
Since her father's death when she was a child, Kit Gordy has grown into a troubled teen to the disgust of her mother Ginny and her stepfather Dave Dabrowski, Called to the principal's office of her high school and accused of a failed attempt to burn it, she is expelled, but Dr. Heather Sinclair, member of the staff of the Blackwood Boarding School, appears to offer her a place in the next school year. Ginny enlists Kit against her will in an attempt to reform her daughter, an... (Full plot summary below)
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Since her father's death when she was a child, Kit Gordy has grown into a troubled teen to the disgust of her mother Ginny and her stepfather Dave Dabrowski, Called to the principal's office of her high school and accused of a failed attempt to burn it, she is expelled, but Dr. Heather Sinclair, member of the staff of the Blackwood Boarding School, appears to offer her a place in the next school year. Ginny enlists Kit against her will in an attempt to reform her daughter, and Kit travel to Blackwood, an isolated, dark old mansion in the middle of a forest outside the city. There she meets her companions: nice Izzy, shy Ashley, reluctant Sierra, and borderline Veronica, teens as troubled as herself. During dinner, Kit and the others meet Blackwood's headmistress, Madame Duret, and the rest of the staff: Professor Farley (math); Jules Duret (music); Heather Sinclair (arts); and Mrs. Olonsky, Madame Duret's rude right-hand peacekeeper. Locked in a place without Internet, cell phones, or any other trace of modern technology, Kit watches as everyone changes in strange ways: Izzy develops an extreme obsession for mathematics, Sierra for painting, Ashley for writing, and herself for piano; meanwhile, Veronica seems immune to obsession. Trapped between strange memory gaps and her love interest in Madame Duret's son Jules, Kit asks Veronica's to discover the reason for their different changes. They investigate the forbidden, ruined wing of Blackwood and discover that all of them--Izzy, Ashley, Sierra, Veronica, and Kit--have one secret in common, and that previous students suffered a horrible fate caused by Blackwood's supernatural forces, and it will be their fate as well unless they find a way to avoid it.
Leave your thoughts about Down a Dark Hall.
| El Pais (Spain)Javier OcañaThe most interesting part of the show is its base, and its artistic sensibility. [Full Review in Spanish] |
| New York TimesTeo BugbeeWith each new element, Down a Dark Hall reveals itself, with improbable delight, to be genuinely strange — a movie in which viewers can pick their own pleasure, no two spectators having exactly the same experience. |
| El Mundo (Spain)Luis MartínezIt is cinema that's offered as a rite of passage between two worlds, between the real and the other, between youth and death. [Full review in Spanish] |
| Blu-ray.comBrian OrndorfDuncan supplies an enjoyably bizarre reason for hellraising, and Cortes almost finds a way to sustain weirdness for 90 minutes. |
| Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaIt's a smart, well-crafted tale that is thoroughly contemporary, yet somewhat old-school in that it doesn't go for cheap shocks. Instead, the emphasis is on mood, atmosphere and some sharply etched characterizations. |
| One Guy's OpinionFrank SwietekThe mood is agreeably creepy but the plot grows increasingly silly. |
| The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckIts elegant subtlety feels refreshing in this era of over-the-top horror films. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreThurman, oily accent dripping with menace, is no Disney villain here. She’s real world dangerous, vulpine, callous, keeping supernatural secret threats from her pupils. |
| Los Angeles TimesKimber MyersBased on Lois Duncan’s gothic young adult novel, Down a Dark Hall is entry-level horror for teens. The scares might not satisfy those old enough to vote, but it should provide mild chills for its target audience. |
| The Movie CricketSean P. MeansThe Gothic haunted-house thriller Down a Dark Hall is loaded with atmospheric chills, in service to a story that goes from labored tedium to full-tilt crazy - but not enough of the latter to make up for the former. |