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Better Late Than Never, "DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK" - Review

If there's one thing I hate about movies, it's trailers. It seems that they never do a film justice, either giving away to much, or giving the wrong impreson of the film your about to see. I blame DBAOTD's trailer for the latter.

The story follows Sally, a young girl who's mother ships her off to live with her father, Alex, and his new girl Kim, in the house they are restoring. Sally happens to find a window in the garden, and discovers a basement, so of course, they tear out a wall blocking the entrance going down. This has the terrible luck of unleashing little monsters who like to feed on children's teeth though.

While the movie is indeed quite fun to watch, it is nothing like I thought it would be. I haven't seen the original, so I was just going off the trailers, and the trailer I had seen made it look like a jump fest, even going so far as to making some friends of mine scream. But the movie it's self is very light on scares, with the only real jump being shown in the trailer already! Ade from the wrong impreson I got, the movie is indeed quite a blast to watch, the little creatures that are after Sally are awesome in the way they move and attack.

The effects in the movie are quite good, the creatures are entirely CGI, and it's fun to watch them swarm a victim. The part of the effects that stand out most would have to be the gore though. While there isn't very much gore in the movie, what you get is a treat for the eyes, my favorite being a broken leg near the end of the movie that will make just about anyone cringe.

Now onto the acting. Sally is played by the young Bailee Madison, who is one of the few child actors who I think can really act, and I hope to see her go far. Katie Holmes plays the very likable Kim, and while I dislike Katie Holmes, I found myself not minding her in the role of Kim, but that might just be because the character of Kim is written as the hero. Guy Pearce plays Sally's father, Alex, and while he does a good job in the role, I fucking hate Alex. All three of the main characters are very well done, and don't make those decions that go against characters which ruin many horror films. The supporting cast, what little there is, are quite likable. I even think Del Toro is in the background in the start on the airplane, but I can't say for sure only seeing it once.

So, would I say run out and see Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark in theaters? No not really, as much as I like to support horror in cinema, it just wasn't worth the price these days, and I think it'd do better in a home viewing. But would I say avoid it? Absolutely not, it's worth the time, being well written and well acted, it's just not very scary.

Score - 69% Gore - 7/10

http://youtu.be/mFE4lGvRt8E

Another great review :) It was awesome going to see this with you.

Now, one thing I don't understand is your gore rating, as there was very little, but when there was it was really well done, soooo just from saying that I'm guesng it was just for the quality. The broken leg made my face like D:

And I agree about the girl playing Sally being an amazing child actress, I think I remember mentioning that I liked good child actors during the movie haha.

Either way, I did enjoy it, but just not what I expected.

Loveee the review, keep it up!!!

I'm surprised it didn't have a lot of jump scares like nightmare on elm street 2010.

I saw it over the weekend and it was entertaining for a matinee not full price ticket and i thought the little creatures were pretty cool.

I def left the theater thinking if I ever get called into a dark scary basement and I dont see the person who's voice I hear it wont turn out well.

LOL