A little bit of ambiguity can be alright. If you’re David Lynch, a lot of ambiguity can be alright. But too much of it sinks the ship. There’s a tad too much of it in DARK TOUCH. A few too many questions left unanswered. As a result, the story suffers.
The premise is gripping: a little girl, sexually abused by her parents (or so it is strongly implied), has a poltergeist. The poltergeist kills said abusive parents. (Good for it.) Then the little girl goes to live with some family friends who had a young daughter themselves. This young daughter died some few years earlier, and may or may not have suffered abuse herself at the hands of *her* parents. The fact that you are never told one way or the other comprises the movie’s biggest weakness.
Then the little girl realizes she inadvertently controls the poltergeist, then she gains full control of it, then she transforms into Carrie, only a more powerful and more deranged younger version of Carrie. Then she starts killing kids and the movie feels like a completely different story than the one you started out watching, and you don’t really understand her motivations at all. The poltergeist acting in defense of an abused kid idea is so compelling, but the film never really cashes in on it. Vagueness is not what was called for with this project, but vagueness is what was delivered. Grade: C.