Welcome one and all to part 25 and a half of The 52 In 52. Each week I review one of the many DVDs or Blu Rays that have gathered dust on my shelf but, sometimes I watch a film on Netflix that I want to review too. This past Thursday I reviewed Escape Room, go and check that out.
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In this post I will be talking about Down A Dark Hall, released in the UK through Netflix in May of this year. Down A Dark Hall is based on the 1974 novel of the same name as was directed by Rodrigo Cortes (Buried, Red Lights). The film stars AnnaSophia Robb (Bridge To Terabithia) as Kit Gordy, a troubled teen who is sent to a boarding school, Blackwood Manor, run by Madame Duret (Uma Thurman). When Kit arrives she discovers that she is one of only five students selected to attend the school. Strange things begin to happen to each student in the mysterious school.
Whilst I enjoyed Down A Dark Hall, I did feel it was slightly lacking in some areas. The story itself is told well. I enjoyed the performance of the student cast but, I felt that they each needed a little development. I understand that Kit was the focal point of the story but, I would have liked to see more from her classmates Sierra (Rosie Day), Ashley (Taylor Russell), Izzy (Isabelle Furhman) and Veronica (Victoria Moroles) who all put in decent performances with their limited screen time. The story unfolds to the bizarre and pretty scary 3rd act with a great emotional bookmark with Kit and her father. Uma Thurman is almost chewing the scenery at points of the film but, she was engaging throughout even if she failed to be a scary presence.
I loved the musical score throughout the film that incorporated modern pop music with an excellent classical score that made the film feel like it was a period piece and worked well with the surroundings of the ancient school. I loved the use of a muted colour pallet throughout the film which added to the feeling of being a lot older than it is. The use of darkness and muted colours also highlighted the isolation of the school in a great way.
There was little in the way of true horror type scares throughout the film but, I really liked the change in tone of the film towards the end of the second act where there was some great use of ghost story type story telling that was genuinely creepy.
Overall Down A Dark Hall was an enjoyable enough watch with some decent character work, good story telling and a great score. Whilst not a straight forward horror film there are horror elements but, the melodrama outweighs this at times.
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