Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2011)
Don’t Be Afraid of
the Dark was one of the few horror movies I’ve actually wanted to see this
year. I love big old houses with a disturbing past and the premise of creepy
little creatures going after a child seemed pretty promising. The trailer even
managed to freak me out with that infamous what’s-hiding-under-the-bed-sheets
scene, not to mention Guillermo del Toro’s involvement in the film.
I have never seen the original made-for-TV movie the film is
based on, but hopefully I’ll be able to track it down one of these days and
give it a viewing, though I hear it is pretty cheesy. Still, I had somewhat
high hopes for this reboot, even though Katie Holmes was in it (not a big fan
of hers). This past weekend I escaped the cruel end-of-summer heat to seek
refuge in a near-empty theater to give Don’t
Be Afraid of the Dark a looksie. Now, I had been looking forward to this
film for quite sometime, so I purposefully didn’t read any reviews of the film and
tried to avoid all whispered opinions of it prior to my viewing. I also tried
to keep my expectations in check, since horror has been such a let-down to me
recently.
The film begins with a little girl, Sally (Bailee Madison)
moving back in with her father (Guy Pierce) and his girlfriend Kim (Katie
Holmes) as they are renovating a spooky old house in rainy Rhode Island. Little girl makes some
interesting new friends who live in a hidden, sealed-up basement. Said basement
is reopened, the little creatures are set loose upon the (mostly) unsuspecting
household and “accidents” begin to occur. Sally soon learns the creatures want
to claim her as their own, but no one believes her, until Kim begins some
research on the house and learns some interesting information about the
previous tenant and how he and his little boy disappeared. Can the creatures be
stopped before they claim Sally forever?
This movie started out promisingly enough. The location was
sheer perfection and I spent the majority of the film drooling over the amazing
old house where the story takes place. In fact, I spent most of the film
fantasizing about living there! Anyways, like I was saying it starts out
promisingly enough with a jolting first scene and an introduction to our main
characters and their rather dysfunctional family. The reveal of the creepy
creatures comes very effectively as they whisper things to Sally throughout the
old house’s ventilation system, but the middle part of the film lags as it
focuses more on how Sally’s father believes her to be “disturbed” rather than
believe her tale of monsters in the house and how he and Kim are always busy
with the house’s renovations and don’t devote enough time to Sally. There’s a
bit too much family drama and not enough unraveling of the clues of the
previous tenant (a famous painter who left some rather interesting artwork
behind). I think 30 minutes could have easily been cut as the film just drags
on a bit too much.
I also thought the creatures should have remained in the
shadows more, as I found their whispered promises far creepier than how they
actually look. I also wish the film had played with light and shadows more,
which would have made it more impressive visually and especially since
light/dark is such a huge plot point. There were no real “scary” instances in
the film (besides the creature hiding under the sheet, as seen in the trailer),
which was disappointing. Sure, the whisperings of the creatures was spooky, but
it was used so often that it lost all of its fear factor in a short time (it
also didn’t help that the creatures sounded like Gollum from Lord of the Rings…“my precious!”)
However, it wasn’t all bad…I did enjoy the story (especially
the backstory) and the fantastic setting, plus I was surprised that Katie
Holmes didn’t annoy me much. The young actress playing Sally, Bailee Madison,
did a truly amazing job and I’m sure she has a very bright career ahead of her!
Truthfully, though, the film just left me lukewarm and is
unfortunately forgettable. I certainly didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it
either. The sad thing is that the film will probably fade from my memory and I
won’t think about it until I see it hitting store shelves on DVD, and then I’ll
just think “oh, ya…didn’t I see that?” and just walk on by.
!
