Out of the Dark

The timing here, coupled with the sound, ensures there are plenty of jump-out-of your-seat scares. Good cameras are used, and even if you are not into horror, the clear image gives wonderful backdrops of a green and colourful Columbia. The story is a clever sleight of hand, which (on the dvd) leads to an interesting, and important, raison d'être right after the closing scene. Very sparse but clever use of special effects, poignant toward the end. Watch for them, they are hard to spot, but they are an important part of the puzzle. The actors are top shelf and fully committed, and the daughter is irresistible cute. One cares what happens to her straight away. There's a sense of professionalism to the technical aspects, particularly the editing and shot framing, and it is spooky. I docked it a couple of points because at a certain point toward the end all plot surprise is lost, and I thought what was needed was something more threatening, or wild, perhaps combined with special effects, some sort of horror frenzy to carry us over the finish line. I thought the 'ghosts' could have had a bit more bight even early on and certainly leading up to the finish, maybe a nasty sudden split-second slash or two. My opinion only. The film wasn't over-long and more could have been done with the cool final location. The success of this movie depended pretty much on the parents. The parents are authentic, sensible, conservative and not over-reactive, and thus there is a sense to Out Of The Dark that it is horror played like a quiet melody on a piano, rather than an overture by an orchestra, and I found that intelligent, refreshing and effective, and thus really enjoyed it.

Having recently gone through a slew of paranormal movies (including THE RING, SINISTER, UNFRIENDED, ALWAYS WATCHING, and THE CONJURING) I heard about this film. So I shrugged and gave it a shot. Story-wise, it's pretty good. Not entirely original, but still eerie. The problem with OUT OF THE DARK is... just read on. THE STORY: An American couple, Sarah & Paul, (played by the wonderful Julia Stiles and a bland Scott Speedman) along with Hannah (Pixie Davies) their British-accented daughter(?) travel to Colombia. Once there, Sarah takes a job at her father's paper mill. As strangers in a foreign land, they soon learn of the odd customs that their neighbors have. And along the way, they learn about the shocking history surrounding the disappearance and death of several children. Before you know it, the family starts to see weird shadowy figures in bandages and have all sorts of paranormal events. Things get even worse when their own daughter gets kidnapped by these ghostly apparitions. And it's about then that everything starts to fall apart. Instead of doing the smart thing, like call the cops or even attempting to speak in Spanish, Sarah and Paul frantically barge and stomp around town, blabbering in English (which the locals obviously don't understand), until finally learning the truth behind the ghosts. Like I said already, it's a good story. But, the film needs to be ratcheted up in some way. Either there have to be more scares, or there's gotta be more of a sense of dread and doom. Honestly, if the film were more tightly edited, (maybe if the parents were written to be a little more effective) it would be a better movie. But as it is, you can take it or leave it.

OUT OF THE DARK is an entirely predictable US-financed ghost story that unfortunately gains little from being shot in Colombia with a Colombian crew and Spanish director. The story feels like the usual 'Americans abroad' type tale and indeed when the ghostly back story kicks in, although it's mildly inventive, it bears too much similarity to previous ghost films like THEY WAIT, a Canadian film in which almost exactly the same stuff happens to a family who move to China with their kid and are haunted by sweat-shop ghosts. That's not to say that this film is particularly poor, because it's certainly adequate by genre standards and it refreshingly focuses on attempted chills rather than gore effects, but it's still a disappointment. Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman can do little with their predictable characters and the acting of the kid is little to write home about either. Stephen Rea stars in another 'pick up the pay cheque' type supporting role and as a whole the scary moments seem derived from the likes of SILENT HILL rather than being truly original. It's just about passable, but only if you're almost entirely unfamiliar with this entire genre of film.

The premise was good, but poor execution. No subtitles for foreign dialogue, a "British" speaking child to American parents. Overall it was just chaotic.

Lame. I think that is about the best word to use to describe Out of the Dark, and I think I'm being generous by not calling it anything worse. The reason I've not given it a lower rating than what I have is mainly due to it being decently acted, being quite dark, and it having some nice effects scattered throughout the film. A lot of people will probably think "Why did I bother to continue?" if they reach the end, though. The film starts out promising enough, giving it some potential for it to be a decent wee film, but it just doesn't really pick up enough for this to happen, and apart from the odd moment here & there it stays pretty flat. It even lacks in the jump/scare department as well, and for a haunted horror film to not have any decent moments of the most common way to scare it's audience, doesn't bode well. The story's rather predictable with no real twists or surprises, and is actually quite slow going for the most part, which can be OK as long as the story keeps your interest. This struggles to keep your interest, however, and it actually ends up feeling like a bit of a chore to make it through to the end. As a wee side issue, the fact that this is an R rating is a bit of a joke, and is misleading if you're expecting a scary/violent film, because apart from the odd rare moment, nothing really warrants the R rating. In fact I've seen more violent/creepy PG-13 rated films. Overall, Out of the Dark is just another below average run-of-the-mill haunted horror films that fails to deliver for about 90% of the time. It's not a horrendous movie, but it's definitely far from being one of the best.

Out Of The Dark is just an average movie, nothing special about it. It's one of those movies you watch once without much interest and than you completely forget about it. The acting isn't bad though, it's just the story that is not very captivating. They could have done better with that story. And by that I mean it's supposed to be a horror movie but there is just not enough horror for my taste. Sometimes you get a bit of masked children, almost always running away, and that's about it. The filming is okay without being special. There are just not enough special effects to make it interesting. All in all it's a missed opportunity to make a better movie with this story.

My review probably isn't going to add a whole lot because quite honestly this is a RARE case where I actually agree with just about EVERYONE else in what they have said in their Summaries about this film... Basically, I suppose I just wanted to add my general agreement with most people here that the film is not terrible at all. The mood and look of the film is nice, the acting and direction are decent, and there are a FEW scary moments, but ultimately, I just don't think that it has enough depth and substance to make it a very effective Horror film. I guess I AM a bit of a sucker for Haunted Children stories, but there are two other films similar to this one that I personally like a ***LOT*** better and I wanted to come here and mention them because they have a very similar theme, but I feel are far better movies. 'THE ORPHANAGE' (2007) An exquisitely moody Spanish film by one of Guillermo Del Toro's protégés. 'THE AWAKENING' (2011) A very effective British Period Horror film about a Haunted Hospital starring Rebecca Hall. I think that I rated them both 9/10 So, FWIW, I thought that if the premise of this film caught your interest, I really wanted to be sure to tell you about these two other films which I feel are amongst the best of this Genre. I highly recommend them! About this movie... Basically, the technical aspects are just fine. The acting and direction are good. I feel that the director did moderately well in creating a fairly decent mood. But, I think that maybe the story itself and perhaps the way it was developed could have used a bit more complexity and depth. Otherwise, it is a pretty much just a passably mild, 'Haunted Children' Horror film. And Stephen Rea is all but wasted in his role, really. I actually gave this a '5' which is a little higher than it's current 4.x, for what it's worth... P.S: BTW, I haven't seen it yet (although I've bloody HAD the film for like 3 years) but the Spanish made, English speaking movie 'FRAGILE' (2005) starring Calista Flockhart, also about a Haunted children's Hospital, looks pretty damn good...

The opening of the film sets the pace (or lack of rather) for what's coming! If you find the stair scene somewhat exciting then by all means, keep watching, but be aware - this is as 'spooky' as it gets. It is all dragged out and without suspense, no jump scenes - though they do try their hardest, a bit too hard.. it just falls flat. This movie is completely non-convincing (both acting and script). The twist is OK but they could've done so much more with it. Stiles make a bad movie worse by just walking around yelling in the end, for what feels like forever. When you are forced to turn down the volume on a scary movie then there is something very wrong! Do yourself a favour and watch something else. My (generous) rating: 3/10. This is simply a weekend filler and make sure to save it for days when there is absolutely nothing else, and I mean NOTHING else, left to watch.

If you can get past the Americans with a British child.... okay. If you can make it past the complete lack of chemistry between the co-star couple.... good luck. If you even make it past the boner of a story..... I'm impressed. I know I'll never get that time back but it was on Hulu so at least it was free.

I think that some movie creators really believe that if they put the word "dark" in the title it'll automatically be scary. This was one very generic ghost story. Let's look at the typical ghost story formula (the rest MAY be considered a spoiler so avert thy eyes now if you don't want this movie to potentially be ruined). 1.) someone killed in an unjust manner. 2.) unjustly killed has a ghost that terrorizes. 3.) character being terrorized finds out the history/true story behind the unjust death. 4.) ghost is placated or subdued due to the discovery. The jump scares, spooky music and ominous setting is all there for setting the mood. If this is your first ghost movie go-round then maybe you were impressed; as for me, SMH.