Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Should you be afraid of The Dark? Only if you're unfamiliar with films like The Ring and The Wicker Man or have a morbid fear of... sheep. Yes folks, we're in Wales, where New Yorker Maria Bello battles to retrieve her drowned daughter from limbo. Or something. After showing promise in its opening reels, this derivative spooker from Ginger Snaps director John Fawcett suddenly decides to stop making sense. Well acted and sometimes jumpy, it ends up being mutton dressed as lamb.

After her sterling work in A History Of Violence, Bello seems overqualified for this kind of horror hokum. Nonetheless, she gives a doughty performance as Adelle, who arrives with sprog Sarah (Sophie Stuckey) at a cliff-top farmhouse owned by her ex-hubby (Sean Bean). Soon after Sarah falls into the sea, an apparently long-dead waif (Abigail Stone) turns up in her bed. Discovering that there's some sort of supernatural child-exchange scheme afoot, Adelle embarks on a cross-dimensional rescue mission...

"IN INCOHERENT MONTAGE OF WOULD-BE FRIGHTS"

Up to a point, there's enough eerie intrigue to offset the clunky cliches (spooky lofts, crashing waves, haunted little girls with lank hair). But it looks like the editor had a funny turn when splicing together the final act, an incoherent montage of would-be frights that casts a pall over the whole film. As for the sheep forever flocking in the background, even with whited-out eyeballs they barely raise a chill. If you fancy something undemanding, or if you simply fancy Bello, then go ahead, but don't say we didn't warn ewe...