sjalkarjadottir
I admit, it is a problem having a video night and watching one poor movie after another .. you almost expect the worst.However, this movie is bad. It is not at all suspenseful, it has quite terrible acting (which is a surprise considering the actors are by no means B-actors), bad, bad CGI .. and most prominently .. a really bad story!At its core, it is a redemption patchwork family movie .. with creatures. Sadly though, the family drama never exceeds "tele-novela" drama quality .. and the creatures themselves are about as scary as muppets. At no point the threat of those creatures feels serious in any way. They only thing they do benefit from is the clumsiness of the protagonists (the usual problem of protagonists being unable to run a straight line without falling to the ground, or fumble a key ... or make it from a room normal sized living room in less than 5 minutes.Stay away from this movie, it is terrible .. and sadly not "so bad, its good"...
Scott LeBrun
A little girl named Sally (Bailee Madison) is sent to live with her dad Alex (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) in Rhode Island. Alex & Kim are in the process of restoring the lavish country estate that they live in. As fate would have it, a basement room long kept hidden reveals a secret: very diminutive creatures - scores of them - reside in the place and are always demanding to be fed. Sally discovers their existence, and is initially intrigued, but the intrigue turns to terror soon enough.Remaking the memorable 1973 TV movie of the same name was a long time pet project for co-writer / co-producer Guillermo Del Toro. The bigger budget and production values result in a movie that is able to offer some decent, if drab, visuals. (There's not a big color palate in this film.) Filmed on location in Australia, this version of 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark' has some moderately engaging horror moments, although it's not without its problems. For one thing, Dad is fairly infuriating, and it's Kim (likely named after original TV movie star Kim Darby) that forges the bigger bond with the little girl. Some genre fans may be pleased to note that Del Toro and Troy Nixey, the director whom Del Toro selected for this show, focus a lot on atmosphere. That's not to say, however, that this isn't without its bloody and violent portions. The creatures are quite amusingly designed, but after a while one realizes that they're seeing them far too much. And that's one thing that the '73 version had going for it: more subtlety.Holmes is actually rather appealing as the young woman who hopes to connect with this child. Pearce is good, but like this viewer said, his character doesn't come off all that well. It's young Madison that provides the heart for this picture; you really do feel for this kid. Aussie icon Jack Thompson is delightful as Harris, the caretaker on the premises who is soon revealed to know more than he lets on. You kind of wish he had more to do.After a promising start, this soon becomes rather trite stuff, but it's slickly made and adequately paced, and in the end is faithful to its source material.Six out of 10.
Johan Louwet
Yes this movie is not without flaws and maybe plot holes. But if there is a moment that I start actively seeking for plot holes and start lengthy debates about them, would mean I should stop watching movies and do something different. If I don't like something I move on and don't try to convince others how bad it is. So why did this movie work for me and not so much for many others here? Well it's not your typical slasher horror where lots of people die or get hurt. Actually no one dies and only one person gets badly hurt. Del Toro didn't direct this but as writer of the screenplay his influence is there. The story and character development must come from his hand and are for me the best parts of the movie. The performances of the 3 main characters and the interaction between them is splendid. Especially the young Bailee Madison as Sally blew me away. She carried this movie and deserves all the praise for pulling of such a difficult role for a child. I haven't seen the original and remain reluctant to do so. I know Sally was originally an adult. for some reason I don't think an adult as Sally works that well after seeing this movie. And another strong point is of course the setting, wow that mansion was just perfect for it. Beautiful interior and garden but than the contrast with that creepy cellar, splendid. And last but not least there is the creatures. OK their back story is not the most original but at least there is a back story. Some people complained the creatures didn't look scary (like old monkeys) but hey if you were attacked by a horde of creatures would you care if they looked scary? I think you would run and/or fight for your life and your heart would be racing. Besides it's not that you see them that often, which is a good thing. After all, what you don't see if often more scary than what you do. Maybe more drama than horror in the end but the combination works very well for me.
makusu_max
While the concept was alright, the crew producing the movie was excellent, the execution was horrible.The characters never use COMMON SENSE whatsoever. And I know many people lack it, but it gets way too ridiculous.That one part the girl caught one, no one mentioned that at all.There were too many parts that didn't add up to any realistic scenario and to me, that killed most of it's little contribution to horror films.The dad is a total moron.The people get "knocked up" and wake up coincidentally at specific moments, even if they get shaken up or stuff happens that should wake em up anyway.The critters are fun but I believe they're executed with a WANKERey attitude. These could be used much better than this crap.
AD
