Should You Be "Afraid Of The Dark"?

For any child of the ‘90s, “Are You Afraid Of The Dark” makes you quiver in your boots. The horror-themed Nickelodeon show always scared the bejesus out of me as a little kid and, even now as an adult, just thinking about that campfire opening sends shivers down my spine.

Now the show would probably seem campy, but I wasn’t the most stolid child. As a small boy I was frightened by a video were a colorful alien puppet sang an upbeat number about taking a bath.

Being a "scaredy-cat" ‘90s kid would account for “Afraid Of The Dark” giving me unsettling childhood memories but it also accounts for not seeing “Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark,” a 1973 made-for-TV horror flick.

I did, however, catch the 2011 re-imagining by visionary director Guillermo Del Toro. Much like Del Toro’s masterpiece, the haunting, visually stunning gothic fairly tale “Pan’s Labyrinth” (one of my favorite movies of all time), this film also features a young heroine stuck in a frightening and possibly supernatural location. But unlike “Labyrinth,”  “Dark” is a much more straightforward thriller, without the beautiful subtext and layers of the other film.

In a short Victorian-era prologue, we meet Mr. Blackwood, a nature painter, who has haled himself up in the basement of his large estate. Poor Mr. Blackwood went mad after his son was taken by small-but-dangerous, hobgoblins-like creatures (which look something like if an insect mated with a very small, deformed chimp), before they eventually take him, too, never to be seen again.

The story then picks up in 2011, when Sally, played by Baillie Madison (looking like a sullen cabbage patch doll) arrives to live with her father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend Kim (a breathy Katie Holmes), who are fixing up the large estate once owned by Mr. Blackwood and living there during renovations.

At first, Sally misses her mom and suffers from an acute case of two movie maladies I outlined in my , I-Hate-My-Stepmom Syndrome and Dad-Doesn’t-Have-Time-For-Me-Itis.

In a beautiful sequence reminiscent of “Pan’s Labyrinth” or Del Toro’s “Devil’s Backbone,” Sally wanders the decrepit, overgrown grounds and eventually stumbles upon a basement, long forgotten by time. There, Sally, Alex and Kim find mysterious paintings by Blackwood and Sally begins to hear voices from a closed fireplace. Coming back on her own later in the night, she curiously pries open the grate, only to find dusty nothingness.

But then strange things begin to happen. Items disappear. Kim’s dresses and Sally’s doll are found mauled and destroyed. Not to mention the terrible accident suffered by the crusty old handyman.

We know these things aren’t accidents — there are no coincidences in horror movies — and so does Sally after the creatures show themselves to her. But, of course, the grown-ups don’t believe her story about misshapen creatures that roam the house like blood-thirsty cockroaches.

From then on, It’s pretty standard haunted house fair, highlighted by Roger Ford’s grandiose production design, Oliver Stapleton’s moody cinematography and Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders’ lush score.

While Del Toro co-wrote the script, the directing duties were given to Troy Nixey, a first-time director and comic book artist, who displays an impressive knack for eerie visual storytelling.

Some critics have complained that “Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark” isn’t scary enough. I think they’re missing the point. 

Although it hurts the film in the end, “Dark” is more about the journey than the destination. The long, nail-biting scenes of calm, the walks through the empty estate, the girl’s day-to-day routine. Those are the strength of this movie; It’s ability to grow suspense slowly and steadily, so that by the end you’re as tense as piano wire.

But that slow build is also a key reason for the movie’s downfall. It’s a bit like a long, shaggy dog joke, where the set-up is half the fun. Problem is, as fun as the set-up is; the punch line is weak and flat.

Movies like this need something to harness all that tension to use in a twist ending or at least an epic showdown. “The Others” and the Spanish-language “The Orphanage” are prime examples of suspenseful haunted house stories, where the climax makes sense, sum the movie up and made the long trip worth taking. “Dark” feels at times like a series of episodes, scary and tense perhaps, but never quite adding up into a fully coherent film.

“Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark” is a solid exercise in suspense, but after a while the lack of motivation behind the evil forces and the exclusion of no twist or memorable ending leave the film as only a footnote in the list of haunted house pictures. For me, I think the impending hurricane and the fact that school starts Monday is enough horror for one week.  

What I'd see this week:

• For a good cry — “One Day”
• For some drama –  “The Help”
• For some laughs — “Our Idiot Brother"
• For a scare – “Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark”