Sometimes not showing the monstrous menace threatening to devour or maul the family living in an old mansion is more effective at inspiring fear than showing them as goofy rat monsters with opposable thumbs and a primitive knowledge of spear chucking. For the sake of discussing the 2010 remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark by Director Troy Nixey, let’s say that these rat creatures are in fact funny and not hilariously ill-conceived, and then let’s assume that a rational human being has more than just a derisive snort saved up for the fate of a family that thinks it wise to stay in a house where little beasties run rampant without making effective use of that enemy’s well-documented weakness. Right off the bat, those are two rather large concessions, and they’re perhaps too big to make for Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark to effectively elicit horrified screams from any but the most highly-strung individuals. And yes, though the creative genius Guillermo Del Toro did have a hand in this revamp of the TV movie classic, his input only adds a few drops of flavor to an ocean of horror movie blunders.
Alex (Guy Pearce), an architect moving into a new Gothic mansion, has two problems on his hands. First, his ex-wife has sent their young daughter Sally (Bailee Madison) to live with him and his girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes), and Sally is having a hard time warming up to the new situation. Also, the house seems to have a strange presence lurking in its walls, and it has Sally simultaneous fascinated and scared out of her mind, and for good reason. This leaves Alex and Kim to calm Sally’s nerves while they try to figure out if the young girl’s troubles stem from her disapproval of her father’s new love interest or something sinister actually hiding in the shadows. Unfortunately, the adults’ confusion is not our own and the film makes it clear very fast the exact nature of the bipedal rodents terrorizing a young girl as she lies in bed.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark develops its characters and their relationships decently enough, but no matter how well Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes, or Bailee Madison do in bringing their characters to life, they can’t undo the stupid choices the story has them make.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The combo pack includes the film on Blu-ray and as an Ultraviolet Digital Copy. The featurettes on the disc cover “making of” topics ranging from the development of the story, to the setting, and the rat-like creatures. The third part of the featurette is a bit confusing since the creatures are about as scary as those little dinosaurs in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Finally, the disc is rounded out with conceptual sketches of the creatures and house.
"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is on sale January 3, 2012 and is rated R. Horror. Directed by Troy Nixey. Written by Guillermo Del Toro, Matthew Robbins. Starring Bailee Madison, Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes.
