I remember the British version from 1970 as it used to be repeated on television a lot when I was a kid. It starred Michele Dotrice who was well known for the BBC comedy, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

The original was two young women cycling in rural France.

This updated version has Stephanie (Amber Heard) and Ellie (Odette Annable) cycling in Argentina. One night in a bar in a small town, Ellie dances provocatively, attracting the attention of the young horny men. There is an American man called Michael (Karl Urban) hanging about. Some of the locals seem to be aware that travelling women have been abducted.

The next day after missing a bus. The women separate after an argument. Ellie disappears and Stephanie contacts the local policeman who does not seem to be too bothered. She also keeps bumping into Michael who is eager to help but acts suspiciously.

The basic story is faithful to the original film but deviates to add some torture porn and the notion that foreigners are just out to abduct young American women.

It does not have the creepy menace of the original movie. This one has good shots of the Argentinian countryside but that is about it. The women did not even convince me that they were cyclists.

Young women are being kidnapped in Argentina. Amber Heard, who I raved about in Exterminators, was not as impressive in this role, primarily due to poor script. Two American girls venture out on their own to visit the countryside in Argentina. They stay in a small town, where Elle, the floozy of the two causes them to miss their bus. They spend the day sun bathing in bikinis and then have a split up over moralistic differences.

Elle is kidnapped and everyone in town seems to be a suspect, or at least by the soundtrack. Karl Urban agrees to help, but she doesn't trust him either. This isn't like the 80's kidnappings where the women were stripped, raped and tortured. No nudity or sex.

I would fast forward until the girls are in bikinis, that is when the action starts in this slow mover.

AND SOON THE DARKNESS was originally a highly effective, not to mention realistic, British thriller of the 1970s about a couple of hitchhikers running afoul of a psycho. This slick Hollywoodised remake shifts the action to Argentina and on a bigger scale, as a couple of tourists find themselves running afoul of a sinister mini-conspiracy. It's not really a surprise to find out that this is by far the lesser picture, an insipid outing that doesn't even come close to matching the original's suspenseful nature.

Instead what we get here is slick and glossily photographed, a film more interesting in shooting Amber Heard in her bikini than building any kind of suspense or tension. There's a slow build-up and then a pay-off that pays homage to HOSTAGE in its depiction of tourists abroad running afoul of nasty locals, although the Melissa George-starrer PARADISE LOST is a more obvious lookalike here. We're in torture porn territory again, albeit in a sanitised form, and the action, when it comes, is strictly routine and plays out without the slightest bit of tension. The biggest regret lies in the casting of the great Karl Urban, who has absolutely nothing to do in his minor role.