Annie Knox moves back to her rural family home with her daughter Emily (Opal Littleton) and gradually comes to the realisation that there are light-emitting beings lurking outside and inside her house.

Annie’s ex-husband Paul (Ed Brody) and the local police sheriff (Kristina Clifford) don’t believe her and she is eventually arrested for the disappearance of Emily.

Annie manages to escape from police custody (after a cow conveniently causes the police truck to crash) and she hurries back to her house, to save her daughter and confront the humanoid creatures which are dwelling below her home and feeding on the energy of children…

Hey, this film ain’t bad.

I think the director includes one too many shots of doors mysteriously opening on their own, making it seem as if DARK LIGHT might be a paranormal-type story, rather than a tale about real, monstrous, flesh and blood beings.

The creatures we are finally presented with, which are a race of humanoids that have secretly shared the world with us for millennia, are pretty cool looking.

These things each have a single, big, glowing eye they use to suck energy from humans and they are brought to the screen via decent-looking practical creature costumes.

Director Padraig Reynolds builds the tension and the action well in DARK LIGHT, which is much more professional-looking than his earlier movie RITES OF SPRING (2011), which also had a rural setting and a humanoid creature on the loose.

Jessica Madsen is fine as Annie, David Matthews’ cinematography looks really good, the story is full of incident, and the final face-off with the creatures under the house is handled effectively.