A dispiriting, dull, and incredibly tame American debut by gifted Australian director Greg McLean, who infused Wolf Creek with brutality and despair vivid enough to earn Roger Ebert's zero-star vitriol and turn the heads of hardcore genre fans worldwide. He also directed Rogue, an old-school tourists-versus-saltwater-crocodile creature feature with a genuine sense of adventure. Here, sadly, he is adrift amid Nancy Meyers production design and the hoariest of James Wan-style jump scares. The story turns on a privileged and modestly dysfunctional family (the patriarch is a sleepy Kevin Bacon) who encounter a supernatural menace after their autistic son chances upon mystical Native American artifacts during a trip to the Grand Canyon. It is the type of film in which characters frequently turn to Google to find hyper-specific information regarding otherworldly arcanum. McLean seems completely unable to energize the material, staging one of the most anticlimactic and languid exorcisms in a long time, and his bid to introduce grit by assigning every family member a flaw—father has a wandering eye, mother hides vodka in the sofa, sister is bulimic, brother is autistic—is undermined by anemic character development and the total absence of anything resembling interest in or sympathy for these people.

D

1. I love how these Evil Native American Ancients collectively call themselves...Jenny.

2. What an empty, random role for Jennifer Morrison. I was surprised she never showed up after the prologue.

The Darkness

A bit jumpy, but this is a below-average supernatural horror film. Is it a cool concept? Well, yes and no. Its evil spirits could have been very scary if they actually did something, but overall they are interchangeable with any other horror film, and the leading up to the finale is the same as any other horror film too. The performances are bad. The hand prints on the beds is not very scary. Not enough is done with these entities pre-finale to really induce dread and scare people. The boy, Mikey (played by David Mazouz), is incredibly annoying.

D+

Nothing happens in the end and all they had to do was rearrange the stones? REALLY? This was awful and has hardly any scenes that were horror. The hand prints were effective in trailers but in the movie they come out funny (probably because the score was not menacing enough). There is a ray of hope towards the end but it finishes up too quickly. Towards the end though there are a few thrills which makes not give an F.

D-