Without wanting to reveal too much, suffice it to say that “Dark Hall” winds up being the scholastically-disinclined teen’s worst nightmare: It turns out those old historical painters, poets, and so forth whom you found so boring in class just might be out to kill you for the sake of their stuffy, “deathless” art. It’s not until past the halfway mark that the story’s supernatural elements start becoming more explicit and malevolent. They take over their teenaged “instruments” not so much through inspiration, but more like a sort of possession - which leaves them drained, fearful, and in decreasing control both mentally and physically. These newfound “gifts” seem less than organic, however.

Farley’s (Pip Torrens) little math genius. Lit prof Miss Sinclair (Jodhi May) encourages high Romantic prose to gush forth from Ashley (Taylor Russell), while to her bewilderment, Izzy (Isabelle Fuhrman of “Orphan”) becomes Prof. Yet all soon manage to miraculously develop the “talents” Durel had promised to find in them: Her music-teacher son Jules (Noah Silver) unleashes hitherto unknown piano-playing abilities in Kit the lady herself oversees an explosion of old-school oil painting from Sierra (Rosie Day). Among them, bully Veronica (Victoria Molores of “Teen Wolf”) immediately decides to make Kit her nemesis, while the remainder are variably unstable in more fragile ways.

Durel ( Uma Thurman, sporting an indeterminate mittle-European accent), with nasty Miss Olonsky (Rebecca Front) seemingly the sole “servant” (and strongarm) in employ.ĭespite the imposing if rather dreary joint’s impressive scale, there are only four other girls - also semi-delinquent “problem” cases - attending this term. A remote, gated institution high in wooded hills, its Hogwarts-ian (but less welcoming) splendor is presided over by the imperious Mme. Mike Goldbach and Chris Sparling’s script takes some significant liberties, but Duncan’s general premise and overall arc remain intact: A troubled teen since the death of her father some years before, Kit ( AnnaSophia Robb) is on the verge of public school expulsion when her mother (Kirsty Mitchell) and stepfather (Jim Sturgeon) accept an out-of-the-blue offer for her to attend Blackwood Boarding School.

Down a dark hall book