The Dark Is Rising (2007)

Synopsis:

Will Stanton is a day away from his fourteenth birthday. Will has a crush on a very attractive older girl named Maggie whom he sees on the bus from school and his older brothers tease him about this. While the Stanton kids walk home, Miss Greythorne, the local mistress of the Manor, and her Butler Merriman Lyon invite the siblings to a Christmas party. Later, two farmers, Dawson and Old George, whom Will does not know, arrive at his house with a large Christmas tree ordered by the family. The farmers know Will's name, wish him a happy birthday, and predict bad weather despite the clear sky. Will's birthday is so close to Christmas that everyone in his large family ignores it except for his little sister Gwen. The family has moved from the United States to a small English village and a brother has arrived home for the holidays and displaces Will to the attic. For a Christmas present, Will buys Gwen an enigmatic stone pendant at the local mall. Two suspicious security guards accuse him of shoplifting and take him to their office. Alarmingly, whilst questioning Will under the room's flickering lights, the guards metamorphose into rooks. They attack Will but he manages to escape, accidentally using his powers for the first time. Will begins to experience more odd incidents and receives a strange and Celtic-looking belt from his oldest brother.

At the Manor Christmas party, Will once again sees Dawson and Old George who seem to know him well. Miss Greythorne and Merriman debate about when and how to approach Will about his destiny. Maggie appears at the party and Will becomes upset when one of his older brother approaches her and begins dating her. Will leaves the Manor, and an ominous figure mounted on a white horse and accompanied by dogs chase Will. The ominous figure prepares to kill Will who is currently no match for him. Miss Greythorne, Merriman, Dawson and Old George suddenly appear and save Will in time. Merriman names the threatening figure The Rider who warns them all that in five days' time his power - The Dark - will rise. The four adults are the last of the Old Ones - ancient warriors who serve The Light - and take Will on a walk through time and space to a place called the Great Hall. Will is the last of the Old Ones to have been born: he is the seventh son of a seventh son whose power begins to ascend on his fourteenth birthday. Will is The Seeker: the sign-seeker who must dislocate six signs whose possession will grant The Light power over The Dark - and which The Rider is also seeking. Will returns home to his attic room and falls and twists his ankle. The doctor who calls is The Rider in disguise but recognized by Will. The doctor/Rider demonstrates his powers on Will's ankle by alternately healing it and making it much worse before restoring it to its injured state. Will discovers he has a lost twin brother named Tom, who as a baby mysteriously disappeared one night and was never found. Since Tom was born before Will, Will is the seventh son of a seventh son. Merriman instructs Will on his powers, which include great strength, the command of fire, the ability to move objects at a distance and the unique knowledge to decipher an ancient text.

Will returns to The Great Hall, and learns the form each sign will take. Will reveals the first sign within Gwen's pendant. As the sign-seeker, Will travels through time to find the next four signs. The Rider enlists a mysterious figure to help him get the signs from Will. When Will's brother invites Maggie to their home, she reveals some of her powers to Will. Will reveals his affections for her, saying he felt an instant connection with her. He tells her he has been thinking of her constantly. The Rider also tricks Will's older brother Max into helping him. The spell over Max is finally broken when Will uses his great strength to give Max a concussion. By the fifth day, The Dark that The Rider commands has now gained tremendous power and begun to attack the village with a terrible blizzard. Will locates the fifth sign but without the sixth sign, the Dark continues to rise. Maggie is revealed to be the mysterious witch helping the Rider in exchange for immortal youth. She is betrayed by him when she fails to get the fifth sign and ages rapidly, disintegrating into a flood of water. The Old Ones and Will seek sanctuary in the Great Hall, where the Rider cannot enter unless invited. However, The Rider's final trick (impersonating the voices of Will's mother and father, as well as Gwen) gains him access inside The Great Hall. The Rider reveals that he has trapped Tom, whom The Rider mistook for The Seeker and kidnapped, within a glass sphere. He sends Will into an evil dark cloud. As he enters, Will solves the riddle of the sixth sign: he himself is the sixth sign. With all six signs the rider cannot touch nor harm Will. Using his power over the dark, Will banishes both The Rider - imprisoning the evil figure within one of his own glass spheres - and The Dark. The sphere disappears into murky water. Will and Tom are reunited and return to their family.

Casts: Alexander Ludwig, Christopher Eccleston, Ian McShane

Duration : 99 minutes

Date Released : October 17, 2007