Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Pros: beautiful scenery/sets, a few good jumps, and about 5-10 minutes of eerie atmosphere

Cons: not very scary, too much CGI'd gremlins, and a very predictable/slow plot

Conclusion: rent the original and skip this remake

The much anticipated, by me, remake of the 1973 made for TV movie of the same name left me feeling extremely disappointed. The plot was fairly simple. A young girl Sally (Bailee Madison) moves in with her father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes), into a house Alex and Kim are fixing up to sell. Soon upon arriving, adventurous Sally discovers the house has a basement and that the family is not alone. The basement's fireplace is inhabited by little CGI'd creatures that terrorize the family, especially Sally. The actors I felt all did an adequate job playing their parts, especially young Sally (Bailee Madison), who played a convincingly cynical little girl fed up with being 'sold' by her mother to live with her father. Overall the movie was very predictable and offered very few scary moments. The creatures from the original, people dressed in little goblin costumes, were sparingly showed. I think it was way more effective than the over-shown little gremlins in this movie, which looked to me like Chihuahuas that could speak. Save your money and skip this one!

It's funny but in the 1970s and 80s I don't recall Hollywood constantly remaking horror films from the 40's and 50's and when it was done it was done pretty well 1978s Invasion of the body snatchers and 1982s The Thing come to mind. But since the new millennium it seems the only offerings from the horror genre have been pointless remakes to smart and SCARY classics from yesteryear. We had to revisit the likes of The step ford wives, A nightmare on elm st.,Halloween I AND II,Black Christmas,Friday the 13TH, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,When a stranger calls, The Fog, The Amityville Horror,Hills Have Eyes,The Hitcher,Last house on the left,Dawn of the Dead, another body snatcher remake The Invasion and in the late 90s remakes of Psycho and The Haunting and not to mention the almost blasphemous remake of The Omen! The formula is always the same take an intelligent blockbuster, recast it with a politically correct ensemble(usually with arrogant, annoying teens),saturate it with play station worthy cgi effects and rewrite it so that it's familiar to an MTV/reality show audience with the attention span of a fly. And I'm sure there are more on the way....When is Hollywood gonna produce an original horror script that doesn't insult my intelligence? After all isn't that why they're paid millions and millions of dollars? Don't be afraid of the dark is no exception to these new rules and frankly from this writer and director I expected better. The 1973 creepy original which terrified me as a child starred Kim Darby as a young wife who inherits a gloomy mansion infested with demonic creatures and cannot get her executive husband Jim Hutton to believe her despite warnings from an ominous handy man. This version centers naturally around a young girl instead of a young wife (hence the annoying arrogant teen, kid rule) and a back story (hence the rewritten to the Mtv/reality/dancing with stars attention span crowd) the bottom line if an original is a known as a "classic" always stick with the original, if they must make remakes remake a crappy film and make that one better not vice versa believe me there are enough to choose from or remake a film that is not well known what Gauls me the most is todays young audiences are being jipped into thinking that some of todays garbage are the originals. If this trend continues I suppose in 2040 there will be remakes of Saw,Insidious,Silent Hill,Hostile and the 2040 generations will think they're the real deal. Please don't let my rant prevent you from making up your own mind we all have different tastes if you wanna go see it and if you enjoy it, dandy , this is simply one humble mans opinion.

Katie Holmes performed beautifully and Pearce performed very well, as he always does. I liked the old house and garden, and the horrifying creatures were quite imaginative.

But one thing I hate in these kind of movies is people behaving stupidly.

There were opportunities to grab a weapon of some kind, but the characters wandered around with just flashlights. There were multiple opportunities for the adults to crush the creatures, but the only one who did so was the 8 year old girl.

The young girl was not likable - she brought on the crisis by discovering the basement, and for no good reason, opening up the sealed exit for the creatures.

I do not know where all of these other cynical, angry reviews are coming from. Sure they showed the 'goblins' in abundance, but this isn't your typical jump-scare movie; which is fine by me. This was more of a fantasy-horror film where you are supposed to be as much enthralled by the creatures as you are 'afraid' of them.

I thoroughly enjoyed how the creatures looked, moved, and acted. It reminded me of a more modern-made version of the little imps from the movie "The Gate." Instead of dreading them and being on the edge of my seat, I was waiting to see them and their antics again. Perhaps that's why the other reviewers are angry. Perhaps this film has been mis-marketed.

If you like creepy little bipedal monsters that look like imps/goblins, then this movie is for you. If you like fantasy monsters and played Dungeons and Dragons as a kid then you will enjoy this film. If you enjoy medieval European folklore and cryptozoology then you will be as entertained as I was.

The idea behind DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK has potential. It's a remake of one of those classic 1970s TV horrors with Guillermo del Toro as one of the scriptwriters, no less. It starts off with potential, featuring a leading role from Guy Pearce (always a favourite) and some great set design and dressing in the form of a huge, crumbling old mansion complete with hidden rooms and passageways.

And slowly, bit by bit, the potential ebbs away, leaving this a soulless and artificial experience. It ends up being overexposed and under-written, a jumble of pointless scare sequences and endless CGI nonsense as the inhabitants of the household are repeatedly put at the mercy of some unwelcome critters. In some ways it's like a modern day GREMLINS, and it has a very childish feel to it despite the adult rating. There are parallels to other del Toro fare like PAN'S LABYRINTH but this is nowhere near that kind of calibre. The only thing it makes me want to do is track down the original.

The film I most likened it to was, in fact, an obscure early '90s B-movie called LITTLE DEVILS: THE BIRTH, which was much better in terms of pure, unashamed fun - the effects were better too. DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK is just lazy, with cheesy CGI and only one good scare all the way through. Finally, the cast is underwhelming: Pearce is a sleepwalker, Katie Holmes embarrassed, and Bailee Madison once of the most irritating child actors I've seen in a while. Still, at least Pearce got to team up with NEIGHBOURS' Alan Dale (aka Jim Robinson) for a couple of scenes...