The Alternative Press

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a remake of a 1973 TV movie. I must confess I have never seen the original telefilm. But television, like literature and the stage, is a different medium from motion pictures. So on its own merits, does Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark succeed on the big screen? Well, Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins’scenario is flawed but on the whole, it’s an effective cinematic shocker.

An aura of despair pervades the main characters even before they encounter supernatural horrors. Alex (Guy Pearce) is a struggling architect in financial doldrums. His one hope to revitalize his career is a decrepit Rhode Island mansion he has relinquished his remaining savings on. If he and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) can refurbish the place and make it attractive and hospitable, it might win Alex the cover of Architectural Digest.

Moving in with the couple is Alex’s young daughter Sally (Bailee Madison), having previously lived with his divorced wife in Los Angeles. Sally’s mother, Joanne, whom we only hear in a telephone conversation, has excessively wet nursed the girl, making her a neurotic and withdrawn soul constantly taking Adderall and rejecting any food containing gluten. Understandably, she is wary and hostile toward Alex’s girlfriend. Kim in turn is troubled by Sally’s resentment; she wishes to create a bond with the troubled child since her father is too occupied with the house to spend time with her.

Director Troy Nixey deftly handles the scares, with a minimum on gore and a maximum on atmosphere. An experienced comic book artist, he provides the appropriate Gothic visuals- dark lighting and somber colors. Instead of immediately revealing the film’s monsters, Nixey teases the viewers with shadowy glimpses. The monsters are thus all the more unsettling to look at when they are finally displayed in all their ghoulish glory. The CGI of these monsters is vivid and completely convincing.

Even when the monsters are absent from the screen, Nixey conjures a palpable terror in the house, reminding the audience they could show up in any moment. An especially chilling moment occurs when Sally is in bed at night- her teddy bear moves robotically and repeatedly says “I love you.” That Nixey can make even a normally benign object like a teddy bear seem menacing testifies to his genius in fright cinema.

There are also a few ridiculous plot points. A Polaroid camera plays a role in the climax. But why would even a struggling man like Alex use such an anachronism? And the film’s resolution is too perfunctory and contrived to be satisfactory. But if you want to see a horror film that will frighten you but not gross you out, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark will do for now. Now playing at AMC Essex Green Cinema in West Orange and AMC Loews New Brunswick 18 in New Brunswick, it is rated R for violence and terror.

Raymond Valinoti, Jr. is a resident of Berkeley Heights, NJ. He has a Master’s in Library Science from Rutgers University and is a freelance researcher. His articles on film have been published in the magazines Midnight Marquee and Films of the Golden Age. His biography on the comedy team Laurel and Hardy has recently been published by Bear Manor Media. He can be reached by email at raymondva@comcast.net, through Twitter at http://twitter.com/rayvalinoti, and through Facebook at Raymond Valinoti.