I'm not even sure what the word hokey actually means but I'm pretty sure it can be applied here. Then again it's a good sort of hokey.

Grieving parents, barren landscapes, ancient superstition – all the major food groups are represented but while The Dark appears to channel more horror movies from the past than one cares to recall it does have something fresh to say.

Its just a shame that its not quite said clearly enough.

Fair enough, the scares are as prevalent as they are frightening but its very much a law of diminishing returns.

The first will undoubtedly throw any audience over the back of their multiplex seats, perhaps the second and third will do the same.

By the time we get into the high double figures though it seems that even the Meg Ryan crowd will have tired of the lightning fast flashes and ear bleeding sound effects.

This is perhaps the film's biggest weakness – a lack of confidence in its own ability to genuinely unsettle.

Director John Fawcett, along with composer Edmund Butt and cinematographer Christian Sebaldt, do create a legitimately creepy atmosphere.

What lets it down is the apparently constant need for immediate resolution. Like a waveform, the film never manages to maintain any plateau of intensity.

It seems rather to be concerned with either building up to an obviously-timed scare or else allowing the audience a long, clear breath of relief afterwards.

Where some areas of the story are crying out for drawn out sequences of unbearable tension instead we get yet more ear candy from the foley department.

It is perhaps the filmmakers' valiant attempt at creating the "rollercoaster ride" that reads so well on posters when perhaps the possibility of a lastingly effective horror movie was within their collective grasp.

Tim Postins