Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Fantastic!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

OUT OF THE DARK is an entirely predictable US-financed ghost story that unfortunately gains little from being shot in Colombia with a Colombian crew and Spanish director. The story feels like the usual 'Americans abroad' type tale and indeed when the ghostly back story kicks in, although it's mildly inventive, it bears too much similarity to previous ghost films like THEY WAIT, a Canadian film in which almost exactly the same stuff happens to a family who move to China with their kid and are haunted by sweat-shop ghosts.That's not to say that this film is particularly poor, because it's certainly adequate by genre standards and it refreshingly focuses on attempted chills rather than gore effects, but it's still a disappointment. Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman can do little with their predictable characters and the acting of the kid is little to write home about either. Stephen Rea stars in another 'pick up the pay cheque' type supporting role and as a whole the scary moments seem derived from the likes of SILENT HILL rather than being truly original. It's just about passable, but only if you're almost entirely unfamiliar with this entire genre of film.

Out of the Dark is a North American-Colombian-Spanish co- production with some moderately famous actors in order to make it more attractive for an international market. But in fact, it's an awful horror film made with a frustrating listlessness, hoping the beautiful natural settings and regional folklore to convince us we are watching something new-flanged, or at least, entertaining. Needless to say, it wasn't like that. The excessive number of clichés and bland characters are what mainly extinguish any tension the film could have generated, and induce to the boredom while we witness tedious supernatural manifestations such as dark silhouettes, ghostly prints and doors which are opened and closed by themselves. All that, of course, is accompanied by exaggerated musical stresses to simulate the fact that the story is advancing. The supernatural part of the screenplay includes the typical vindictive ghosts who want to rectify an offense from the past; and I don't think revealing that is a SPOILER, because it's shown to us during the first minutes in a prologue which already establishes the insipid tone of the film and the lameness of the "shocks" with which it pretends to horrify us. As for the actors, they do whatever they can in their badly written roles; they were obviously hired only for the poster to include some semi- famous names. On the other hand, I can't blame Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman and Stephen Rea for accepting a paid vacation in a beautiful Colombian region. In conclusion, Out of the Dark is a pathetic horror film and an authentic waste of time. The fact that this piece of junk was released on cinemas at my country truly made me angry. It's like the film industry has lost any interest in satisfying the audience. That's the only thing which scared me while I was watching Out of the Dark.

Not scary (often boring) ghost movie about an American family in Colombia terrorized by local spooks mad at grandpa. Gramps is a businessman so, like every movie businessman ever, he's got blood on his hands. It's all pretty clichéd stuff and not the least bit unnerving or frightening. The jump scares didn't even make me twitch. My butt was asleep by the end of it. Speaking of the end, there's at least one bit that's unbelievably corny. If you have the guts to sit through this, you'll see what I'm referring to.Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman have both done better. They have no chemistry and their work here is forgettable. Pixie Davies plays the young daughter in constant danger. While she is certainly a cutie patootie, she's not a very good little actress. She has a heavy British accent while both of her parents are Americans. Even Stephen Rea, playing her grandpa, is using an American accent. I missed it when I watched but apparently there was a throwaway line of dialogue in the beginning that said the family had been living in London. Pretty flimsy but there you go. This was the first English-language film from this production company so perhaps it went unnoticed by everybody that Pixie couldn't change her accent until it was too late to recast. Or maybe they just didn't give a flip. It's not like it would have saved the movie or anything. It's a dud regardless.

As a Horror fan, the ghost-story and haunting sub-genre has always been my favourite. As a general cinema fan, Julia Stiles has been one of my favourite actresses since 10 Things I hate About You. And then we have the privilege of a child actress taking her first steps in what might become a long and successful career! What could possibly go wrong? The answer is everything else.Yes, the acting is decent, though I would really like to see Stiles starring as a main character in a Horror film. When your favourite actors aren't usually taking part in films from your favourite genre, it's frustrating at times. Yes, little Pixie Davies is everything a passive child victim is cut out to be in such films - innocent, adorable and helpless. Here ends anything really positive I have to say.While I can't think of an example for this story being used before, it doesn't feel original or innovative, and doesn't really keep you on edge guessing till the end. The ghosts are simply not scary. The "jump scares" are predictable and ineffective, and that's really saying something, since as we all know well thought off and finely designed jump=scares work even when you're expecting them (how could a film mess up the cheapest horror trick of the 21st century?). I actually found myself bored towards the second half of the film. Me? Bored in a horror film? Never happens. Honestly. Never.I can't stress how much I wanted to be able to give a good review. Getting Julia Stiles in a ghost-story was a dream come true. But the dream turned into a nightmare, and not in a good horror kind of way. I'm painfully disappointed. Then again, my disappointment is probably due to my high expectations. If you watch this with no expectations whatsoever - you will probably enjoy it. It's good for a few scares, especially for people who aren't usual horror viewers. But personally and subjectively - ugh, what a let down...