Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

For today's horror movie I watched the Guillermo del Toro-written Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. A young, emotionally troubled girl (Sally) is sent to live with her father far away from her home in sunny Los Angeles. Her father and his partner/girlfriend are interior designers and are working on restoring an old Victorian house. After uncovering a hidden basement Sally begins to be tormented by creatures living within the house.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark has all the structure of a haunted house film, and even sets itself up as such from the very first, incredibly unsettling scene. However, in the end, that's not what this movie is, and my expectations, at least at first, caused a degree of frustration. This movie in essence is a dark fairy tale, drawing from the faerie tales of old lore of creatures that would take your children and the threats that exist at the shadowy corners of the world. Once you give yourself over to what the movie truly is it really ends up being a darkly beautiful and modernized bit of lore; how del Toro is that?

This movie is not about jump scares or easy payoffs or even being scared, necessarily. That's especially true if you get stuck looking at it as a typical haunted house movie. No, this movie is about atmosphere the folklore behind the fuzzy little, knife-wielding hunchback trolls (I love that I just used that combination of words) and their evil toothfairy nature. They do things that creatures of their size would do, committing little hijinks that torment their victims on their way to getting their teeth. This movie is like Gremlins in that way: the tiny creatures torment in the small ways. If you take it too seriously it seems ridiculous, but through the view of a dark folklore it all fits and creates a solid fairytale gone wrong. 

My only true complaint about Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is how damn wooden the acting can be by everyone but, surprisingly, Bailee Madison (Sally). For a little girl she absolutely kills it and is far and away the best performance in the movie. Guy Pearce (plays the father), on the other hand, is like watching a 2x4 act. Like, I get it, he's the too-busy-to-pay-attention father, but holy hell he's bad and miscast. His acting is so stiff and stunted it actually draws away from the rest of the film. Katie Holmes isn't much better, but damn, Guy Pearce, seriously. Maybe that's the intent of the film to further highlight Sally, but still... it's hard to watch.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is a truly unique film, allowing it to be it's own thing and it's own contribution to a dark folklore tales. Go in without preconceived notions and just let the movie happen. It's not going to give you nightmares, but it's not supposed to. It's atmosphere and rooted in ancient ideas of lore and I quite dug it.

8/10

Sidenote, I watched this on Crackle as it's a free streaming service and I can't say enough how much I hated it. Look, I get that it's free, but two minute ads literally every 10 minutes. Seriously, I can't say screw you enough times. Never again.