DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK

US, 2010, 99 minutes, Colour.
Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, Bailee Madison, Jack Thompson, Garry Mc Donald, Julia Blake, Nicholas Bell.
Directed by Troy Nixey.


There was once a little, scary telemovie, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, 1973. A husband and wife go to redecorate an old house and the wife discovers little, lethal monsters in the basement. Now, almost forty years later, there is a more up-market re-make, co-written by Mexican director, Guillermo del Torres (Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies). It is no longer the wife who goes down to the basement and encounters the monsters, it is a little girl, which probably makes the film that much more scary.

The title is misleading insofar as the film-makers hope that you are scared of the dark but don’t mind being scared, especially if the scares come from the screen.

There is a prologue in an old-English Gothic looking house, with a gory touch or two concerning teeth, that can set audiences on edge – and it is all explained rather clearly later. But, the perpetrator, an artist distraught at the death of his son, is played by Gary Mc Donald – and then Jack Thompson (with the eerie American accent he has done in so many films and which you never hear from anyone else, Julia Blake and Nicholas Bell turn up so we realise that it was probably filmed in Australia, standing in for the US.

The plot is fairly basic when you think of it. Divorced father has to look after his daughter as he renovates a mansion. His girlfriend is with him and the daughter does not like her. When the daughter encounters the monsters, no one believes her. Fortunately, the girl and her father’s girlfriend bond and...

Katie Holmes is quite good as the girlfriend. Guy Pearce does a turn as the father. But, it is Bailee Madison who has to do all the dramatics in confronting the monsters. The latter are effective small, snarling, teeth-bearing creatures who look like relatives of the Gremlins.

It is all more or less predictable (except part of the ending which seems more than a little cruel so that you can’t say it all ends happily ever after), but that it what this kind of blend of horror, thriller and monsters is all about.

1. The combination of thriller, horror, monster movie? The blend?

2. The title and its tone?

3. Australian locations standing in for the United States? The mansion, the interiors, the basement? The ordinariness of America, airports, roads, hospitals? The musical score?

4. The prologue, the maid in the mansion, the noise, the tripwire, her fall? The artist and his attack on her, his teeth, taking her teeth, her death, down the hole? The voices? The artist talking to his son? The satisfactory nature of the later explanations?

5. Alex and Kim, their going to meet Sally at the airport? The gift of the bear? Going to the house? The background of Alex and the divorce? The contacts with Sally’s mother? Her not wanting to be with her father, suspicions of Kim, the tensions?

6. Sally, her age, her relationship with her mother, being sent off by her mother, travelling, the bond with her father, Kim and the resistance, Sally’s change of heart? Exploring of the house, discovering the basement, opening up the mystery, her drawings, the voices, the monsters, being pursued, her dangers, Kim and her help?

7. Alex and his plans, redecorating the house, restoration, the photos, the cover of the magazine, the editor, the meetings, the dinner – and its being sabotaged? His care for Sally, yet his carelessness with her? His love for Kim?

8. Kim, in herself, love for Alex, helping, her work, the house, the clash with Sally, beginning to communicate with her, helping her, the cameras and the flash to ward off the monsters? Not going to the dinner? Her confronting Alex about his daughter?

9. The dinner, the guests and their reaction?

10. Harris, his work on the grounds, his warnings, his personality, the stories from the past, the attack on him, in the hospital?

11. The housekeeper, her help? The British tone? In an American house?

12. Sally, the meetings with the psychiatrist? Communicating with the monsters? Seeing them, their pursuit, hiding, the light and the camera flashes? Kim’s defence?

13. The special effects for the monsters, their teeth, size, the voices? Their infesting the house? The climax, the basement, Kim and her self-sacrifice, Alex and his trying to rescue her? Sally being safe?

14. The aftermath, Kim and her being part of the monster world, the voices – and waiting for the next people to come to stay in the house?