Down a Dark Hall

AnnaSophia Robb and Uma Thurman lead the cast in the supernatural horror film Down a Dark Hall. Based on a bestselling book, the story follows a rebellious teenage girl who's sent to a reform school for troubled youth called Blackwood, but she soon discovers that something strange is going on and begins to suspect that she and her fellow students are being used for some nefarious purpose. Robb gives a fairly good performance and director Rodrigo Cortes does an impressive job at creating an atmospheric mood. However, the storytelling is a little weak and lacks strong villains. Also, the supernatural isn't really played for scares, and the scares that are there seem a little out of place. Still, despite its problems, Down a Dark Hall is a creepy thriller full of mystery and intrigue.

I had high hopes with the one after seeing the preview. The Flitting shadows that disappear had me intrigued. But no, it was not to be. There was a whole lot of movie, but really a whole lot of not much. When I rate horror movies I usually give a little leeway as there are so many bad horrors out there. Slowly but surely though there are so many horror movies entering the realm that are just nothing. P.S. Uma does a really annoying job at pretending to be a person pretending to be french.

The outcast troubled teenager Katherine "Kit" Gordy (AnnaSophia Robb) is invited to study in Blackwood and her mother and stepfather drive her to the old and isolated manor. She is welcomed by the headmistress Madame Duret (Uma Thurman) with four other colleagues and forced to develop their talents in mathematics and arts. Soon Kit realizes that supernatural forces are possessing them and increasing their talents. "Down a Dark Hall" is an almost good film with a promising and intriguing beginning. The storyline is good, but the screenplay is flawed after the confused ball in the manor. The performances are not bad, but Uma Thurman has a weird accent and AnnaSophia Robb does not convince as a seventeen year-old teenager despite the good acting. The cinematography is too dark and difficult to see. It is a pity since very few improvements would be necessary to make a great film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

I think I know what happened to this movie, at least in part: It's adapted from a book written in the 70s, and that's why part of it feels like a period piece and so much of it feels just a little "off." Why didn't they just set it in the 70s? Did they think the audience wouldn't relate to timeless issues like rebellious kids in a nightmare school? Setting it in present day didn't fit the feeling of the school at all. That felt disjointed.

But ultimately, the problem for me is that the movie isn't fulfilling. The ending feels cliche and attempt to give some kind of closure but fails. I absolutely loved the premise of this thing and wished they would have gone further with it, but they didn't. In fact, I felt like they hardly spent any time with it at all. They spent so much time showing us that the kids are all delinquents and the headmistress is controlling and the school is dark and spooky but ignored the good stuff until the end, when it was supposed to be an a-ha! Moment but it just kind of falls flat.

I loved the performances, the setting, the score, and, like I said, the premise, but I kept getting angry at the movie and its characters for doing dumb things and for constantly bombarding me with conflict rather than resolution. They tease you with it, but never really give it to you, even when they try, and it's maddening.

You're gonna laugh at me, but I didn't even recognize Uma Thurman at first. I didn't recognize Anna Sophia Robb, either, but she's grown a little since the last movie I saw her in. I thought both did a wonderful job. The girl from the movie "Orphan" was in this, too, but she didn't have as much screen time.

There's a lot I liked about this movie, and I really wish the story had been more fulfilling than it was. In my head, I'm comparing it to The Kingsmen, where similarly, kids are sent to a school with strict rules to be refined into better versions of themselves, but that journey was MUCH more fulfilling and fun. It also kind of reminds me of the movie Seance, which I didn't like because it turned out to be something other than what it was advertised as, but felt more complete than this did. I also got shades of Harry Potter from this, and now that I think of it more, there are a ton of parallels. I'd recommend watching any of those over this one, but, according to most people's ratings here, if you want to watch this, you probably won't hate it, it's just probably not going to be high on your rating list either.

Seriously, I kit you not. %80 of the movie is filmed in almost complete darkness to the point I could hardly see what the hell was going on. Must have bean dead cheap to make if nothing could be seen.

Film is OKish, nothing that wasn't done before but the freaking darkness just annoyed me.