Review: And Soon the Darkness (2010)

Amber Heard and Odette Yustman play two American tourists cycling through Argentina, stopping in a small rural town. Party girl Yustman gets into boy trouble, resulting in the two friends having a bit of a spat and going their separate ways. Heard soon regrets the tiff, but when she returns, she finds that Yustman is no longer there. The locals are a fairly unfriendly lot, and even the police seem somewhat apathetic (and patronising) to the situation. Another visiting American, played by Karl Urban, seems to be the only one willing to offer Heard any assistance whatsoever. But can he be trusted?

The original 1970 film “And Soon the Darkness” (one of my favourite movie titles of all-time, by the way), whilst not great, was an underrated little B movie that I hold rather dear to my heart. It wasn’t as overt as some of the horror films that were to follow, but it was the kind of simplistic, quietly creepy film that might stay with you after sitting down to watch it late at night. I still get chills thinking about some of its oppressive, yet simplistic imagery. This good-looking 2010 remake from director and co-writer Marcos Efron changes the location (France is now Argentina), nationalities of the protagonists (British in the original, American here) and a plot point or two (one in particular proves completely pointless), but is otherwise fairly faithful to the original screenplay, if not as effective in practice (though it also reminds one of the more recent “Turistas” as well). It’s not an awful film, but it’s just not very effective, or frankly very necessary at the end of the day.

The main thing that really disappointed me about this film was wasted potential in the adapted screenplay by Efron and Jennifer Derwingson (both of whom are relative newbies). There is great merit in the idea of being a stranger in a strange land, terrorised in a country with a language you don’t really speak. The original film definitely touched on that, but it’s the one major element missing from this remake, at least until it’s too late. Sure, the locals speak a foreign language without subtitles for the audience, but the protagonists also speak a bit of the language, which makes it all somewhat pointless. And the locals here just aren’t aloof or suspicious-looking enough for my liking. In the original, it seemed like the whole damn village could’ve been in on the conspiracy, whatever that conspiracy turned out to be. Here, we even get a sympathetic female motel owner, which is a mistake, I think, and one character largely the same in both films, is far less creepy this time, due to poor casting mostly. But then, this is a film that opens with a scene of ‘torture porn’-lite (cynically tacked-on, I might add), whereas the original had a slow build (too slow for some). Here you’re already ahead of the game, robbing the film of the suspense as to where it’s headed, which is cutting the film off at the knees, really. The only thing scary about it is that it’s loud as hell, so it makes you jump a lot. That’s not really the same (though I am seriously scared of thunderstorms. Just thought you should know). Despite being quite faithful in terms of plot, the film plays out a lot slower and cluttered, especially early on.

The film does have plusses, however. For starters, Amber Heard and Odette Yustman are infinitely better than the cute girls from the original (though largely the characters are the same). Both are incredibly hot (and the camera has seriously devious thoughts in mind about Yustman’s supreme derriere in particular), and hot chicks are rarely a bad thing in a horror film. Sure, I could complain that an opportunity to improve upon the original’s chasteness is missed, but what can you do? (Answer: Cast actresses who do nudity, damn it! Seriously, it pisses me off...) Heard is the better actress of the two (she also produced the film), but boy does she choose lousy film projects for such a hot and talented lesb...er...actress. I’m not sure about Heard’s tattoo, words make silly (and ugly) tattoos because in this case you can’t read it unless you’re up close to Heard, and unless she changes sexual preferences anytime soon, that’s not happening to me. I just think Heard is so much better than junk like this and the awful remake of “The Stepfather” (Not to mention “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane”). Yustman has an hilarious bit where she refuses to allow ‘Macarena’ to play on a bar jukebox. Her choice? The Divinyls' classic ‘I Touch Myself’. The joke pretty much writes itself, doesn’t it? Someone in the cast or crew must be an Aussie, because the film’s soundtrack also features a song by Australian Idol reject (and awards show nude embarrassment) Axel Whitehead, which I didn’t know made its way overseas. Weird. So you’ve got two hot (and therefore, to a significant portion of the audience, likeable) protagonists who look great in bikinis. The film gets that right.

Kiwi actor Karl Urban is probably the only other cast member to come out somewhat unscathed. He’s not as good as Sandor Eles was in the original, but his blandness makes him nonetheless appropriate for his role. He’s OK as the seemingly unassuming guy who may or may not be a help or hindrance, without coming across as forced or phony. The other thing the film has to its credit is it’s look, and the scenery. Wait, haven’t we already talked about how hot the actresses are? Oh, sorry, that’s a different kind of scenery. Argentina looks absolutely gorgeous in this film, to me coming off like a mixture of Mexico and the Grand Canyon, only better, IMHO. Cinematographer Gabriel Beristain (“Blade II”) deserves a lot of the credit, too. It’s a sometimes dark-looking film, but attractive and shadowy.

Yet, even the scenery has its drawbacks. Yes, it looks gorgeous and appropriately bare at times, but in the original, we had more foreboding forestry that seemed to possibly be hiding something. This remake gives us about ten seconds of well-shot, creepy forestry...towards the end. The scenery does start to look a little creepy towards the end, but mostly because the scenes appear to be shot during the afternoon (but on purpose, for a change- look at the title). There’s some creepy shots of dead trees, really interesting stuff that the film could’ve used more of, to create more of an oppressive vibe. Speaking of oppressive and foreboding, full credit goes to the score by the annoyingly named tomandandy (the remake of “The Hills Have Eyes”), who do a lot of the hard labour on the film.

If you do watch this film, read the end credits and tell me what the hell reason there could possibly be for crediting Data Entry and Office Assistants on the film? As a former Data Entry worker myself, it was kinda cool, but WHAT??

Overall, this film does not need to be seen, though I guess it might help raise awareness of the underrated original. The chicks are hot, the scenery is impressive, the film is a failure.

Rating: C