The Guillermo del Toro produced remake of the 1973 made for television movie, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark may be one of the most disappointing movies of recent memory. It could have been great, but does itself a disservice by getting two very big things wrong.
First, it shifts the story focus to a child instead of an adult, thereby basically telegraphing to the audience that nothing really bad can happen to our protagonist. And second, it relocates the story into a version of the real world most people cannot relate to and becomes a del Toro fantasy piece instead of a paranoid thriller like the original.
Alex Hurst (Guy Pearce) is an architect who relocates his girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes), and his daughter Sally (Bailee Madison) to an enormous estate in the country as a project to get his flailing career back on track. Sally is not happy to be shipped off to live with her father and his new girlfriend at the behest of her mother. So naturally, feeling unwanted, she skulks around for a while and acts like a brat until one day she discovers a basement in the house that even her architect father missed.
While exploring the basement one day she hears voices coming from what her father tells her is an ash pit grate. Like any inquisitive kid, she opens this grate with the strength of a construction worker ten times her size and lets the evil out. Soon she’s hearing these voices in her room, and things are being destroyed left and right. And of course nobody believes Sally when she says she is innocent of the malicious wrongdoing.
From here on in it becomes an episodic and plotless affair where things keep happening and she keeps trying to prove she’s innocent and that “the little creatures” did it. And because of this structure, it’s a very slow movie, with no real story to speak of. Even the family drama that should be front a center doesn’t really do anything except frustrate the audience because these people are so boneheaded that you keep waiting for the little girl to call the police, or run away.
Guy Pearce who was fantastic in L.A. Confidential is handed an almost one note character that just begs to be punched in the face. His performance is adequate as he is frustrating, but he doesn’t get to do much else sadly. Katie Holmes, is well, Katie Holmes. She has never really grabbed me as a performer, and I wish Emma Stone was in this instead. Stealing the show of course is little Baille Madison, who does a great job giving a type of performance that is rarely asked of a child actor. Sadly none of the secondary characters do enough to really warrant mentioning outside of “Exposition the librarian” I have dubbed him, who is the cutest nerd you’ll ever see in a movie like this.
In the end, this isn’t a bad film. It is beautifully shot and well acted, but it’s disappointing because of what it should and could have been. It should have expanded upon what made the original film so creepy: we knew nothing about these things in the basement. Here, del Toro and his screenwriting partner, Matthew Robbins choose to explain it all away. However, I will give it another cheer. The ending was a nice surprise coming from a horror movie with a kid at its center. But this begs the question for me: is this a movie suitable for kids? Perhaps 13 and up. But there really is some dark stuff here that younger kids may be frightened of.
This movie looks great on Blu-ray. The film has a nice level of detail and colors are reproduced nicely, but some of the darker shots are a bit lacking in well, anything because they’re so dark! Overall, a nice presentation of a slick looking film. I must give a special mention to the design team, because this is a fantastic looking movie. As far as audio is concerned, dialogue is never difficult to hear, and the FX and music really amp things up. I admit it, I did jump once during a boo moment, but who hasn’t? Sadly, there is no commentary. I always like to listen to del Toro talk because he’s a fountain of information and just a fascinating guy. Instead we have three production pieces that you can play as a documentary. It’s decent stuff but nothing to write home about. There is also a gallery of concept art to round things out.
I can split my recommendation this way. If you’re a del Toro fan, of course check it out. His fingerprints are all over this thing. However, if you say “Guillermo del what?” I can only recommend it as a rental.
Film Score: 3/5 Disc Score: 3/5
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
