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Film: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Year: 2011
Director: Troy Nixey
Writer: Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins
Starring: Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and Bailee Madison
Review:
This film begins with a maid working upstairs of a big house when she’s summoned by a bell. She looks frightened and goes into the basement. Hiding in the shadows is a man and we see he has set a trap for her. After a scene that made me cringe, he offers her teeth in a little plate in a hole in the wall. We hear some ghastly whispers saying things and the offerings aren’t wanted. They kill the man.
Next we come to a young girl on an airplane; she is played by Bailee Madison. She doesn’t look too thrilled to where she is. On the ground is a couple who work together, the woman being played by Katie Holmes and the man by Guy Pearce, with Pearce being her father. He tries to joke with her and she isn’t having it. Holmes also tries to win her over with a teddy bear, but that doesn’t either.
We get from the car ride that Madison is fairly self-sufficient. An alarm on her watch goes off and she takes a pill. We also learn soon after that Pearce is struggling professionally, so the house they live in and are remodeling, he needs it to be a great restoration that lands him on the cover of a magazine. We also find out that most of his money is wrapped up in it.
That first night, we begin to hear the whisperings that the man from the beginning did. They know her name and want to befriend her. When she finally hears them and listens to what they say, she tries to tell her father, who doesn’t believe her. The little creatures then try to continue to discredit her, bringing her ever closer. Will Pearce or Holmes learn the truth before it is too late for Madison?
I was slightly disappointed in this film. I thought it was going to be scarier than what it was. With that being said, I still think it was good. The concept is good in that mythical creatures kidnap children and eat their teeth, while making them join their ranks. I was a bit disappointed that they were little creatures and thought it would be more ghosts than what they were.
The acting is solid. I had no complaints about the 3 stars, Holmes and Pearce give what they usually do and actually Madison has a tough role to play as the little girl who has her head filled with things by her mother about her health and does a great job at trying to prove she is telling the truth with everyone blowing her off.
With that said, I would still give this one a viewing. I came in thinking this was going to be the best horror film I saw in a while, which it was not. It is still a decent one to watch and not horrible by any stretch. It has a creepy feeling of not being able to get away, which has a depressing tone with it, with the atmosphere and the monsters themselves. Not a bad film at all.
My Rating: 7 out of 10