 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Las Tinieblas (aka The Darkness) • Year: 2016 • Country: Mexico, France • Director: Daniel Castro Zimbrón • Main cast: Brontis Jodorowsky, Aliocha Sotnikoff, Camila Robertson Glennie • Runtime: 92 minutes • Production company: Varios Lobos, Zoología Fantástica, Les Films de L’Etranger • TRAILER |
From various genres, many good films come from Mexico, that is undoubtful. But when it comes to surreal or experimental films, mexicans are one of the top boring product makers. If I am not already a big fan of experimental cinema, the mexican one is for me extremelly tedious and hollow. And this year at the Sitges Film Festival 2016 we got 2 under this labels of experimental fantastic that I couldn’t help but abhorrence, Tenemos la carne (2016) and the one I will talk about now, Las Tinieblas (aka The Darkness).
First of all, I must point out that the 2 movies mentioned before, besides the country of origin, pretentious style and the errant of the plot, they don’t have much in comon. And second of all, although I will try to be as objective and fair as possible, I didn’t enjoy Las Tinieblas at all, not one single bit; so the review is going to be very negative but it’s only my personal point of view.
Las Tinieblas is a low budget mystery thriller that plays with the unknown. The kind that suggests more than shows. It takes a lot from the plot and final twist of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village (2004), only that in this case there is no subjacent story or interesting happenings at all, only tedious father and kids daily habits.
Director Daniel Castro Zimbrón depicts the monotony of the lifes of the characters in the film by creating a very monotone scheme, where nothing happens. And then, when it happens, it’s dealed extremelly dull and uninteresting. The behaving of all the characters, specially the father, is dumb and implausible for people with a minimum amount of common sense. One can believe how the kids are always put down by the father’s commands, but the global course of the events is not credible at all. The character of the father is one of the biggest bigots I have seen in a long time. Kind of ironic how he is played by Brontis Jodorowsky, son of Alejandro Jodorowsky, world wide known as one of the most obnoxious, vain and stuck up figures in moder time arts.
It is hard to think of one single thing that could be worth to save in this film. The landscapes of the woods in cold winter grey might be the only visually pretty in the film, but the photography is made so apathetic that even that even that fades in oblivion. Lighting, music and editing are another tool for boredom, bringing no originality at all and only creating an atmosphere of constant boredom and uninterest. Everything that could be used to create a feeling of thrill, danger or mystery is wasted into dullness here.
If you like slow pensive movies, you don’t mind to see all cliches, and you don’t demand at least a little bit of liveliness in a film, perhaps you can enjoy Las Tinieblas (aka The Darkness). But for me it was an absolut waste of time and in fact it makes me sad that films like these exist and actually make it to festivals. I honestly see no point in it. But I guess there should be a little something for everyone…
RATE: 1/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4935746
