Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

 Today I return to the Horror/Suspense genre with the Guillermo del Toro  produced creep-fest called 'Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark'.  The film is a re-imagining of a 1973 TV movie of the same name starring absolutely no one you've ever heard of. However, the idea must have seemed good enough for someone of Del Toro's caliber to sweep in and re-write the script to make a major motion picture out of. I'm sad to say that I was not very impressed.

Guillermo Del Toro is the mind behind masterpieces such as The Devil's Backbone  and  Pan's Labyrinth, so I was more than willing to give 'Don't be Afraid of the Dark' a chance. Starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce, and also starring Bailee Madison as Sally, the little girl caught up in the madness of the ancient creatures living in the house her father and his girlfriend are renovating.

After they find a hidden cellar, Sally starts hearing the whisperings of small creatures coming through the heavily latched ash pit. They speak to her of friendship and tell her that her father doesn't care about her and they convince her to come down to the cellar and open the ash pit door and let them out. Big mistake, obviously. The creatures seem to be stalking and chasing Sally and doing grievous bodily harm to any and all who stand in their way. The rest is supposed to be a skin crawling attempt for Sally to convince her father and his girlfriend that these creatures actually do exist before it is too late.

I wanted so much to be utterly terrified of this film and its creepy miniature demons. Obviously there were several excellent scares and a few scenes where the suspense was masterfully executed. However, on the whole, it was far too much set up and not enough climax. There was several story elements about the creatures that could have been used but were not. The story of the creatures claims that they feed on the teeth of children (which is a terrifying thought) but it is never used as a plot device aside from the beginning of the movie where a man smashes out his own teeth to hopefully appease the demons so he can get his child back. I wanted more of that! But no dice.

There is always one part of a Guillermo del Toro movie that is never less than the best. The beast with the eyes in his hands from Pan's Labyrinth, all the creatures from Hellboy, and the demon creatures from Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark. The creatures are absolutely stunning. They scamper in the dark, they shy away from light, they whisper from behind your ear and they look like the most terrifying thing you can imagine.

So in the end, the movie lacked proper pacing and dragged out for what seemed like an eternity until the all too quick final attack. I liked the creatures and I also liked the acting, even so much as to say that I liked Katie Holmes. Unfortunately the movie failed to capture my full attention and failed to scare me. This movie should by all means give you nightmares and having an R rating should allow the filmmakers to be more gruesome and frightening but they held back and I think it hurt the final product.

I give 'Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark' 5 out of 10 teeth and I hope, this season, scary movies start living up to the genre that they belong in.