Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

2010 "Fear is never just make believe."
5.5| 1h39m| R| en| More Info
Released: 06 November 2010 Released
Producted By: Miramax
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.dontbeafraidofthedark.com/
Info

A young girl sent to live with her father and his new girlfriend discovers creatures in her new home who want to claim her as one of their own.

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Director

Troy Nixey

Production Companies

Miramax

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Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Audience Reviews

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GamerTab That was an excellent one.
NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
fedor8 A fairly sadistic and brutal opening scene, especially for what is basically a commercial horror flick with a little brat in the lead role. However, it gets comparatively tame after that. The premise of vicious little monsters who talk like Gollum is cute and fun, but the plot is quite undisciplined, the writer simply ignoring loose ends in order to move the story forward. For example, after the fat Aussie is attacked, neither the cops nor the Pearce are even a tiny bit curious about how you can "accidentally" get stabbed in several places with sharp objects just by working in a house. Nor do we find out whether Pearce and Holmes are shown the Polaroids that the brat made during the party in the library. The ending makes little sense: Katie Holmes's voice van be heard whispering to the little Gollums. So did she become one of them? Why and how?
Dave_douell Whether the monsters were real or not doesn't matter. Their daughter was obviously terrified to remain in the house. Either leave the house or send the poor little girl back to her moms. But no, let's make sure she is psychologically scarred permanently! Overall it was a cute movie. More of a family movie, at least for older kids, than it is a horror movie. The creatures just aren't that scary. Looks like you could kick them across the room or twist their little necks!! Very similar to other movies but worth the watch. The little girl was very impressive with her acting, better than a lot of adults!
canemone115 I feel I have to give this film a 10/10 because I really like it and to balance all the negative reviews. It astounds me how often bad movies become popular and good movies are overlooked, until decades later when they are rediscovered and people come to their senses. This movie is chilling. The set is gorgeous, the house is a character in itself, it adds to the exposition and the action. However, I would say the house itself is not evil, it is merely a doorway, so it balances the real evil with a foundation of a good solid home built from love but tainted by the evil seeping out through it. The actors are great. Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes are no amateurs and the little girl who played Sally did a great job too. The characters are relatable, fallible, heroic. The creatures are very creepy! What an awesome idea to make an evil version of the tooth fairy. Ingenious. They are well animated and I like how they also have individual characterization--you can see which one is the painter and which his son--so their is continuity in the story there. I think the idea that they try to lure the girl to them and separate her from her parents by suggesting she isn't wanted and then turn violent when it doesn't work is good writing. It's a story progression, not just mindless action. The tooth fairy angle is, to me, not at all far fetched considering humans have been sacrificing themselves and others to deities for centuries and I appreciate the Norse/Scandinavian tie in with the lore and runes above the hole. The part with the pope making an agreement with them to take teeth and leave silver is also a brilliant touch. Many of us gave teeth to the tooth fairy when we were kids, we never saw her, how do we know what "she" was? (Of course I know the reality but let's imagine her personification instead.) The ending is great. It is both heroic and tragic and I find that most memorable horror movies have tragic endings. However, I like that it is colored with just a bit of good in that Holmes's character sacrifices herself for Sally who she just met. What is so unsettling is how quickly this heroic character is twisted to evil, eager to help the group capture and kill their next victim, and that her sacrifice may have saved Sally but did nothing to stop the persistent cycle of death. The music. Has no one noticed how great the music is? There are a couple of solid memorable themes and the music is quite well composed, meaning it is more classical or complex than other horror movie scores. It also is used to great effect at the right moments and really puts the viewer on edge. Some of the "gags" in the movie are really unique. Like when the creatures try to stab Pearce's character in the eye when he looks through the keyhole and just miss. That's something I've not seen elsewhere and it is just chilling and tense. The first scene with the maid is also very disturbing and memorable largely due to the sound of the metal chisel scraping on her teeth. The sound designer or whoever is in charge of inserting such things should be complimented there.Overall, the film offers a great mix of action, some gore, a couple jump scares, solid acting, a unique well written story, creepy monsters, a beautiful setting, and an ending that is an appropriately unsettling balance of triumph and despair.
GL84 After moving into a new house in the countryside, a young girl discovers the area home to a race of diminutive beings who need to feed on human teeth to survive and must convince her parents to help her stop them.This is quite a decent enough effort that does have enough going for it to make it work. The main thing going for this one is the fact that house itself is used to build the kind of atmosphere and presence that gives this a rather impressive amount of suspense throughout this. By being the kind of location that can accurately keep the creatures hidden so well as it does here by utilizing the darkened hallways, light-less rooms and generally creepy layout this gives off, it has the perfect hiding locations to allow the creatures to stay a rather impressive force by having them know the lay-out so that there's an advantage to them that's not available elsewhere. That gives this a few rather impressive attack scenes throughout this with there being the basement brutalizing and the ambush in the bathroom to give this a rather spectacular air about it to having the kind of action required to stay invested here. As well, the final half which is the assault on the dinner party and the guests there is quite a bit of fun and really works quite well, helped by the swarm of creatures there but also managing to get plenty of high-end spectacle coming from this so it all works out quite well. These do help somewhat to overcome the few flaws in here, though nothing overcomes the factor of having the father be so utterly clueless and careless towards his daughter's claims. The blatant dismissals here generally feel solely there to provide an excuse to stay in the house and keep the plot rolling along rather than out of any general kind of rational behavior on his part, as the kind of sequences ushered throughout here are far more worthy of investigation on his part and these are brushed off quite simply to move the plot along so these are quite unbelievable. As well, the constantly-changing tone of the creatures here is somewhat confusing, since it gives them a reverence and feel towards their behavior and general appearance that reads more like a fantasy than a straightforward horror effort so there's a rather alarming clash against the brutal and vicious actions they undergo here. It doesn't help the CGI looks atrocious and off throughout here as they rarely interact well with their surroundings and the size changes throughout, but when they have a whimsical attitude towards someone here only to suddenly swarm them with knives and surgical tools to violently begin hacking them to pieces, it's differing moods is a big problem. Otherwise, this one isn't so bad.Rated R: Violence, Language and continuous children-in-jeopardy.