It's very easy to accuse Hollywood of being shallow...because Hollywood is shallow. However, the bigwigs in Tinseltown will occasionally do something surprising, such as when they give a foreign director (who is most likely relatively unknown in the U.S.) a chance to make a big(ger) budget film. That was the case with Jaume Balaguero, who only had one feature directing credit under his belt, the disturbing Los Sin Nombre (The Nameless), which had yet to be released in the U.S. at the time (although plenty had seen it on import DVD). With Darkness, Balaguero was given a nice budget and a recognizable cast to make a film. Now, if only someone had brought a script.

Darkness is set in a secluded house in the Spanish countryside, where something tragic happened 40 years ago. As the story opens, Mark (Iain Glen) and Maria (Lena Olin) and their two children Regina (Anna Paquin) and Paul (Stephan Enquist) move into the house. Mark was raised in this area and is reunited with his father, Albert (Giancarlo Giannini), who is delighted to have his family nearby. As the family begins to settle into the house, strange things start to happen. Paul hears voices and witnesses scary phenomena in his room. Mark, who has a history of outbursts, is increasingly on edge and begins to tear apart sections of the house. Regina confides in her boyfriend Carlos (Fele Martinez) that she is very worried about her family. Regina soon learns that she has a right to be scared as a curse from that awful event 40 years ago has returned to claim her family.

Darkness was shot in 2001 and was released in other parts of the world as early as 2002. But, for U.S. distribution, the film became yet another Miramax/Dimension property which simply sat on the shelf, only to be unceremoniously dumped into theaters (on Christmas Day no less). And while we as film fans cry foul that we've been "denied" the privilege to see these shelved films, when they finally see the light of day, there's usually an understanding as to why their releases were delayed, and Darkness is no exception, as the movie simply isn't very good.

The problem with Darkness is a simple one: it's yet another case of style over substance. The movie looks very good and director Balaguero is able to inject a true sense of foreboding into some of the scenes. The interior of the house is all dark wood and shadows and it seems like the perfect place for something truly frightening to happen. Unfortunately, it's never made very clear exactly what that scary thing is going to be. There's nothing wrong with a film being subtle or lacking in great detail, but Darkness seems to leave out big chunks of the story. (And when this is overly-blatant in a EuroHorror film, then you know something is wrong.) We learn very little about the family and thus have trouble caring for them. (I never did figure out exactly how old Regina was supposed to be or what kind of school she attended. We do learn that she's on the swim team.) When the big secret surrounding the house is revealed, it makes little sense as it's never fully explained. We, the audience, are supposed to be caught up in Regina's race against time to stop something from happening, but as we are left out in the cold on exactly what that thing is, the effect is numbing.

As the story begins to crumble, as does Balaguero's style, as the same shot of spectral figures standing in a doorway is repeated many times and the film's rapid editing greatly resembles that of other movies like House on Haunted Hill. (Although, in Balaguero's defense, that style may not have seemed so dated in 2001.) There are two very creepy shots at the beginning of the third act, each of which seems to promise scarier things to come, but these frights never materialize and in retrospect those shots feel as if they belonged in another film. I'm glad that Darkness was finally released in the U.S., as I feel that every movie should had a chance to be judged by the public, but in this case, it certainly wasn't worth the wait.

Darkness once again has to wait to be noticed as it makes it's Blu-ray Disc debut courtesy of Echo Bridge Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source material. As evidenced by the title, this is a dark film, but never overly dark as the action is always visible. The blacks are very rich and true, while colors look good. The image is pretty detailed and shows good depth. For a budget title, the crispness of the picture is notable. The Disc carries two primary audio tracks. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2-channel track runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.0 Mbps. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track runs at 48 kHz and a constant 448 kbps. Both tracks provide clear dialogue and sound effects. The DTS track offers some rumbling bass from the front channels, but little else save for competent stereo effects. The Dolby Digital track has mild surround sound, but it's not very impressive.

For this review, I watched the unrated version of Darkness which runs 102 minutes, compared to the truncated 88 minute PG-13 cut which played in U.S. theaters. I haven't seen the shorter version, so I can't compare the two. But, I can tell you that the 102 minute version contains no nudity or gore, and, as noted above, the film doesn't make any sense, so I can't imagine what they put back in. There are a few F-bombs in the longer cut, but not 14 minutes worth. The Disc contains a featurette entitled "Darkness Illuminated: Behind the Scenes of Darkness" (4 minutes), which contains some behind-the-scenes footage and quotes from the cast and director (who speaks in Spanish). We also get the "TV Trailer" which is a 32-second commercial for the home video release.

On September 11, 2012, Echo Bridge Entertainment in conjunction with Miramax released a double-feature Blu-ray Disc with Darkness and Below.

The story of Below takes place upon the submarine USS Tiger Shark, which is patrolling the Atlantic Ocean during August, 1943. The boat receives orders to rescue survivors floating adrift on a raft. They arrive to find a badly burnt man, a man named Kingsley (Dexter Fletcher), and a woman named Claire (Olivia Williams). Supposedly, it's bad luck to have a woman on-board, but commanding officer Lt. Brice (Bruce Greenwood) assures Claire that she'll be fine.

But, things aren't fine for long, as the sub is soon being pursued by a German ship. As the men fight to keep the sub in one piece, Claire begins to suspect that something strange is going on aboard the Tiger Shark and that she's not being told the whole story, even by Ensign O'Dell (Matthew Davis), the one man who seems trustworthy. Claire's suspicions come to fruition as many odd things begin to happen. Are these occurrences the result of anxiety, bad air, or is there something else on-board the sub? As Claire learns, a submarine is no place to keep secrets.

I've heard Alien described as a haunted-house film set in space. (Although, there obviously weren't any ghosts in that film.) Below introduces a similar conceit by turning the haunted house into a submarine, and then sticking it on the bottom of the ocean. But that label is far too constricting. Below combines some elements of a horror film (and does contain some good scares), while also playing as a drama and an action/adventure. The film introduces the audience to interesting characters, puts them through some rigorous paces, and then lets us question their sanity. Director David Twohy (Pitch Black) and writer Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Pi) have crafted a tightly-knit film that will keep the audience on edge until the end. (Including the most suspenseful depth-charge scene ever in a sub movie.)

The great story is only made better by the fine acting. Bruce Greenwood, known to most as JFK in Thirteen Days, is fantastic as Brice, a career-Navy man who is carrying a dark secret. Despite the fact that he looks just like Cary Elwes in some scenes, Matthew Davis is able to go toe-to-toe with Greenwood and is in most of the scenes in the final act. Speaking of look-alikes, Holt McCallany, who plays the dubious Lieutenant Loomis, bares a strong resemblance to Biff from Back to the Future, but he brings a tough air to his role. Finally, it's Olivia Williams who serves as the conduit to the audience and she basically carries the film. While she's been good in past roles (Rushmore for one), she shows that she can be very strong in Below.

Those of you who enjoy searching for "diamonds in the rough" should love Below. I can't imagine what Dimesion/Miramax was thinking when they dumped this film into theaters with basically no marketing (where it earned a little over $500,000). The movie is definitely worth seeing, as it offers thrills and chills in equal amounts.

Below decides to dive, dive, dive onto Blu-ray Courtesy of Echo Bridge Entertainment in conjunction with Miramax. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 20 Mbps. (The box states that the framing is 1.78:1, but it doesn't look all that different from the film's OAR of 1.85:1 to me.) The image is sharp and clear, showing only a hint of grain and no notable defects from the source material. The movie has an overall muted look, but the colors look fine, most notably flashes of red. The image is never overly dark or bright. The picture has a nice amount of detail, but it is a bit flat when compared to other Blu-rays. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.1 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The audio certainly has presence and the track shows off nice stereo effects. The audio is detailed and we can pick out individual sounds. However, a movie like this, with so many scenes which are about sounds inside and outside of the sub, really benefits from a 5.1 track, as was found on the DVD.

The Below Blu-ray Disc contains only two extra features. "The Process" (12 minutes) is a very well-made segment, which contains many nice graphics and is well-edited. This piece consists mainly of clips from the film and behind-the-scenes home video shot by Twohy. However, it doesn't contain any interviews or the standard plot explanations that we've come to expect from featurettes. The title, "The Process", makes me wonder if there weren't other featurettes that focused on other aspects of the film (casting, writing, etc.) that weren't completed. The other extra is three DELETED SCENES which run about 10 minutes and can be viewed with commentary by Twohy. The DVD release of Below contained an audio commentary with Twohy, and stars Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Davis, Holy McCallany, Zach Galifianakis, and Nick Chinlund. It is an excellent talk and it's a shame that it's not included on this release, especially given the current celebrity of Galifianakis.