Dark Circles (2013)

Very disappointing...

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Very average simple horror that honestly had some very good moments. I almost wish that they were used in a better movie and weren't wasted here

Alex & Penny have just become parents to a baby boy and have decided that the city life isn't for them to raise their child. Relocating to a house in the country, the couple finds their relationship deteriorating due to the demands of caring for a newborn, including a lack of sleep. When the couple begin seeing a mysterious woman around the house, they at first dismiss the sightings as hallucinations brought on by sleep deprivation. But as the visions appear more often, the parents are forced to consider that evil is at work in their home. By the time the truth about their new home is revealed, their tenuous grip on sanity has already begun to slip.Dark Circles is another of those movies that looks good in the trailers, but after you watch it, you realise that it only looks good because the best bits of the movie were in the trailers. 1-star ratings indicate that it's Awful, but it wasn't as bad as that so I gave it a generous 2 as it's not a hideous movie and I've seen MUCH worse, but it IS extremely slow going and just never really picked up.We all know the theme has been done more times than we can count - people move to new house, a person starts seeing things in said new house, things start to escalate - but films can still be good even if they aren't that original. This one isn't original and it's definitely not that good.Dark Circles is also one of those movies where nothing is really explained until the last two minutes. I don't mind movies where you have to use your brain and piece things together, but there was not even a hint of who the mysterious person was, where she came from, or what she was doing, so you can't piece parts together if you're not actually given anything.It wasn't really all that scary either, but it did have a wee bit of suspense in it. Unfortunately, it just gets far too repetitive, so it becomes very boring after a while. It's not the worst movie you'll see but there is definitely much better of this genre out there.

Starring an unknown cast, 'Dark Circles' treads familiar grounds, with a family moving away to the rural side of the USA in order to escape the hectic life in the city. From it's chilling 5 minute opening up to its eventual climax, 'Dark Circles' presents itself as a good start to this years run of 'After Dark Originals'. With the aforementioned opening 5 minutes effectively setting the tone for what's to come, I got the feeling that this could very well be a good horror movie.With a movie like this, and a plot that has been used countless upon countless times it's quite hard to be original and I think the director (first time feature director Paul Soter) decided to sidestep that by just trying to give us as many creepy moments as possible. For the largest part he succeeds by giving us a rundown of the common and not so common tactics to scare us. Loud sounds, a point of view camera, shapes in the distance drawing near, and a very ominous soundtrack consisting of the same 4 tone piano medley all work together to give us the unsettling vibe that is so highly sought after in these types of movies.What makes a movie great though, is its story.dark-circles-3 And while it sets out promising, with the main leads openly discussing the disturbing things they are witnessing, ultimately it degrades itself by falling back into the old habits of horror. They start to distrust one another (which only serves as a cheap setup to give us some more scary scenes) and the plot moves from one angle to the complete opposite without any clear given reason as to why.It didn't manage to make me dislike the movie all together, but it took away from the experience I was having up until 50 minutes into its 86 minute total. The final resolve made me think of 'High Tension' a French horror movie which had an ending that totally ruined all that came before it.While 'Dark Circles' doesn't tread the same grounds as that one, nor did it have as much impact as 'High Tension' had, its ending makes you wonder about the logic that's being used here.Can a ghost be killed by a knife? Will it come back? What about the people who die over the course of the movie? and what about the marriage that was under huge pressure up until 2 minutes before the end of the movie? Ultimately, 'Dark Circles' is one of those movies that entertains, but doesn't manage to rear its head amongst the better horror movies. Being a virgin in this genre could benefit your experience as a viewer, but as a seasoned vet it's a case of been there, done that.To summarize: some genuinely creepy scenes, an effective soundtrack, decent acting and a very well shot movie make this one of the better entries into the 'After Dark Originals' library. But that doesn't mean it's great.

To be honest, I actually thought this movie would be one of those crappy ones. You know how the movie posters are these days. They don't portray a single bit from the movie. Just total crap. But anyway, the poster for this movie didn't say much but still I was willing to sacrifice my time and my eyesight to watch it. Just because. Like I said, it's actually pretty decent. The plot is there. You can connect the dots. The actor did a pretty good job. They are some scary bits but not over the top. The scary bits are quite predictable to be honest. But still I watched it with a blanket covering half of my face. There are some funny bits as well with the babysitter. Halfway watching you might be confused. There might be tons of questions in your head. Like for example, whether the ghost is actually a ghost? What's her story? Who buys a house in the middle of nowhere? (Although every horror movie starts with the purchase of a house in the middle of nowhere) Why can't you just move out if you're feeling depressed being in that house? Why isn't anyone going to work? But towards the end, some of your questions will be answered. All in all, this movie has the screams, blood, ghost, haunted house and craziness. Last time I checked, all of those are the essence of a horror movie. If you want to watch it, you won't be extremely disappointed. If you don't want to watch it, you're not missing anything.