip in Argentina who fall prey to a sinister captor.One of them suddenly vanishes and the other one must find her friend before it's too late.I am a big fan of extremely chilling Robert Fuest's original set in sunny France and this unneeded remake is nowhere nearly as suspenseful.In fact it's very dull with one-dimensional characters and the lack of surprises.The banality of the plot is simply overwhelming.Admittedly the scenic scenery of Argentinian countryside looks beautiful and desolate.The ruins of a town that flooded years ago and was abandoned provide some spooky atmosphere.Unfortunately the majority of the film is tedious and annoying.5 out of 10.Watch creepy British original instead.

Workably well-made, but unremarkable pot-boiler remake of the 1970 British version. This time it takes place in Argentina with two American girls on a cycling trip, compared with the original having two British girls cycling in the French countryside. One of the girls goes missing, leaving the other friend on a desperate search to find her. The simplistic narrative is routine as can be, dealing with alienation and paranoia of being a fish-out-of-water. Still rather under-written. While it might start off lousy and not surprise with its lack of twists (as the mystery does eventually loose some steam), it remains effectively sustainable in making you uncomfortable in its foreign surroundings… where it's hard to know just who to trust, as no one wants to get involved even though the suspicions are there that the locals (you know those long stares) might just know what is going on. Desperation and danger fills every inch of space as details become clear for the protagonists. The direction is intrusively slick and pacing slow-going, but this only adds to the unsettling atmosphere and breath-taking mountainous scenery. Other than Amber Heard's commendable performance, the scenic photography also is a true scene stealer. The lush sights are a marvel and only compliment the underlining threat of this idyllically forlorn retreat. After such a sturdy progression and falling into contrived developments, it breaks away in the final acts with some intense cat and mouse moments but never fully tapping in to the suspense of the predicament. The cast give well rounded performances, even though their thin characters are descriptively black and white. Heard is impressive in the lead role, while Odette Annable provides plenty of energy. A disconnected Karl Urban shows up as a mysterious stranger (though foreseeable to where his character's ends up in the plot) and Cesar Vianco (with that icy stare) plays the town's officer. Underdone, but modest travel thriller.

"He looks… responsible."

The plot as many has mentioned is so stupidly predictable from the very beginning. What really annoyed me though was how it stereotypes American going to developing countries and acting...well like ignorant American tourists just asking to be robbed, ridiculed, and/or raped. I mean, who in their right mind, male or female, would dress up and go to a local bar in a small, little town out in the middle of nowhere.

What gets to me most though is this very Hollywood, developed world perspective that all developing countries from Asia to South America to East Europe are dangerous places where deviants and criminals are constantly roaming around hunting and kidnapping innocent, naive American tourists. This is as far from reality as it gets. Well that's Hollywood for you and the 5.2/10 is well-deserved.

My mother-in-law highly recommended this film so the other night my old lady and I unfortunately decided to watch it.

This is a movie that is a paint by numbers type of thing. After the first ten minutes this seemed headed to Touristas-land. Overall it is like Touristas but without the organ harvesting (for Touristas with organ harvesting but on a train, please watch The Train).

The first ridiculous thing is that you have these two beautiful chicks that are on a bicycle tour through South America. These chicks aren't even on full laden touring bikes with panniers. Just mountain bikes with a small trunk bag that carries all their hot clubbing clothes and high heels. Second, these chicks are so skinny. It looks like they couldn't ride more than 5 miles with their toothpick legs and flip-flop shoes. Totally unconvincing as bicycle tourists.

Next, they decide to get all tarted and liquored up and tease the deranged locals at some bar and maybe get in some action with a few men even though they know that the only bus out of town is leaving at 8am. Of course they act severely disrespectful and stupid almost provoking a kidnapping, beat down and Amtrak.

I have to say that the movie is watchable because the scenery is nice and the locations and buildings are interesting and the chicks have pretty faces, but the whole time you're just screaming how stupid can these chicks be. Bicycling around in hot-pants and a sports-bra in some Argentinian red-neck holler with the degenerates leering and rubbing there mitts together in anticipation for tonight's party favor...

I should probably see the original but didn't even know about it until I came here to spew my review for the lame remake.

Bottom line: Don't waste your time on this one. It is flat-out predictable, stupid, and lame. Even The Train is better than this one.

This is a very bad American remake of a classic British film.

The original is atmospheric and has quality craftsmanship all the way thought it.

This version is trashy commercial rubbish and has tacky horrible all the way through.

This is full of stupid teenagers talking in an incredibly annoying way which seems to be a trademark of 'formula' films of this kind.

Do yourself a favour and watch the original. It may be an oldie but it is far superior in every way.

A definite 'miss'

Two young American women (Amber Heard and Odette Yustman) are biking around Argentina. It is a fun adventure, at least until one of them gets kidnapped. Can the other track down the kidnapper and save her friend? Who can she trust?

This film is a remake of a 1970 British thriller. For all intents and purposes, the connection could be overlooked and the film would be just fine. While some things were kept the same -- the bicycling, lack of subtitles and a shot of a plane overhead -- much of it was changed. The setting has moved from France to Argentina, the girls' names were changed, and there is a whole new dynamic. This film could have stood on its own.

Writer-director Marcos Efron truly does make it his own film, and it helps to have two of today's finest young stars in the lead roles. Amber Heard, at the time of this film's release, was already known and about to be more well-known alongside Johnny Depp and Nic Cage. Odette Yustman, perhaps less well-known, is still a star in her own right.

The film is tense, suspenseful, better-paced than the original, with beautiful color and scenery. There is a sexy element, but no outright sex. There is a violent element, but no outright gore. The film is R, but could get by with what I would call a "hard PG-13". Even the torture aspects never enter into the "torture porn" realm of "Saw" or "Hostel", or even "Turistas", and I give this film credit for that, staying firmly in "thriller" rather than "horror" territory.

While I would not give it a must-see, mandatory recommendation, it is a great thriller and one of the better films I have seen in a while. I never get sick of seeing Heard or Yustman, especially when they are in their swimsuits. This film earns a B, maybe a B-plus. The Anchor Bay DVD is also loaded with special features.

After watching 30 minutes of this film i was asking myself what was the point of making this movie? Where is the creativity? The will to make something good? When i saw the actor from Star Trek on the cover i thought that it would be good. Boy was i wrong!! Seriously i would recommend to watch this film if you believe that there is nothing else to get you more depressed!

What can i say. Its not nice to give movies bad reviews. But if you are going to make a movie about the girls lost thing at least try to do it as best as possible. The acting is so terrible i felt embarrassed for them.

Although this movie may have had a few cliché characters, I think it well a well put story with a great storyline.

The acting in this film was also quite honorable, and I think the main reason I feel this film deserves more credit than it receives is because it is a lot different to all of the other thrillers.

The story surprised me and I felt this movie was a one to watch, not only because of it's storyline, but the actors in it really portrayed the characters well.

I give this an 8 out of 10.

Cheers for the great watch

Why it didn't be one? Basically nothing happens until the 40th minute, that's why. This is a slow-burn thriller, even though it was advertised as the type that has thrills since the first minutes, well it doesn't.

It sort of played out like Hostel; The first half hour is pretty much character development with some sexual references here and there, and then suspense begins. Come on, this is a 85 minute film, we should've gotten on really. After the 40th minute, the suspense begins. I liked the tension and tautness the film had afterwards.

The acting by the two female leads was natural, but not that great. Sometimes Odette's character seemed annoying, with her being showing off in front of men a lot and trying to sleep with one. Come on. Karl Urban was great in this, loved his performance and his presence.

Another thing I liked about this film is that there was someone else involved with Odette's abduction, and that character was in the film, who is even trusted by Odette's friend. The setting, thanks to the good cinematography was amazing, great location for sure. The music by the average composers Tomandandy was not bad, but it sounded too trailer-ish and something you'd hear in student films on Youtube, but at least it was orchestral and suspenseful.

This was an OK thriller, which was saved by it suspenseful second half and magnificent setting.

If you like your thrillers to have suspense with a twist at the end then dont waste your time with this version of "And Soon the Darkness" but watch the original. This does have some nice scenery, but so does the original. It has however put me off ever wishing to go to Argentina!