Susan Granger’s review of “Out of the Dark” (Participant Media/Vertical Entertainment)
In the opening scene of this supernatural scare story, a man is killed in a spooky old house deep in the jungle of Colombia, South America.
Years later, a young couple, Sarah (Julia Stiles) and her husband Paul (Scott Speedman), move into that same house with their young daughter, Hannah (Pixie Davies). Sarah has relocated to Bogota from London to help run the Harriman paper manufacturing company that belongs to her father, Jordan Harriman (Stephen Rea). Since Paul is a children’s book illustrator, he can work from home.
But then the ominous omens start. There are strangely bandaged children hiding in the bushes that surround the garden where Hannah plays. They seem to have a bizarre connection with the annual Festival of the Saint’s Children, commemorating a horrific event 500 years earlier when the children of the village were burned alive in a local church by ruthless Spanish Conquistadors.
The first mishap to befall Hannah comes when her favorite stuffed animal disappears and she gets trapped in a dumbwaiter shaft trying to retrieve it. Shortly afterward, she develops a mysterious skin rash which the company doctor cannot seem to treat. Then Hannah is spirited away, presumably by the menacing children.
Sarah, Paul and Hannah’s babysitter Catalina (Vanesa Tamayo) are understandably panicked as Jordan and the police dispatch search parties. But it’s up to Sarah to question vindictive villagers and unravel the murky background of environmental contamination and corporate malfeasance.
Making his feature film debut, Spanish director Lluis Quilez opts for style over substance, since he’s given little to work with by the trio of screenwriters: Javier Gullon, David Pastor and Alex Pastor. None of the bland characters – other than adorable Hannah – are at all compelling, which deprives the audience of emotional involvement.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Out of the Dark” is a forgettable 4, filled with grim, ghastly ghosts.
