Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
Netflix Streaming
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Troy Nixey
Starring Bailee Madison, Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, Jack Thompson, Alan Dale, Julia Blake, Garry McDonald
FilmDistrict
Originally Released: August 26, 2011

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is a fun horror flick that appropriates heavily from classic horror, fairy tales, and some of producer Guillermo del Toro‘s own films as well. While del Toro handles production and writing duties, direction is capably handled by Troy Nixey in his debut. Connected with some great performances, excellent monster effects, and some outstanding set design and lighting effects, this is a movie well worth checking out.

Effectively a remake of the 1973 TV movie of the same name, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark explores the line that marks the division between fairy tales and horror stories. The story follows young girl Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison) as she relocates to live with her father, dealing with the difficulty of being a small child in a broken family.

Adapting video games into films should not be this hard. Books and plays are turned into good movies on a nearly monthly basis. Christ, even direction is a form of adaptation. The director has both the right and the necessity to cherry-pick and omit from a written screenplay. There is no such thing as “an original film.”

And yet, like trying to pole-vault without an actual pole, the evolutionary link between video game and film has yet to be cleared.

Now to be fair, I liked Silent Hill. It was an atmosphere engine which would have been a whole lot better if an actual script was used.

And as I may have unwisely mentioned in my review of Max Payne at filmarcade.net a week ago, I liked the Doom movie. Don’t blame me… The game came out when I was eight… We were on an anti-poverty board in Chicago together… The parties were hosted by the Annenbergs… SHUT UP!

But other than those, we have been treated to miserable failure after miserable failure. Super Mario Bros., both Tomb Raider films, anything with Uwe Boll’s name on it, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter. They all suck. Granted, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within came close to succeeding, but it failed to adhere to the spirit of the games. Namely, there were no she-dudes, giant chickens, or EEEEEEEENDLLEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS levelling-up.