Darkness Falls (2016) User Reviews

Engrossing and well put together

[howard.schumann · 8/10 · 17 August 2016]

Shot in three days with a crew of two by writer, producer, director and cinematographer Jarno Lee Vinsencius, the short film Darkness Falls, (Morkret Faller) takes us to places even the most avid science fiction fan could not have imagined. Winner of the award for "Best Cinematography" at Roswell Film Festival and "Best Sci-Fi Short" at the Outlanta Con Film Fest," the film opens in a gorgeously filmed snow-covered forest. A young woman, Melissa (Joanna Haggblom), wakes up in a snow-covered forest with no recollection of how she got there. After running from the scene and checking into a remote motel, she receives an urgent note from someone named David (Demis Tzivis) who she doesn't know telling her that he knows exactly what is happening and asks her to meet him in a furtive location.

As Melissa slowly begins to remember who and where she is, the tension completely grips the viewer and doesn't let go until the final reveal. Though the acting can be wooden and some of the dialogue (especially that of the motel caretaker) does not fit into the mood of the film, the experience is so engrossing and well put together that the objections become irrelevant and the film stands as a first-rate thriller and hopefully a career boost for the first-time director.

Anguishing and Intriguing Beginning, Surpring Ending

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 17 August 2016]

A young woman called Melissa (Joanna Häggblom) awakes in a frozen forest without recollection of her life and herself. She goes to a motel and has nightmares while sleeping; she has also sessions with a psychiatrist expecting to retrieve her memories. Two weeks later, a stranger leaves a message to her with the super of her building scheduling an encounter at the Rock 'n' Roll Café. When Melissa meets David (Demis Tzivis), he knows exactly what is happening to her and explains that they are not on Earth but in a parallel world created by aliens to study the humans. Further, most of the population is clone and the earthlings have been abducted from Earth to interact with them. He also tells that their lives are in danger and they flee to an isolated barn, where they meet Amanda (Livia Emma Tsirk) and Felix (Niclas Fransson), a man that can help Melissa to recover her memories. Who might be Melissa and what happened to her?

"Mörkret faller", a.k.a. "Darkness Falls", is a sci-fi, thriller and even horror short film by the promising independent filmmaker Jarno Lee Vinsencius. The plot recalls an episode of "The Twilight Zone" based on the story lines of "Dark City" and "Matrix". The short has an anguishing and intriguing beginning, supported by a promising actress and magnificent cinematography, camera work and music score. The screenplay keeps the mysterious situation but with flaws, since the amnesic Melissa checks in a motel and goes to a shrink without any explanation. When Melissa meets David, the fast-paced revelations provide too much information to the viewer. The greatest flaw is David that does not tell how he has found Melissa. The conclusion has a surprising ending impossible to be guessed. But despite the flaws, the short has 15 minutes running time and a concise complex screenplay. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

A Sci-fi Short That Shows Promise

[atlasmb · 7/10 · 21 August 2016]

Trying to tell the full arc of a story within fifteen minutes is a real challenge when it comes to film. It is best accomplished by way of showing, with little telling. The director/writer might be tempted to use dialogue to compress plenty of exposition into a small time window, but it's a solution that will usually fail.

"Darkness Falls" overcomes some of its reliance on dialogue with some beautiful and haunting imagery. In the first scene it establishes a moody atmosphere that lends itself perfectly to telling a story through visuals, but the mood is dampened by the expository dialogue. The story itself is a combination of familiar sci-fi tales, with an ending that some viewers may see coming. Nevertheless, this is the work of a competent director who has real skills as a cinematographer.

I have to say I found the English subtitles annoying, because there were numerous errors in spelling and grammar, which take the viewer our of the film. Correcting them would really help for English-speaking viewers.

Ends with you wanting more

[DarkVulcan29 · 10/10 · 22 August 2016]

A young woman(Joanna Haggblom) wakes up in the forest, and has memory of who she is, only to have nightmares and be pursued, the young woman really does not who to trust.

I would like to see this made into a 90 minute feature film, the director Jarno Lee Vinsencius is quite the good storyteller, he really keeps the plot interesting, and is also quite the visionary, has the scenery becomes it's own character. Joanna Haggblom(who looks like Amanda Seyfried) is such great lead, and keeps you invested in. It's a shame it was only 15 minutes. It ends with you wanting to see more. In which I hope this will be made into a feature film one day. I mean it really has potential to be something more.

This short movie is better than some of the Hollywood films that are out there.

[HarryLags · 8/10 · 28 October 2016]

Well where can i begin with Darkness Falls, this short science-fiction thriller movie has some of the most gorgeous opening credits i have ever seen in an opening of a movie, with wonderfully shot beautiful snowy locations.

There is some excellent camera work in Darkness Falls, some strong cinematography and clear visuals. That it is hard to believe it was filmed by two crew people including the director.

The film starts off with a young woman called Melissa waking up in a forest; unaware of how she got there or who she even is. Is this real or a nightmare, or is she in another world? You have to watch the film to decide for yourself.

Some of the things that happen are never fully explained but the performances are very good and the film moves along at a steady pace. There is some fantastic camera work in Darkness Falls, and some great cinematography with great visuals.

This short movie is better than some of the Hollywood films that are out there. I would love to see what the director could do with a large budget and make this film into a feature length movie.

Darkness Falls is a great little film that is worth watching and Jarno Lee Vinsencius not only directed this great short film, but he produced it, edited and wrote it, and was also the cinematographer. Jarno Lee you should be in Hollywood, you are a genius in making films..

An impressive sci-fi short.

[BA_Harrison · 14 August 2016]

Young woman Melissa (Joanna Haggblom) awakes on a snowy forest floor, unable to recall how she got there or who she is. In the following weeks, she suffers from recurring nightmares, but fails to understand their significance. When a letter arrives from a man named David (Demis Tzivis), who claims that he can explain what has happened to her, Melissa decides to meet the stranger, and is shocked to hear that she is part of an extra-terrestrial experiment to study and integrate with the human race.

Up and coming independent Swedish film-maker Jarno Lee Vinsencius contacted me via IMDb asking if I would review his sci-fi short Darkness Falls; I'm glad he did, because its an impressive little film, a beautifully shot alien conspiracy tale that marks director, writer, producer, editor and cinematographer Vinsencius as a talent to watch in the future (his first feature film, Evil Rising, is currently in post-production).

Admittedly, with a run-time of just fifteen minutes, Vinsencius struggles a little to effectively tell his tale, with Melissa a little hasty in her acceptance of David's outlandish story — a little longer, and it might not have felt so rushed. But that's a minor quibble, especially with everything looking as great as it does. From the film's opening aerial view of the snow-covered forest, to its shocking conclusion, Darkness Falls is a visual feast, Vinsencius making every shot count, with particularly good use of his frozen Swedish landscape. It comes as no surprise to learn that the film has already won an award for Best Cinematography.

I Would Love To See a Feature Film

[851222 · 9/10 · 16 August 2016]

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Mörkret faller" (2016) is a very good, atmospheric, sci-fi thriller and even horror film with great story - i would definitely wanted to see more after it ended, although i had to re-watch the very last minute to fully understand it - and on a second view i loved it.

This short movie reminded me of a great movie "Dark City" (1998) in terms of story and highly involving script which hooked me up from the first till last second. I was surprised at every corner of this story which i instantly (and like ~5 times during a movie) thought would go in one direction and it just kept surprising me - and in a good way. I don't watch many short films in general, so i can't really tell about how it is constructed, and maybe here lies the reason why i didn't gave it 10/10, because of some maybe a "way to quick" events shown here and there , but still considering if you have like ~15 min. to tell an involving story (or basics of it) - "Mörkret faller" is a great stuff.

Overall, if you like sci-fi movies in a spirit of "Dark City" and you like short stories, you should definitely see "Mörkret faller". It is a dark, kinda visionary story which strength lies in a very involving script and solid directing. Moody music also was very good as well Niclas Fransson performance which i thought was the best in it. I would love to see a feature film set in a same universe.

Great Cinematography, but a Weak Story

[tjgoalie13 · 7/10 · 18 August 2016]

Darkness Falls, the new short film by Jarno Lee Vinsencius, is pretty good. It's never easy to be critical of a short film because there's so many things to do in such a short period of time. Darkness Falls is beautifully shot, and is well crafted, but suffers from some weak writing. The major compliment of this film is that it looks gorgeous, and that Vinsencius did an amazing job lighting, and shooting this film. When addressing a short film, it's often easy to point out the bad audio, or the cheap effects, etc but this film, for the most part, avoids those mistakes and looks, sounds, and feels very clean. The only problem for me was the writing. The story does have a good amount of intrigue, but it ends up being a little too confusing at times, and flat at other times. That being said, the look of this film alone deserves recognition.

Darkness Falls

[troydg84 · 9/10 · 16 August 2016]

Although it is made to look easy here, I imagine it is very difficult to create a short film that can grab a hold of its viewer and leave them wanting more in just 15 minutes. Jarno Lee Vinsencius is the mind behind Darkness Falls and based on the finished product I believe him to be a true lover of films, like so many users here at IMDb. The plot involves themes that everyone of us have spent time dwelling on, such as: What hides in the dark recesses of our brains? Are we the only intelligent life-form on the planet? These concepts are not new to someone with a passion for storytelling but in Darkness Falls they are presented in a mad blitz and given to you piece by piece so that by its end the only thing you know for certain is that you want more.

Darkness Falls - review: Alluring

[parleon-thedon · 7/10 · 2 November 2016]

I didn't know what to expect during my viewing of this short film. Darkness Falls is an interesting short film about something mysterious.

Once the opening credits appeared, I was hooked. The music and the cinematography in this film is fantastic.

The plot is mysterious. I had no idea where the story was going to go, but I did take a guess about six minutes into the film, and my guess was current.

I thought the performances from the actors were okay (believable). Joanna Häggblom's and Demis Tzivis's characters seemed a little dead- faced to me, I didn't know if they were supposed to portray emotions or not, but they didn't, and so they looked dead to me.

Overall, I enjoyed this film for the most part. Darkness Falls is an interesting film that has great cinematography and a mysterious plot. Darkness Falls will hold your attention till the very end.

Final Grade: B

Pretty Shots and That's It

[SquigglyCrunch · 3/10 · 14 August 2016]

Darkness Falls is a short film following a woman who wakes up in a forest one day with no idea where she is, who she is, or what's going on, and how she eventually discovers just that.

To start the camera work was pretty good most of the time. The nature shots were pretty and kept with the color scheme really well, and overall it was just nice to look at.

As for stuff it didn't do so well, there was a lot of it. The acting is pretty wooden for the entirety of the short. Not a single performance stands out as anything but slightly below average.

The writing isn't very good either. There were often long, drawn out scenes of people standing around and talking, with little to no characterization coming through their dialogue. It was all just facts and no development. I understand that with a short film this can be hard to achieve, and maybe it was just the wooden acting, but either way I wasn't at all impressed by the writing.

And of course, the ending. It was kind of cool, but kind of freaking stupid as well. Just some dumb jump scare that's supposed to make me think or something. But with the amount of information we as an audience were given combined with my lack of investment I find there to be, in actuality, nothing to think about. And even if you do think about it, its almost pathetic how simple it is. Maybe I'm missing something, but I didn't see anything deep or extensive-think worth in the ending.

Overall Darkness Falls (Mörkret faller) is just a whatever kind of short. There really isn't a lot put into it, and nothing is really all that special. But hey, at least there are a couple pretty shots.

Beautiful shots!

[Psy-Ko · 9/10 · 17 August 2016]

The cinematography starting out is beautiful and throughout I thought the camera-work was very professional, higher then many short films. Music was well picked and fitting and sound quality was good. Acting was good, the girl playing Melissa was very convincing, hope she sticks with acting.I'd be curious what the budget on this was or if they had backing for it because the production value seems high.

The story was fun even if a bit predictable but predictable in a way that the old outer limits and Twilight Zones were predictable. They were still fun to watch. Overall I was impressed by this short film I read that the writer/director basically did everything himself which is impressive in itself. I would watch more from him and in fact will be looking for it in the future.

Feels quite familiar, but technically it amazes you!

[Reno-Rangan · 7/10 · 24 August 2016]

Very occasionally I review short films, since I got an opportunity to see this, I have my reasons to write one for it. This is a Swedish sci-fi-thriller from who seems has a lot of experience in making short films. He's definitely a multi-talented, especially from the technical area who edits, handles the camera, writes, produces and ultimately dons in the director's hat. So I liked this film, but not entirely and what those I enjoyed and those I didn't can be read in the below paragraphs.

You know, short films are for the beginners. I too had worked for a couple of them since I'm an animator and interested in filmmaking. Without the proper source like tools and decent actors, especially without a maximum push from post-production, it would go straight to the garbage. Because nobody watches the short films, if it is not for fun, it takes just one good joke to impress the viewers. That's why lots of short films are comedy, especially animation. And those who watch non-fun genre short films, they expect cleverness in them like twist and turns. So it is a tough job to make a film that liked by everyone, but this filmmaker did his best.

The film was about a young woman who wakes up in the woods without a memory of where she's and how she got there. Followed by consulting with an expert, a stranger offers to help to clear her doubts and what comes is the peak of the film where everything she wanted to know and you would be revealed.

The first thing anybody who watched it would say the photography was amazing. I loved it, especially the angles. I think they have used drones for a couple of shots. The locations were beautiful too in its limited outdoor adventure. Overall, technically the film sounds great. Obviously, in a short film it is always a minimal cast and so did this one. But they all were good, especially the one who played the character Melissa. Anyway, nobody gets the chance to give their full potential in this kind of short run.

Let's talk about the story, which I find quite familiar. I think it was a decent up until the last scene, especially the twist which is what we see in all the films when the writers ran out of the fresh idea and who uses this one. Of course you would predict it earlier itself, but due to overall film was short, it would create a doubt what you just saw. I can't blame anybody for it, because the film lacks development, neither story nor its characters, and you will be a fool to expect that in a short film where the majority of the film trying to conclude the tale since the first minute.

Like I said in my many reviews, every filmmaker and stars want to jump into a sci-fi franchise. That's the current filmmaking trend, because of the CGI revolution. This one was a simple story, involving no graphics, but a sci-fi that has the alien connection. The overall effort must be appreciated. I haven't seen the other films of this filmmaker, but he has the ability to pull the feature films at top level. What he needs is a fine screenplay and the actors and obvious the supportive production house. Other than that I have faith in his technical skills, so let's hope he makes one in the near future and I'll come back here to write a review.

7/10

Scenic and terrible

[cherold · 3/10 · 15 August 2016]

I got a private message from some filmmaker asking if I would watch and review his short. I don't know why he asked me; I'm assuming he asked people who review a lot on IMDb. Anyway, since I'd never had anyone ask me to review their movie before, I watched it. It was really terrible.

The best thing about the movie is the opening credits, which are simply beautifully shot, snowy landscapes. As the credits end, we see a woman lying in the snow. It's all downhill from there.

The film manages to shove a whole bunch of movie clichés into its 15 minutes, starting with the premise of an amnesiac protagonist. (Somehow even though she's an amnesiac she has a home and a therapist almost immediately, with no explanation.) My dad used to teach a class in science fiction literature, and students could write a story in lieu of taking the final. Most of these stories were just ideas they'd seen in other sci-fi movies inartfully strung together, and that's exactly what we have here. Most of these concepts are delivered to the audience via tedious exposition, most notably in a long, static shot of the two characters talking and talking.

The acting is quite poor. The director seems to have told his cast they should all imagine they weren't quite sure if they'd left the gas on, resulting in blank, distracted faces.

Darkness Falls isn't just bad, it's comically bad. It's Ed Wood bad, particularly in one moment where a character delivers an angry stare that had me laugh out loud.

According to the message I got, this movie won an award at some festival, which makes me really regret I didn't put my short films in festivals back when I was in college. I thought standards were higher than this, but apparently not.

Anyway, the guy wanted me to review his movie and I did. He probably won't ask me to review the next one.

Philip K. Dick meets the X-Files short.

[amesmonde · 18 August 2016]

Suffering from amnesia, confused and alone Melissa slowly discovers that the world isn't what it supposed to be.

Award winning short film Mörkret Faller A.K.A Darkness Falls, not to be confused with Darkness Falls (2003) comes from Swedish director/writer Jarno Lee Vinsencius. I was lucky enough to view a screener of this well crafted little gem, Vinsencius offers a tight sci-fi thriller short with a filmactic feel.

Opening with an aerial shot in a chilly winter setting, we are introduced to an injured girl who awakes in dusted snow white forest. Hearing noises she fleas into the night to a café with no memory of who she is. Vinsencius' offers a moody atmospheric piece which echoes the likes of Memento, Insomnia and the best of X-files, running just under a perfectly paced 15 minutes the dialogue driven Darkness Falls packs plenty in, mysterious letters and meetings, as Melissa tries to unravel who she is. The acting is first rate, the small cast have a respectable weighty presence, striking Joanna Häggblom is impeccable as Melissa and notable is Niclas Fransson as Felix.

Darkness Falls hots up when Melissa meets a man David (played by the talented actor Demis Tzivis) who knows what she is going through and they are chased by shady female agents. Vinsencius injects some interplanetary hi-jinks and effects used at just at the right moments. In addition, he throws in a twist loop ending with some impressive alien creature design from Ellinor Rosander and a sound scheme by Michael Tiedtke. With reminiscent Philip K. Dick story vibes and some DNA of my own novel The Final Version there's paranoia mysterious leaders and tracking transmitter chips. Its dark, high concept stuff, with clones and duplicate planets but Jarno Lee Vinsencius reins it successfully on a personal level.

Intriguing, well scripted, grounded short - highly recommended.

Good, intriguing, clever short

[grantss · 8/10 · 18 August 2016]

A young woman, Melissa, wakes up to find herself alone in a forest. She has a strange feeling that she is being watched. Back at home, she is struggling to sleep. Then a man, David, approaches her - he knows what is behind all this. Furthermore, her life is in danger.

Good, intriguing, clever short. Good plot development, especially for a short. The problem with shorts is that you don't have enough time to fully sketch the background and any plot development comes in a rush. Writer-director Jarno Lee Vinsencius largely gets round this problem by providing the information through dialogue and visual clues and forcing the viewer's mind to fill in the gaps.

Good build up of intrigue and tension in a short space of time. The basic plot is good enough for a feature film - 15 minutes is too short a film for something that interesting.

Not perfect though. Some of the acting is a bit hammy at times, especially towards the end. The camera angles and editing of some scenes were a bit off-putting too.

Creepy little short

[preppy-3 · 9/10 · 3 September 2016]

Melissa wakes up in a forest with no idea how she got there. She keeps having blackouts and nose bleeds and doesn't know why. Then she gets a note from a man telling her that her life is in danger.

Spooky little thriller. It moves quickly, has good acting and holds you attention. It all adds up to an ending that I didn't see coming and made me jump. Director Jarno Lee Vinsencius is definitely a name to look out for. My only minor complaint is that the very end is a little vague. I wanted to know more. That's the sign of a good movie--it leaves you wanting more. Hopefully he'll be able to get funding and do a longer movie. This short shows he's a very talented filmmaker.

Beautiful setting, compelling premise, suspicious undercurrents

[CSHaviland · 8/10 · 22 August 2016]

I don't usually review short films, because there is seldom an occasion for me to watch them. Especially 15 minute shorts… Especially 15 minute shorts with complex science fiction themes. So I have very little context, except for when I was in film school. But even my student 16mm film from 1986, which was also a complex sci-fi horror, was 30 minutes. To be fair, my film was MOS because there was too much demand on the school's Nagra and I barely had the money to print the film as it was… And my actors were just film students not real actors. But still, using my film as a basis of comparison, the cinematography of DARKNESS FALLS blows it out of the water so far it leaves orbit.

The beautiful opening shots of the winter forest were so nice, especially the flyover. And there were other moments that revealed a good instinct for how a camera's field of view can be leveraged to build anxiety.

DARKNESS FALLS is trying to convey a lot of information in a short span of time, but Swedish director Jarno Lee Vinsencius centralized that info-transfer on particular dialog scenes and lingered in silence on other scenes in order to mount tension and work on the character of Melissa. (More on her in a moment.) In fact, the mental pacing of the film accelerates from start to finish, compelling you to want to speed up the first half and slow down the second half. I think this is a natural consequence of having 15 minutes to tell a story with multiple objectives: to set a mood and introduce an askew character (the first half) and to deliver a situational back-story and final conflict (the second half), ending with a dramatic impact. But maybe it was also partially because the language is foreign to me, and I had to quickly digest English subtitles loaded with curious background information.

As you take this journey with Melissa you wonder, "What happened?" Then you wonder, "What is happening?" That leads to, "What is going to happen?" Which brings you crashing back to, "What the heck just happened?" There were shots that seemed to stare at Melissa with no action at all, and momentarily it reminded me of UNDER THE SKIN (a film which took that style to an extreme that had me wondering if the projector froze up). But Vinsencius is doing this on purpose, because there is something going on the background he wants you to see. Or to be more accurate: something he wants you to *think* you see. This makes Melissa seem vulnerable, and that generates empathy.

This empathy begs us to trust her, though, and that's where it gets clever. Actress Joanna Häggblom and Vinsencius seem to be conspiring to make you conflicted about Melissa, and not know why. It's not so much about what we see of her tale, or how she behaves… It's more about what we don't see, and how she doesn't behave.

This is a girl with amnesia, awakening in the woods with no idea how she got there. But soon thereafter she finds her way to a town and manages to rent a hotel room. We were not permitted to see that transaction. She did not even know who she was at this point, but I would have imagined she'd have found identification like a driver's license or a credit card in her overcoat. We weren't allowed to see her investigate, or call the police. Strange… So let's suppose she paid in cash and had no identification on her person and felt too frightened to call the authorities… And we move on… After the main title, we have jumped forward in time (we're not sure how far), and we see that she's paid for psychotherapy also, is living in an apartment, and apparently knows her name. So we are led to believe that some memory is coming back to her, but we are again troubled with questions. How can one have an apartment without having friends and family call or visit who would give more clues as to how she ended up in the woods? Did she not have any calendar or other means to track her schedule? Is she unemployed? If so, where's her money coming from? There was very little time in the story to address these questions, to be sure. But even a rapid montage would have covered plenty of ground. The filmmaker chose to skip certain details that would have allowed the audience to understand Melissa better, and I found that suspicious.

When the character of David is introduced, it gets weirder, especially because she seems to trust his absurd stories and even runs off with him very suddenly to the middle of nowhere. Brave girl, as I would have been afraid he may be the very person responsible for whatever "trauma" caused her amnesia and put her out into the woods like that. But she was going along with his story quite readily. Was she driven by a subconscious motivation? Some kind of subliminal programming planted in her mind? You watch and decide.

All in all, comparing this film to others of its kind, I would grade the direction with a B+, the producing and cinematography with an A+, the writing and sound with about a C+, and the acting ranging from C to B+ depending on the character. Mr. Vinsencius is clearly talented, but his persistence is what will really pay off. I hope he is able to keep up the good work!

A short with excellent directing and cinematography, but not to great acting.

[midas-jacobs · 7/10 · 9 September 2016]

In "Darkness Falls" the protagonist is Melissa, a girl with amnesia. She slowly starts to realize that the world she is living in, isn't what she thought it was...

This fifteen minute short is directed by Jarno Lee Vinsencius. Vinsencius send me a mail via IMDb, so I decided to check out his little short movie. And was it good? Well, it started of very promising and artistic, but ended in an amateurs way. The directing wasn't the problem though. Vinsencius is one brilliant visual director. From the start on I was amazed by how pretty the shots looked. And Since I am starting with the beginning I want to say that the opening credits looked very good. The mix between the snowy landscape and the dust explosion looked very artistic and pretty. Vinsencius also did the cinematography of the short, and he was also very good at this. The use of focus was done very well. Another thing I want to mention in this paragraph is that the dust explosion thing doesn't really come back. I was hoping that this would have a special meaning or something (maybe it did but it just slipped past me). The editing was a bit to quick to my taste, but it wasn't the worst thing of the short.

The acting was though. The acting felt stiff, and forced, especially with the bad guys. They didn't seem to act natural, but maybe this was the point the director was going for, because they were aliens. But still, this didn't translate well to the screen. The actor of the main character wasn't the good either, and at the end of the short, when every character is in one place, it almost feels like soap opera acting. There was one actor who stood out to me as one of the better ones, so I'll quickly mention his name. Demis Tzivis, he played David.

The sound design was quite good and the soundtrack was even better. Some of the sound design I had heard before in YouTube videos, but never in the context that Vinsencius has used it. This isn't a bad thing, because it fitted well in the situation. The soundtrack also made the movie a lot more scary, and suspenseful. Something that I also might have to mention is that the short is really suspenseful, and the suspense is handled very good. Sometimes, they cut a bit to fast, but this is just so minimum, and also probably due to a time limit. The make-up was quite obvious, and in the end of the short you can especially see this. This looked more ridiculous that scary to me. The actress her face in the beginning of the movie looked to clean to be hurt. I don't know how to put it, but it just looked to clean, this can also be seen further in the short.

The writing was one of the better parts. The story was good and original. It did seem like it was inspired by some of Philip K. Dicks work, but that's not a bad thing. Not at all. I very much like Philip K. Dicks story's and books overall. The story in this short did feel a bit rushed. If he made it just a tiny bit longer the short would feel a lot better. The ending too was rushed. It ended way to abruptly, so you couldn't really progress what was going on, but again, I think this was the purpose of the director. Even though I think that he just should have given it a few more seconds. The dialogue was good, but the line delivery wasn't. This only made the dialogue seem worse than it actually was. I had to watch the short again, and only focus on the dialogue, mainly because the first time watching I was to distracted by the bad line delivery. There is a lot of exposition in the short, but I wouldn't have expected other wise, because he only has around fifteen minutes to work with. Hence the name short movie.

To wrap things up, I'll quickly recap this whole review. The directing and cinematography were top notch, just the acting fell really short. The writing was good, with a quite creative story. And I have a little message to the director: keep on making shorts, and maybe even motion pictures, because it felt like this movie should've been one. You have an excellent style and I would like to see some more of your work, so in case you are bringing out something new, message me and I might give it a watch.

7.0/10

Very Interesting

[dcarsonhagy · 8/10 · 14 August 2016]

"Darkness Falls" is a film short which has garnered all types of high praises from various outlets. I can understand why.

The main character, Melissa, awakens in the middle of a forest. She does not remember how she got there or why she is there. The opening shot of this sequence is phenomenal. It begins with a sprawling shot ABOVE the canopy of the forest and slowly segueways into the shot coming from ground level. Amazing.

Melissa is now troubled by nightmares and a constant sense of dread so much that she is seeing a psychiatrist. Little does she know her nightmares are real and her journey of terror is just beginning.

I was very impressed with the work of writer/director/producer Jarno Lee Vinsencius, as well as the actors involved in this production. I have found out from the director he is working on a full-length feature called "Evil Rising," and I am looking forward to see his work on this scale. This short is really more of an 8.5 rating than an 8, but IMDb does not allow for half-stars. I recommend viewing for everyone. Please note this movie is subtitled.

Another world

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 30 November 2016]

Short films tend to be a labour of love made by budding filmmakers or film students, sometimes with minuscule budgets.

They tend to hit the film festival circuits, maybe win some prizes. Some of the lucky ones might get a wider audience if they are selected to be shown by a television station, others if they are really lucky might get picked up by a film executive to be turned to a feature film. This happened to Whiplash.

Usually the shorts get forgotten, a credit on an IMDb page, some of them you can view online, most of them not available to view at all and get lost and forgotten. I always wondered why filmmakers never make their short movies available on an online platform to reach a wider audience.

The makers of this short reached out to frequent reviewers on IMDb to rate their work. I understand director Jarno Lee Vinsencius only had a crew of two (including himself to make this short.)

There are some nice scenes of a snow covered forest as a young woman, Melissa wakes up in a forest. She seems to be hazy about her memories, they only seem to go back a few weeks and thinks she is being watched in her room.

In a cafe she is approached by David, someone she may have once known who tells her an amazing tale that they are not on Earth but a planet like it and that they are also clones. He would take her to a man called Felix who will give her the answers.

The film is only 15 minutes long and there are some nice shots which implies a good budget even a wonderful CGI shot of the moon (unless they got extremely lucky when doing some night shooting!) The plot at first made me think of the Swedish originated series of Humans but later leans more towards the Matrix.

The actress who plays Melissa sort of displays an alien like quality about her which fits in well with the role.

I did think some of the acting was a bit bland and maybe too many reaction shots especially in the final segment, I thought it was unnecessary and broke up the flow of the narrative.

A Pretentious Sci-Fi Short,

[lesleyharris30 · 4/10 · 17 August 2016]

Darkness Falls is a poor short film with a mostly poorly developed plot and an average cast. The lead actress, Joanna Häggblom, certainly shines in the lead role, she delivers very human, realistic emotion and, as exaggerated as her situation may be, she is believable in her performance.

It starts off as very intriguing, as we follow Melissa struggling to deal with her issues, but as we learn what is truly going on, we are overloaded with information, which becomes tedious to view. The editing is also lackluster, there are several major mistakes, such as the title opening, which comes across as unprofessional, though I understand it's an amateur production, they could have worked harder on making the film flow more naturally. While it's an interesting premise, Darkness Falls does not deliver its potential, hard to recommend it for that fact.

As Melissa begins to regain her memory, she soon realises the world around her is not exactly as it seems.

Best Performance: Joanna Häggblom / Worst Performance: Anna-Sara Kennedy

A Good Base for a Lot of Interesting Imagination

[ChrisB1986 · 10/10 · 27 August 2016]

I personally am very interested in aliens. I used to hear voices up north, actually. I thought they were real and had physical things happen to me, maybe thru the air by aliens, who knows. This short said a lot, tho. It really depressed me to see the girls turn into an alien. I really believe she seems like she's not really an alien. She was so upset when she turned into one. Maybe, "it goes to show you" also that aliens would rather be like humans, more sensitive, more colorful, different from one another. You know, at some point, we were all single-celled creatures, even Asians. In this way life may be all connected. If life started out as single celled creatures in some region beyond, it would be interesting like twins meeting to hope there is a God and intelligent life. Do we ever speak to what is all powerful as God? Or are we weak, made only to be unloved and destroyed, with no connection to what lies beyond? Do we live in our minds and in our dreams?

I personally found it nice to see people from Sweden. They seem very kind, very nice, very intelligent, desirable to befriend. They don't seem to be as cluttered as other places I've been, in ways, especially clean cut yet highly intelligent. They are also very cute and fun to be with. It makes me wanna go there.

I like the storyline a lot. It was cool seeing the forest and her waking up and going to the cafe and motel. I didn't feel alone and abandoned in the woods at the time of seeing it, but it must have been even like a symbol of relief to see her find her way into civilization. I have a small book on how to speak Scandinavian, and on the cover they show something like a Viking in a boat on the water looking into the distance at a civilization, a cartoon drawing. I really liked encountering all the people. Tho most of it was creepy, it still wasn't dissettling. Exciting.. and well done.

Solid Start, just needed more time!

[rgkarim · 7/10 · 31 October 2016]

Robbie K here with another impromptu review. This review is my first one geared towards a short, independent film entitled Darkness Falls. I didn't know much about this film, only that it was designated a science fiction/thriller and had an all European cast. So with only the thriller and a little blurb I'll take a crack at analyzing the short film.

LIKES: • True Science Fiction • Twists • Mysterious • Very Well shot

Okay, we often here science fiction and think of space, but the genre has a little more to it than that. Darkness Falls decides to go down the route of true science fiction as made famous in the books of yore. Rather than flash laser shows, hideous monsters, and over the top sequences, this film goes down a more realistic path that pushes the boundaries of what's possible to subtle limits. And the result is a story driven movie that manages to intrigue you as you try to uncover what the truth is in our protagonist's fuzzy memories.

When it comes to a movie about someone with amnesia, often we can expect some twists. Darkness Falls does not fail to deliver on a few surprises and expands upon what starts out as a simple plot. Melissa's journey seems to be so easy to figure out, but quickly takes a sharp turn that changes up the theme of the story. This happens many times in the short 15-minute run time, keeping the film dynamic and the mystery even more thrilling. And it is this mystery that is perhaps the strongest quality for this reviewer. In an independent film, anything is possible. Darkness Falls teases you during the film, trying to lead you down so many paths and keep you away from the real answer. It grabbed my attention and kept it for the most part, as I continued to wait for the answer.

Something else I liked was the cinematography of this film. The setting itself is both beautiful and twisted, very fitting for the thriller genre. Then take that setting and mesh it with filters, creative use of lighting, and some optimum angles to further maximum the mysterious and chilling energy. Finally, throw in some fantastic sound editing and musical scores to the mix and it seals the deal on the atmosphere they were trying to create.

DISLIKES: • Stiff at times • Somewhat predictable • Needed more time for the ending

My dislikes start with the acting. Much of the performances I felt were a little too stiff, lacking emotional edge and diversity. Our actors could have portrayed androids very well with their bland faces and monotone deliveries during the film. While parts of this fit well in the grand scheme of the plot, these performances could have been enhanced and brought more to the scenes. The dryer performances didn't add any urgency to the tense parts and made it difficult to connect with the characters. The exception is the guy named Felix, whose blunt emotions were perfect for his role.

Although the movie has plenty of twists to say the least, I was able to predict much of the ending. And because I predicted the ending I can't deny that I was a little disappointed with the ending. This is where a longer run time would have been awesome to solidify the finish. I'm sure the contest restrictions made telling this story difficult, and for the most part the writers were able to give us a good tale. However, the ending was rushed for me, hastily pieced together to explain the whole matter without the fulfilling effect to accompany it. In addition, there were many questions left unanswered in the short film, which also made the ending a tad frustrating.

THE VERDICT:

For a short film about science fiction, Darkness Falls has high potential to become an awesome story if it could be expanded into a full length feature. It's fantastic design, realistic science fiction, and deep mystery are the selling points of the film. However, the actors need to brush up on their emotion, some tension needs to be injected into the mix, and a deeper story that is character centered is in order to bring this film to its full potential. I look forward to seeing the future works from this director and his team and I only hope that this short film can get a pick up option to expand on a thrilling sci fi tale.

Potential not fulfilled

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 27 August 2016]

"Mörkret faller" or "Darkness Falls" is a Swedish 15-minute short film fresh from this year and the director and writer is Jarno Lee Vinsencius. He received a decent share of awards recognition and he has been in the film industry for a while already. For that experience, I must say I am a bit disappointed with the outcome here. I liked the direction and the film's atmospheric touch worked well too in this little science fiction tale, but I was never impressed by the script really or by the actors who all felt kinda stale in their performances. It was difficult to be really touched or entertained by this quarter of an hour. I also felt the final shot of the movie was pretty shocking, but it did not feel authentic to me, just shocking for the sake of it, so audiences would remember it despite some of the fairly boring moments from earlier on. I may be a bit biased here as SciFi is not my favorite genre at all, but I did not enjoy the watch. Thumbs down from me and I think one of the major problems here was that the story and characters were just too complex for such a brief film and as a result it all felt rushed from start to finish. Watch something else instead.