Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Sometimes a movie can be so successful in certain ways, it helps me forgive its obvious flaws. Such is the case with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a remake of a 1973 made-for-TV film (and the third remake I've reviewed in about a week) that is filled with atmosphere, strong performances, and an overall sense of unease that hovers over the theater through most of it. The source of the flaws stem from the script by producer Guillermo Del Toro and Matthew Robbins. The holes found within it are not only large enough to drive a truck through, but it ruins some of the atmosphere that the film works hard to build.

The movie opens with a sequence that does a great job of building dread. Some time in the past (it looks to be the late 1800s or early 1900s), the master of a dark, brooding mansion calls for his housekeeper to join him in the basement. It turns out that the whole thing is a trap, so that the master can knock out the teeth of the housekeeper with a blunt object (we notice he's missing more than a few of his own teeth), and sacrifice them to some unseen creatures that are lurking in the dark shadows of the room, and feast upon the bones and teeth of humans (especially children). They refuse his offering, and choose to drag him into the shadows instead. Cut to some time in the present, and we meet a sad and withdrawn young girl named Sally (played by the talented young Bailee Madison) who is being sent to live in the creepy old house we saw earlier, where her dad Alex (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) have been restoring the mansion in order to make a profit, and hope to start a new life with Sally - an idea Sally's clearly not thrilled about, and wastes no opportunity to show to her future stepmother.

The family arrives at the house, and even though it's been spruced up a little, it still looks like it was built to be the setting for a horror movie. It even comes equipped with all the usual trappings of a haunted house, including a sealed off room, lots of dark corners for the characters to unwisely poke around in, and an old groundskeeper (Jack Thompson) who seems to know the history of the house, and knows that something bad is locked within it, but doesn't do a very good job of warning the family living there until it is much too late. Little Sally comes across the long-sealed up room (which just happens to be the basement room from the opening scene), and begins exploring, when she suddenly starts to hear ominous and raspy whispers speaking to her from within a dusty old vent leading to an ash pit. She unwisely breaks off the seal blocking the vent, and unknowingly unleashes the shadowy little creatures who have been trapped within the walls of the house for decades, and are now determined to stalk and threaten Sally.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark doesn't really break any new ground in the horror genre, but first-time feature director Troy Nixey has a real talent for building subtle suspense. He relies on good old fashioned mounting dread, instead of rapidly cut "boo" shots, with the monsters leaping at the camera. We hear the whispers of the little demons from the walls and different corners of the room, we see their shadowy figures scampering just out of frame like cockroaches, and there are a couple creepy moments, such as when the little demons that Sally frees try to convince her that her teddy bear has come to life (Sally sees the bear moving on its own, while we see the shadowy creatures manipulating it from behind, trying to get her interest, and lure her closer). The movie has a great way of building upon the dread that all children fear that there is "something" in the dark recesses of their home that only they know about. It plays upon this primal fear expertly.

Naturally, Alex and Kim do not believe Sally when she starts talking about tiny ten inch monsters that seem to be repelled by the light, and drawn to dark places. Alex has the role of being the character who constantly makes bad decisions and refuses to listen to reason, so that little Sally can be in danger for as long as possible. As for Kim, she begins to soften up and believe Sally eventually, especially when she does her own private investigation on the house itself, with the help of a local and friendly "exposition librarian", who knows a lot about the old man who lived in the house decades ago. It's also right around this time that we finally get a good look at the monsters tormenting Sally, and naturally, the big reveal can't hold a candle to the mystery that the movie so expertly sets up. No matter how advanced the CG, it can't stand up to the terror of the unknown.

I am recommending the movie because, despite the fact that the material is well-worn, it's executed well enough here. Still, certain things bugged me while I was watching the film. I did not like the way that the characters were forced to suffer a sudden drop in I.Q. in order to make the plot keep moving on at certain times. The plot is motivated entirely by the actions of the characters, but a lot of those actions sometimes make absolutely no sense. These are characters who know they're in a horror film, and fill the required roles of poking around in places they don't belong in an artificial way. They're doing it because the script tells them to, not for any logical purpose. All of the actors in the cast are giving the material their all, but the material doesn't always return the favor.

Those who are expecting a fast-paced thrill ride are likely to be disappointed with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. This is a deliberate slow-burn Gothic thriller, and for all its flaws, it still manages to leave you feeling a little uneasy at times. In a strange way, the film reminded me of the animated film Coraline, since both films feature young girls discovering dark secrets within a dreary home. This film, however, is rated-R, and is certainly not for young kids. There is a certain spooky innocence to the film that I kind of liked. It's an old fashioned horror story, and it manages to create some memorably spooky images, which is more than I can say for a lot of recent horror films.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

0 comments