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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Bad Movies  |  Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) *spoilers* « previous next »
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Author Topic: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) *spoilers*  (Read 3491 times)
akiratubo
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« on: June 27, 2012, 01:07:10 PM »

A little girl named Sally comes to live with her father and his new fiancee at the house they're preparing to flip.  Turns out the house is infested with small, bat-like creatures that love to eat the teeth of small children.  That just can't be good.

I wanted to put this in Good Movies.  I really, really did.  But I just couldn't.

As long as the movie is focused on Sally and her sometimes rather harrowing struggles against the monsters, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is quite good.  The character of Sally and the young actress portraying her are both very likable.  You really care about her.  The monsters are designed very well and their behavior is utterly unsettling.  They aren't just dumb animals.  They plan, they use teamwork, they use tools, and most of all they use psychological warfare.  The little bastards know exactly how to manipulate Sally and the adults to their greatest advantage.  Whenever Sally is on her own, the visuals take on a fairy-tale quality, and you realize that this is how little Sally sees the world when no adults are around to spoil it for her.  It's very effective.

Unfortunately, the movie has to follow the adults, too.  Sally's father is a horrible, uncaring a***ole.  And the son of a b***h survives the movie!  Katie Holmes does much better as the not-evil-whatsoever stepmother.  The performance of the third important adult, a handyman who knows more than he lets on, is downright embarrassing, though I don't think any actor (except maybe Vincent Price or Peter Cushing) could have managed to sell the part as written.

Then there are the idiot moments.  Sally's father is an idiot par excellence for the entire film.  He's the kind of guy so oblivious to everything around him that you wonder how he manages not to get himself killed on a daily basis.  The handyman barely survives a vicious attack from the creatures where he is hacked into hamburger with his own tools, and the cops write it off as a tumble down the stairs.  Katie Holmes has a scene where she reluctantly comes to believe that the monsters Sally has been talking about must be real after all.  Then she apparently forgets all about it because she has another scene later on where she reluctantly decides the exact same thing as if it had never occurred to her before.  In one scene, Katie is bound and determined to get Sally out of the house.  In the next, she's putting Sally to bed (with a sleeping pill!) because Sally's just had another imaginary attack from those imaginary monsters THAT KATIE HAS TWICE NOW DECIDED ARE REAL AFTER ALL!  Perhaps the worst idiot moment is when Sally manages to kill one of the monsters -- and doesn't show the corpse to anyone!  ARE YOU F!@%ING KIDDING ME?!?!

The end of the movie also p**sed me off.  Katie Holmes rescues Sally from the monsters at the end but ends up being taken herself.  For some reason, she becomes one of them, the leader, in fact.  I understand that's supposed to be the most horrifying thing in the entire film, this nice woman becoming a child-eating monster.  It just annoyed me, though.

There's a lot of good stuff here but it's outweighed by the bad, IMHO.

Afterthought: the director's apparent fixation on his child star's little feet made me a bit uncomfortable.
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Venomx73
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« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2012, 01:23:38 PM »

I watched it a few weeks ago. Imo the original is way better. Thumbup
« Last Edit: June 27, 2012, 01:25:56 PM by Venomx73 » Logged
WingedSerpent
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« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2012, 08:56:05 PM »

Saw this in theaters and didn't think it was so bad. (Never saw the original). But I did notice some of the things your talking about. One thing that I noticed as off was when the creatures where afraid of the light.  In some scenes they'd be scared off by a candle light-and in others it would be brightly lit but the monsters would still come out because they where hiding in cast shadows.

One of the guys from Spill.com put it best when he said (paraphrasing) This is the horror movie for those too old for Goosebumps but not quite ready for Friday the 13th
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kakihara
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« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2012, 04:46:38 PM »

(profanity!!!!) how could i miss this movie? really?! im upset with myself right now. heres why; couple years ago i was trying to remember this horror movie that i saw as a kid, the nice people at badmovies helped me remember in a what-was-that-film thread. then, after quite awhile of searching, i found a dvd copy on ebay. i think this movie was public domain and the seller was having some legal issues. the seller was kicked out of ebay the day after i made my payment. i was so sad. i paid like 30 bucks to get this movie on dvd from some guy in england. he turned out to be really cool, he contacted me explaining what happened and sent me my movie anyway. i couldnt even leave feedback for him. after wondering what was that movie for 25 years i finally got to see it. and i liked it. that doesnt happen often in this world.  anyway, i now remember seeing the commercials for this film. i didnt see any little monsters, it just looked like another haunted house movie to me. the name of the movie sounded familier though, wonder why? i should slap myself for that.
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Jim H
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« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2012, 04:19:37 AM »

**SPOILERS**

What the heck is up with the scene where a monster's arm is chopped off, falls into the room, then a bunch of people walk in and it never gets referenced again?  Also, what about all the photos the girl takes in the same scene?

**END**

I thought this one was pretty weak.  Watchable and some good atmosphere, but weak.  5/10 from me.
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kakihara
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« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2012, 09:38:51 AM »

just watched it. i liked it. i think it qualifies as a bad movie though. mostly because alot of things just dont make sense. if somebody gets cut to pieces and stabbed with scissors,  there will be an investigation and somebody is going to jail. i asked "why" through out the movie.  why didnt anybody call for help after katie was pulled into the hole in the end? he knew that his wife was in that hole, the fire department should take care of that.  what about the dead monsters? the father- yeah, oblivious pretty much descibes him. he doesnt notice anything through out the whole movie, hes a metrosexual, it does take alot of work to look your best and appear sophisticated. katie holmes- poor girl. i think she may have a learning disability. she should not be left alone with children. the kid - shes ok.  a little bratty, its probably just the anti-depresents. she needs to learn to communicate better. "daddy, look! theres the monster that is trying to kill me!", now you try.  the monsters - i liked em, but there was to much scurrying around. they look like a cross between orcs from "lot/rings" and the imps from "the gate".  del toro seems to have some kind of fetish for tooth fairies.
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