Dont Be Afraid Of The Dark – Movie Review

Starring: Katie Holmes, Guy Pierce

Rated: R

Directed by: Troy Nixey

A young girl is sent by her mother to live with her father in Rhode Island in and old manor, she quickly finds out there are creatures living there that want to claim her for their own.

Sally (Bailee Madison) is a troubled child whose mother in Los Angeles has shipped her off to live with her Father Alex (Guy Pierce) and his girlfriend/interior decorator Kim (Katie Holmes) in an old Historical Manor that they are restoring. Upon the discovery of a hidden basement, Sally is soon courted by evil little fairy creatures who lust to snack on childrens teeth; The creatures want nothing more than to bring Sally to their subterranean world and kill one person as is required to be released from there lair(of course this makes total sense, you break the seal on an old grate and someone must die).

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a film that starts off really strong with a great opening sequence that is cringe inducing followed by a good opening credits sequence; its after this that the film loses steam. The attempts at a slow burn are quickly thrown away once the creatures attack the head of restoration Harris (Jack Thompson) these little creatures which are a mix between fairies and gremlins, do a good number on him stabbing him with a screwdriver in the leg, in the shoulder with some scissors, attack him in the back, in the face etc with a razor blade. Although he gets worked over good this is dismissed as an accident I am not sure what type of accident can do all of this but nobody is worried about this at all. (Apparently its commonplace to almost die and get attacked by your own tools without even raising the slightest of suspicions that something might be amiss). This is just the first of many moments of disaster, there is a scene where sally squashes one of these creatures even severing its arm, rather than noticing the squashed corpse or the small arm on the floor the logical response is to of course get stronger medicine for Sally. There is a point near the end where Kim is taken down the grate hole, Alex looks down and sees a giant cave, Does he grab some flashlights (like a gremlin they can’t handle bright lights) And go after the woman he loves? Does he demolish the house as he can’t afford it so it doesn’t happen to someone else? No this daft tool lets the house go into foreclosure and lets Sally leave a drawing of her and Kim. These are tiny little creatures which at no point does anyone try to stomp on, even after Sally smashes one with a flashlight this method of killing them never comes to mind.

In terms of acting Bailee Madison as Sally is the lone highlight, I am not sure what is wrong with Katie Holmes but for the majority of the film she appears to be a lifeless corpse that reads lines, I can’t put my finger on what is wrong with her but she seems disconnected and void of personality.

I am not sure why the film is rated R as nothing in the film is beyond PG-13, unless excessively slow pacing is something only an adult can handle. Don’t be afraid of the Dark is neither scary, suspenseful, terrifying nor any other adjective that would describe a movie in this genre. I could watch this movie in the house it was filmed in, with the lights off, by myself and the only thing I would be scared of would be boredom.

Grade- 52