Kit Gordy is a young girl who has just joined a new school, Blackwood Boarding School. There, she starts to note mysterious things till she uncovers a shock truth that the headmistress has supernatural dark powers. And she finds herself involved in a dangerous situation against her.
Moody and creepy, this Gothic thriller is admirable in its effort to achieve subtle scares but ultimately too tame to truly thrill - though it does feature a reasonably satisfying finale.
The over-the-top acting and unconvincing special effects, along with the lack of any true element of horror, make the film difficult to watch at times.
Rodrigo Cortés' mild supernatural mystery often feels like an incomplete genre exercise; one that reluctantly tiptoes around its "Suspiria"-for-teens premise.
Ultimately, Down a Dark Hall falls victim to familiar teen horror tropes: a brooding lead with a heart of gold, predictable jump scares, wincingly bad romantic tension, and obvious villains.
With each new element, "Down a Dark Hall" reveals itself, with improbable delight, to be genuinely strange - a movie in which viewers can pick their own pleasure, no two spectators having exactly the same experience.
