Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Seriously.

When the trailer for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2011) came out many months ago, I was both freaked out and very excited to see what new and exciting things could fly out of the mind of Guillermo del Toro. There was a very gothic looking house, chilling voices with no picture but darkness to look at, and one scene shown from the film that made audiences jump back a row. It looked good. Unfortunately, the scene from the trailer was about the only real scare of the film, if you discount the fact that Katie Holmes was in it.

The absolute biggest problem that plagues this movie is that it's a film that has been done countless times before it and runs into every cliché in the book. As Clay Cane of BET.com writes:

Characters who stupidly refuse to leave a haunted house? Check!  All gloss and no scares?  Check!  Constant rainy weather?  Check!  A spooky brunette child? Check! Previews that are better than the actual movie? Check! ~ BET.com

That's just the problem with this film for me. There isn't anything unique about it at all. It was a combination of several movies, such as The Haunting (1999) or Gremlins (1984), and, while both of those movies had their highs and lows, there isn't a positive thing to really say about Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. The characters are terrible. As an audience, there isn't a connection or emotion about what's happening to anyone in the film. The lone character who fit was the cliché 'person who knows what's really going' guy. The fact that I call him guy kind of stands as testament to the characters in the film really. I can't imagine for a second if I asked people out of the theater who the names of the characters even were that they would know the answer to that question. It's all very sad.

The biggest problem movies like these face now a days is how cliché the genre has become. Where films like Apollo 18 (2011) try to utilize alternate history combined with a touch of horror they just end up like Paranormal Activity (2007) more than they do Alien (1979). It's not so say the horror genre doesn't thrive off their loveable clichés. That's part of what made the recent remake of Fright Night (2011) so much fun. It was a horror movie, but it wasn't taking itself seriously. That's where Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is awful. It tries to be serious with the most ineffective and laughable monsters in film history. I entered the theater expecting something close to a thrill ride and what I received was bordering on high comedy.