The Fear of Darkness

Easily one of the best looking horror movies I've seen. And it doesn't resort to computer generated images much. It's the lights and the colors that get most of the job done here. "The Fear of Darkness" doesn't sound bad either. Both the sound effects and the music, where the movie uses them, are just fine. Not as impressive as the visuals, but still strong. Not a problem. What is a problem, however, is the content of this package. It may slightly remind you of Mike Flanagan's "Oculus" from 2013 with how what's really happening and what is only happening in somebody's head are sometimes hard to tell from one another. Only that movie had more scares. And it had a much clearer ending. One that wasn't confusing and anticlimactic. Also, with what sets the plot in motion here, Travis Z's "The Midnight Man" from 2016 could have been a prequel to this movie. But again, having certain things remain a mystery didn't prevent that movie from telling you a clear story, and an uncompromising one. Christopher Fitchett's "The Fear of Darkness" here looks very good and sounds good, but as for the story told, it is good at setting things up, exploring things, leading the viewer up to things, but when it's time for set ups to pay off and conclusions to be arrived at, there can be disappointment. And that prevents the plot of the film from reaching high enough.