The Darkness (film)

Plot

Peter and Bronny Taylor go on a vacation to the Grand Canyon with their teenage daughter, Stephanie, and their adolescent autistic son, Mikey. Mikey discovers a small cave, where he finds black rocks with symbols on them. He takes the rocks, not telling anybody what happened.

When the Taylors return home, strange things begin to happen. Bronny finds that the sink keeps turning on, and Stephanie sees handprints on a steamy mirror, both of which Mikey blames on “Jenny”. After Stephanie gets home from school, she vomits into a container and puts it under her bed. Bronny catches her, and she and Peter learn that Stephanie has been throwing up for a while; there are many such containers under her bed. They take Stephanie to a hospital for help, leaving Mikey at Bronny's mother's house. Bronny's mother finds Mikey trying to kill her cat, much to Peter’s disbelief.

At home, Bronny searches online for answers to the strange activity and learns about the Anasazi Indians, who believed that demons were bound to rocks hidden in underground caves. If the rocks are taken, the demons take the shape of a crow, snake, coyote, wolf, and buffalo. The family has already had encounters with a crow and a snake. The demons connect to young children who are dragged into their world, triggering an event known as 'The Darkness'. The only way they can be banished is if the rocks are returned to where they were found by someone who is not afraid.

Bronny finds a wall on fire in Mikey's room, but Peter rules out the possibility of ghosts. They later find Mikey covered in black marks from the fire, with blood pouring from his mouth. Later that night, Bronny has a nightmare of a wolf. Depressed, she starts drinking. In Mikey's room, the fire-damaged part of the wall is revealed to be a portal. Stephanie begins being choked by handprints appearing all over her wall and body. In the tree house, Peter sees a coyote, and then sees the shadow of a demon in Stephanie's window. The force stops choking Stephanie as Peter rushes in. Peter then breaks down Mikey's bathroom door, and finds him with marks all over the walls and ceiling.

Peter calls a number given to him by his boss. It is a woman named Teresa, who is said to perform spiritual healings. Teresa comes over with her granddaughter, Gloria, who acts as a translator. As they cleanse the house, Teresa and Gloria go into Mikey's room, and note that this is where the real evil lives. They recite a chant as Mikey tries to enter the portal.

When they realize Mikey's gone, the family races upstairs. Peter sees Mikey walking into the portal with the demons. He finds the stones and follows Mikey into the portal, but can't set the stones down due to his fear. He offers to swap places with Mikey but Mikey picks up the stones and puts them back down, saying he is not afraid. The demons are banished and Peter and Mikey jump out of the portal together. It disappears, and Gloria declares that the house is clean of evil energy.

Cast

Production

On February 25, 2014, Kevin Bacon and Radha Mitchell signed on to star in the film. On March 5, director Greg McLean stated, "The story is based on a true story that was relayed to me first-hand many years ago about an actual haunting." On April 11, David Mazouz was added to the film. On May 6, Ming-Na Wen joined the cast of the film, and on May 7, Lucy Fry was added to the cast to play Stephanie, the Taylor family's daughter. Trian Long-Smith also joined the film on the same day, to play Sammy Levin, the savvy, bright and flirtatious intern working for Peter Taylor’s character. On May 9, Matt Walsh joined the cast of the film, to play Gary Carter. Parker Mack also joined the film. On May 14, Jennifer Morrison was added to the cast to play Joy Carter, Gary's wife and also a mother of a child.

Filming

Principal photography began in April 2014 in Los Angeles, and ended in May 2014. The film was shot with the camera Arri Alexa Plus 4:3, as revealed by cinematographer Toby Oliver.

Music

On June 2, 2014, Johnny Klimek was hired to score the film.

Box office

The Darkness was projected to gross $3–5 million from 1,755 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $206,000 from its Thursday night previews and $2.1 million on its first day. It went on to gross $4.9 million in its opening weekend, finishing 4th at the box office, behind Captain America: Civil War ($72.6 million), The Jungle Book ($17.1 million), and fellow newcomer Money Monster ($14.8 million).

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 4%, based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 2.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "The Darkness clumsily relies on an assortment of genre tropes, leaving only the decidedly non-frightening ghost of superior horror films in its wake." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 27 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.