Review: Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark Is Flawed Yet Entertaining
- May 7, 2017
- 2 min read
Written by Guillermo Del Toro and directed by some guy who has since dropped off the face of the planet, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark is as inventive as it is creepy and sports some of the nastiest rats you've ever seen.
Sally (Bailee Madison), a young girl divided between divorced parents is sent to visit her Father Alex (Guy Pierce). He and his Girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) are in the process of renovating an old mansion of which the previous owner mysterious vanished. When a sealed off basement is uncovered and Sally starts to hear voices echoing up from an enclosed fireplace, she opens it up, unleashing something locked away for a very good reason.
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark has all the trappings of a Del Toro horror. A child protagonist, a dysfunctional family and monsters that only he could conjure up. And the monsters are definitely the highlight here. Looking like a deranged horde of sentient rats, they feed on the teeth of children, are far stronger than they appear and make good use of everything from scissors to bits of wire in their campaign to capture Sally, eat her teeth then convert her into one of their own. If that isn't good reason to fear the dark, I don't know what is.
While the monsters are interesting and very Del Toro, the rest of the movie is a strange blend of Hollywood horror and Guillermo's own work. Bailee Madison does a great job of portraying a terrified girl and out acts the rest of the cast in spades. Everyone else is decent enough but feel more like the generic characters every horror movie has. Alex and Kim refuse to believe Sally, or the warnings of the groundskeeper. The monsters are mostly predictable, as is the plot and the effects vary from scene to scene.
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark is undeniably flawed, often relying on tired tropes. But it's monsters are genuinely scary, it has an atmosphere that few films ever achieve and Sally is well written enough to make it far better than most monster horror movies we see today. If you like Del Toro's work you'll likely enjoy this one.
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