Ian McShane's Merriman, a pivotal character in the books, has been reduced to intoning portentously ". Granted, the script writer hasn't given any of them much to do. In this, he's in marked contrast to the adult actors who seem mostly to have phoned in their work. He isn't Cooper's Will Stanton, but he turns in a respectable performance. Probably the only bright point of the movie is Alexander Ludwig, in the part of Will Stanton. Even the quintessentially English character of the stories was apparently judged too threatening or complex for American audiences, so the protagonist has been Americanized and the setting reduced to some cutesy chocolate-box Hollywood vision of rural England. The film has none of that: the mythological aspect has been entirely excised, and the psychology reduced to the lowest common-denominator of teen alienation. Her characters are well-drawn, complex and believable, and the story is deeply rooted in British mythology. The attraction of Cooper's books is that they are both mythologically and psychologically powerful.
People not familiar with Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" cycle will find this simply another lackluster and occasionally bewildering teen fantasy film, while anyone who read and enjoyed Cooper's books would be well-advised to steer clear of the film altogether: it will simply make them angry. Movie adaptations of much-loved books can rarely satisfy the fans, but even making allowances for that, this is a deeply disappointing film. Reviewed by slam163 2 / 10 A lazy, stupid piece of movie-making
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