Darkness Falls

The Tooth Fairy is one of those magic dream people who exist in that special place between believing and wishing. She hands out lolly to little boys and girls when their baby teeth drop out. No one has ever seen her and children wonder how someone so tiny can carry big, heavy coins. Mummy says, make sure you're asleep because if you're not she'll fly away and give the money to a starving beggar.

It's all phooey, of course, another case of grown-ups lying to kids for sentimental reasons. Or is it? This film tells the truth behind the myth. Those who are afraid of the dark should light a candle NOW. The spirit of the story might ride down these words and slit your throat.

The Tooth Fairy lived in the village of Darkness Falls more than 100 years ago. She was neither a fairy, nor a dream person. Her name was Matilda Dixon and she lived alone because of her peculiar ugliness, caused by a fire. She wore a porcelain mask to hide her face and was generous to little children when they brought her their baby teeth. One day, two sisters disappeared and the villagers accused her of abduction and hanged her as a witch. Before she died, she cursed Darkness Falls and after her body was cut down from the gibbet, the missing girls were found, alive and well.

This is Kyle's story. He was brought up in the small town in the late 20th century and on the night that he lost his last baby tooth, Matilda attacked and terrible things happened, resulting in him spending the next nine years in a mental hospital. As one of the few who has ever seen her and lived, he understands that the only protection is light and so carries a collection of power torches wherever he goes.

Darkness Falls is quality horror. Because they can, the special effects crew play tricks with Matilda's skill as a winged predator, which, by the end, seems excessive. Despite looking like a mixture of Jeepers Creepers, Pitch Black and Assault On Precinct 13, Jonathan Liebesman's film has the benefit of a young unknown cast, who are committed to taking the "un" out of "believable." Chaney Kley, as Kyle, has an intensity that carries with it a sense of awareness only survivors share, as if terror is but a heartbeat away.