Horror movies, regardless of sub genre, seem to fall into two categories: You have the slower, more methodical horror, which draws you in with eerie images and a foreboding atmosphere. Then you have quick, bloody "popcorn" horror, with jump-out-at-you scares and an impossible evil. Darkness Falls tries to straddle this line, giving you the best of both worlds. Does it succeed, or does it spread itself too thin? Read on...

The movie opens with a flame-tinted montage of heat-blistered photographs, overdubbed by an aged narrator. She tells the woeful tale of Matilda Dixon, who earned the name of "The Tooth Fairy," from the children of Darkness Falls for giving them gold coins in exchange for their baby teeth (Which no one in town seems to question.) Poor Matilda's house burns down, and she's horribly scarred. Her skin is left extremely sensitive to light, forcing her to come out only at night, and even then wearing a porcelain mask to hide her face. When two children from Darkness Falls go missing, all fingers point to her. The townspeople form the appropriate small-town lynch mob and kill Matilda to avenge the children. However, the next day, the kids are found (whoops!) and the townspeople elect to never speak of it again...

Flash forward a bit to young Kyle Walsh, digging that last baby tooth out of his mouth. Later that night, he's visited by his sweetheart Caitlin, who explains to him that when the Tooth Fairy comes, he can't peek. Needless to say, he does, which leads to his mother's death. Turns out Matilda is pretty cheesed off by that whole angry mob thing, and is gonna kill all that set eyes upon her.

Flash forward another twelve years, to Caitlin all grown up (Played by Buffy's Emma Caulfield) and talking to a doctor. Her Elmer Fudd voiced brother Michael (Who looks like every other “horror movie kid“ they're throwing out these days) has been the victim of night terrors. Desperate, Caitlin calls up her old flame Kyle, also all grown up, but quite obviously scarred by his run-in with the Tooth Fairy. He returns to Darkness Falls, and the shit hits the fan.

The movie suddenly switches gears, and becomes almost overwhelming in its speed. In a little over an hour, Kyle gets into a bar fight, is thrown in jail TWICE and has to deal with his old buddy Matilda Dixon. Matilda herself seems to have changed into a cross between Michael Myers and Jaws, snapping up EVERYBODY that looks at her cock-eyed. She's a Burton-esque pinball of rage bouncing all over the walls, black rags fluttering behind her. It's quite a shock to the system to say the least.

If the film had gone one way or the other, it would have been better, but to have a mood set up and suddenly smashed down made me feel somewhat cheated. The great, eerie beginning gives way to tepid one-liners and an almost video game-like plot, with the characters having to overcome objective after objective. Truly disappointing, because the creature design (done by Stan Winston Studios) was quite good, giving the Tooth Fairy some genuine menace, looking ethereal yet all too real.

Presentation of the movie is top-notch, it's presented in fullscreen and an anamorphic widescreen. As an added plus for all you rich guys and gals with HDTV, the film is mastered in high definition, and damn does it look good. With all the darkness in this movie, it's good to report that the black levels are dead-on. Colors are bright and lifelike, with literally NO print damage or artifacting. Audio is presented in both English and French Dolby Digital 5.1, with those surround speakers piping up loud and clear. Sound is amazingly clean, with nice ambience coming out of the rears.

Extras are plentiful, including a fake documentary titled "The Legend of Matilda Dixon," a making of featurette, deleted scenes, commentary tracks, and storyboard comparisons. Whew! Not bad for a single disc. But when your movie weighs in at a lean 86 minutes, that's no great feat.

So is it worth your scratch? If you don't let the inspired beginning lead you into believing this is anything but popcorn horror, you may enjoy it. While it's far from being a classic, there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half. And that's the TOOTH! Ha!