Oh, Darkness Rising, how you tempt us with your promises of supernatural thrills and haunting mysteries, only to deliver an uninspired, tedious, and forgettable experience. This is one of those films where you watch the plot unfold, or rather crawls forward, and you can’t help but wonder, “Did they really think this was scary? Or did they just have a really low bar for supernatural horror?” Spoiler: they did.
The film, directed by Austin Reading, is about a woman named Madison (Tara Holt), who returns to her childhood home where tragic, mysterious events occurred twenty-five years ago, and things go from eerie to utterly ridiculous in the blink of an eye. As Madison and her companions — the ever-useless boyfriend Jake (Bryce Johnson) and cousin Izzy (Katrina Law) — try to make sense of their haunted surroundings, they’re plagued by supernatural events and seemingly endless shots of people wandering around looking confused. Which, frankly, is the vibe I was going for by the end: utterly confused and wishing I’d spent my time doing anything else.
The Plot: A Haunted House Film… But Not in a Good Way
The plot of Darkness Rising is not so much a narrative as it is a checklist of horror movie tropes that were checked off with no real care or attention to detail. The film opens with a creepy prologue where Madison’s mother, in a fit of maternal instinct (I assume), smothers her infant daughter. But wait! In a shocking twist, the father swoops in just in time to save the baby. How? Well, according to the movie, he hears a voice whisper the number five—which, yes, I too was as confused as you when this was first revealed.
Now, you might think, “Hey, maybe there’s some deep symbolism behind the number five. Maybe this is part of a greater mystery!” Oh, how wrong you are. The number five turns out to be, well, nothing. It’s like the filmmakers grabbed a random number from a hat, slapped it in as a “mysterious omen,” and hoped it would hold some weight in the viewer’s mind. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t. It’s just the number five. Honestly, the only thing that was dying here was my patience.
The story then lurches forward with Madison, Jake, and Izzy returning to the house where the unspeakable tragedy occurred. Naturally, strange things begin to happen. Doors creak. Lights flicker. Ghosts show up, because that’s what ghost movies do. You’d think this would be a fun and spooky set-up, but instead, it feels like the actors are just waiting for something interesting to happen — but sadly, nothing does.
Characters: And You Thought Your Family Was Dysfunctional
Madison, the lead character, could be summed up as “the woman who seems to be perpetually under attack by supernatural forces while trying to solve a mystery that no one really cares about.” Her “mysterious” background is just the vague stuff horror movie scripts are made of — a troubled family, unexplained deaths, and people who are inexplicably drawn to a house that is clearly a cursed death trap. As Madison spends the majority of the film staring wide-eyed at nothing, I found myself wishing her character would also just disappear into the shadows of this film’s bizarre, half-baked plot.
Jake, her boyfriend, is your standard horror film muscle: useless in a crisis, but good for a few “I’m concerned for you” looks and some generic male banter. His “possessed by the house” arc is as predictable as it is underwhelming. When he finally becomes possessed, it’s about as terrifying as a wet sock on a cold day—he may have been meant to be menacing, but he just looks like he’s really trying to figure out his WiFi password.
Izzy, Madison’s cousin, has the unfortunate distinction of being the first to get possessed and spends most of her screen time violently attacking her family members. If that sounds compelling, well, it isn’t. Her possession, like everything else in this movie, feels like a poorly executed afterthought that the filmmakers threw in to give her something to do.
And don’t get me started on the side characters. They exist, but they might as well be furniture at this point. The film’s reliance on dull, uninspiring performances only amplifies the general apathy you’ll feel while watching.
Horror or Just Horror of Watching?
When it comes to horror, Darkness Rising doesn’t have much to offer except for a few jump scares that would barely make a baby flinch. You know the drill: ominous music, creepy silence, door creaks, maybe a shadow that looks like it’s going to move—bam! Ghostly face! But even then, the scares come across like a bad imitation of the films it tries to emulate. There’s nothing here that will haunt you at night, unless you count the lingering confusion and regret after the film ends.
But hey, at least the gore is on-brand for a horror flick. When the film does get bloody, it’s either unintentionally funny or just plain ridiculous. Characters are impaled, slashed, and mutilated, but these scenes lack the impact that a good horror movie can generate. It’s almost as if the filmmakers were like, “Hey, let’s throw in a bloody death for shock value!” without bothering to invest any real emotional stakes or even trying to make it believable. It’s more like watching a group of people get poked by a dull needle than witnessing any true horror.
The Conclusion: Death by Boredom
Darkness Rising doesn’t so much conclude as it stumbles over the finish line, gasping for air, desperate to end on some kind of dramatic note, but failing to deliver. By the time the film’s convoluted twists and turns reach their inevitable conclusion, I was left feeling nothing but indifference. The final act, which attempts to tie everything together, is both anticlimactic and downright laughable. It’s as if the movie realized halfway through that it didn’t really know how to finish, so it just threw in a lot of random, poorly executed events and hoped no one would notice.
Ultimately, Darkness Rising is one of those films that tries so hard to be a “modern horror classic” but ends up being just another forgettable entry in the crowded graveyard of mediocre horror flicks. Its characters are flat, its scares are tired, and its story is about as engaging as watching paint dry. If you’re a fan of horror that doesn’t ask too much of you, then Darkness Rising might fit the bill—but for anyone else, it’s just another ghost story that should have stayed in the shadows.
In conclusion, if you decide to watch this, do it for the laughs. Just don’t expect to remember any of it tomorrow.
