but it's quickly stifled by tired attempts to jolt the audience and more narrative dead-ends. Variety praised the film's cinematography, but criticized its script: "Although director Balaguero displays a talent for spooky visuals and creating an atmosphere of quietly simmering tension, his screenplay (co-written by Fernando de Felipe) is a compendium of barely connected scenes that ultimately lapse into incoherence." Professor Ann Davies wrote that Darkness shares similarities with the Edgar Allan Poe story The Fall of the House of Usher (1893). The breakdown of family relationships (especially the father's ancestry) are reflected in the "increasing evidence of evil" within the house. Davies also sees the film's representation of a haunted house as "part of a wider Gothic mode" both in Spanish cinema and beyond, which "tap into memories and reflections of traumas that are unconfined by national boundaries." See also List of Spanish films of 2002 List of films featuring eclipses References Sources External links Official US site 2002 horror films English-language Spanish films American haunted house films Films set in Spain American supernatural horror films Films directed by Jaume Balagueró Spanish supernatural horror films 2002 films Dimension Films films Films shot in Spain Films with screenplays by Jaume Balagueró Filmax films Castelao Producciones films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Films shot in Barcelona Films set in Barcelona