Released in Grinch-like fashion on Christmas Day without press screenings, this 2-year-old horror film at least boasts a worthy cast and some truly atmospheric visuals to compensate for its utter inanity. Having scared up over the holiday weekend the few audience members for whom the prospect of seeing "Meet the Fockers" was just a little too scary, "Darkness" should do a fast fade to the video stores once word-of-mouth sets in. An English-language effort made by Spanish director Jaume Balaguero ("The Nameless"), the film is a standard-issue haunted house tale with pretensions.

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