Movies In Brief
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

INNOCENT VOICES
R, 120 minutes
Luis Mandoki’s new film, “Innocent Voices,” highlights a doubly cruel perversity of war – when children are forced to fight, both their lives and their souls may be lost amid the hatred and brutality.
The film takes place during the El Salvadoran civil war of 1980-92, when children were routinely forced into conscription at age 12. Based on the life of screenwriter Oscar Torres, the story is told from the perspective of Chava (Carlos Padilla), who lives in a village that sits between government forces and those of the rebel group Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.
As his 12th birthday approaches, Chava witnesses the sanctuaries of his childhood being successively violated amid the daily atrocities of war. Bullets tear through the cardboard-thin walls of his home, forcing Chava and his family under their beds. His mother, though doting, is sadly incapable of protecting her children from the ever-present dangers. Government soldiers storm the school to abduct future soldiers, and compel the principal to read off the names of those older than 12 in a sickening parody of roll call. The village church also becomes part of the battleground, and the priest is afforded little regard for his position; he is beaten before the altar and ultimately apprehended.
El Salvador, a country of deep greens and rolling hills, is beautifully shot by Juan Ruiz Anchia, creating an underlying tension between the paradisal nature of the location and the hellish torment of war. Looking at the war through Chava’s eyes proves remarkably effective. Between and sometimes in the moments of terror, the boy and his friends are shown at play, giggling and teasing. But while these lighter moments make the war momentarily disappear, they also make moments of loss – of life and of innocence – almost too awful to bear.
– Kevin Lam
THE DARK HOURS
unrated
‘The Dark Hours” begins promisingly enough, but soon derails into a sea of poor writing, obvious turns, and adorable Canadian accents. The result is a psychological horror flick that is neither compelling nor scary.
Paul Fox’s north-of-the-border film stars Kate Greenhouse as Samantha Goodman, a psychologist who escapes to an isolated cabin with her novelist husband and temptress sister. There she informs them that her dormant brain tumor has gone active, and that she will be dead within the year. The news goes from bad to worse when an ex-patient previously thought to be comatose, Harlan Pyne (Aidan Devine), breaks in and takes the clan hostage, right after offing the family dog (the curious pooch is always too stupid to realize he’s the first to go in this kind of movie).
Harlan is none too happy with his old doctor, whom he accuses of experimenting on him. Samantha insists such accusations are nothing more than the ravings of a deluded psychopath, but the dismissals do not convince the sociopath in question. Along with his younger protege Adrian (Dov Tiefenbach), Harlan tortures the family with a series of sadistic games, one of which is given the frisky moniker “The Scorpion.”
Mr. Devine approaches Harlan with refreshing charisma and subtlety; the rest of the cast is unconvincing and fairly bland. And while some of the violence is playfully graphic (one character is forced to take off their own finger with a pair of pliers), Wil Zmak’s script holds little tension. The twist ending will come as a complete surprise to anyone who’s never seen a movie before.
– Edward Goldberger