DARKNESS FALLS

Keith R.A. DeCandido novelizes the upcoming horror flick

By Chris Wyatt     December 05, 2002

Popular STAR TREK, FARSCAPE and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER novel writer, Keith R.A. DeCandido takes a swing at novelizing the upcoming horror film DARKNESS FALLS. And, while the plot has some shaky parts, DeCandido pulls it off with a touch of light grace.

The novel opens in the 1830's, in a town with the unlikely name of DARKNESS FALLS...I mean, Come on! The town's founding fathers were just begging for some kind of vengeful demon to terrorize it! But, heavy-handed foreshadowing aside, we open by meeting Matilda Dixon, a pretty young bride who loves life and loves her seafaring husband. One night, Matilda's heart is broken when authorities come to report her husband's loss at sea.

Without her husband, Matilda's desire to have a family will never be realized. As Matilda grows older, she sublimates her desires for a family by doting on the children in the town. Every time a child looses a baby tooth they take it to old lady Dixon on top of the hill. In exchange she gives them cakes and treats.

Fast-forward to 1990 where children learn rumors of about the rest of Matilda's story. Urban legend says that the tradition of the giving gifts for lost teeth was actually started by Matilda. So, Darkness Falls is famous for being the birthplace of the tradition of the Tooth Fairy. But, that's not all...

It seems that once, a pair of kids on the way to see Matilda never showed up. Matilda was blamed for the lost children. A mob dragged the old lady out of her house in the middle of the night, and hanged her on a ship's yardarm. Shortly later, when the two children showed up as safe and sound, the mob realized that they had killed an innocent woman.

Oops! Talk about a faux pas!

It stretches believability that town's people, without any evidence whatsoever, created a posse to destroy a single elderly widow who had a history of Christian generosity. "Some children are missing? Quick! Let's kill the Tooth Fairy!" ...But hey. I guess we all make mistakes.

Anyway...the children in 1990 come to suspect that Matilda, the original Tooth Fairy, was coming back to reap her vengeance on the reactionary town. (Can you blame her for being a little peeved?)

The novel jumps back and forth between time periods before ultimately winding up in 2002, where one of the grown up children from 1990 returns to Darkness Falls in hopes of stopping the Tooth Fairy before she kills again.

In a generous mood, one could refer to the plot of DARKNESS FALLS as classic and old school horror. In a less generous mood, one could call it familiar and predictable. But the plot problems are unlikely to be DeCandido's fault. When adapting someone else's story, a novelist's hands are often tied.

DeCandido's real contribution is his engaging, lightweight, page-turning sensibility that makes the story move so quickly that you don't realize how one-dimensional some of it is, until it's already passed. Top grades to DeCandido for handling the story with aplomb.

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