And Soon the Darkness – DVD Review

The Flick:

So I’ve been absent from KillerFilm for a while now, thank you first semester of college, but I’m back, ready to utilize what I have learned in the past few months.

And Soon the Darkness, a remake of the ‘70s British film of the same name, has a pair of beautiful, young, American women, Stephanie and Ellie, bicycling through Argentina. After run-ins with locals hunks, local culture, and each other, the girls go their separate ways, but when Stephanie’s guilt kicks in, she returns to find Ellie missing. When the police seem too preoccupied to find Ellie, another American tourist volunteers his time, but Stephanie cannot be sure who to trust.

My media writing professor pounded it into my head that a good article is short and informative. To be concise as he would want, I’m going to call the movie, And Soon the Darkness, “one big chase scene” and be done with it.

In more flowery terms, you could say And Soon the Darkness, a horror/thriller film, wasn’t so horrifying or thrilling. Then again, if you find the creaking of bicycles, close-ups of strangers, and foreign countries, in general, to be scary, I guess it is good enough. It is predictable, and the one moment you wait for the whole movie, the moment where you find out who is behind Ellie’s disappearance, is not set up as the climax of the film, so you watch the scene and are ready for it all to just be finished, but you have to keep watching and watching and watching…

The movie is just one big chase scene where the characters are killed off one at a time until there is one left standing. It relies on beautiful people and scenery instead of any extraordinary acting or plot.

Oh, and the plot…. The fight between the female leads that sets the plot into motion feels forced, as Stephanie has been passive and rational the entire film but suddenly acts over-dramatically and immaturely. The plot is cliché, or maybe I just feel that way as a recent high school graduate who saw many friends off on senior trips south of the border… I have heard all the horror stories, so I’m sure you have, too.

The DVD:

Special features include the director’s video commentary, which I found to be almost more interesting than the film, with its insight on the actors and filming locations, and deleted scenes, none of which add much to my perception of the film or caught my attention in general.

Overall, while the movie is aesthetically pleasing and the plot has potential, it did not live up to my hopes.

The Flick: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: