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[Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark]
Plot:Sally (Bailee Madison), a young girl -- moves to Rhode Island to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend (Katie Holmes) in the 19th-century mansion they are restoring. Having stumbled upon the mansion's hidden basement, Sally starts hearing voices calling out from the bolted ash pit, imploring her to open it. Sally obliges and unwittingly unleashes something so terrible, so unthinkable, that everyone's life - hers most of all - is placed in immediate and grave danger.

Cast:Katie Holmes, Bailee Madison, Guy Pearce.

My Thoughts:Chilling redo!

Review:Troy Nixey's "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark", is a remake of the 1970's tele-horror pic, where a woman is acosted by mysterious creatures who reside within the inner recesses of her large estate. The redo makes the main character into a young girl named Sally (Madison). Who moves in to her father's Rhode Island mansion. With his new sorta-girlfriend. I say sorta because even though the two are obviously dating, the movie never really goes fully into where their relationship status stands.

That, and Kim (Holmes), claims to be Sally's fathers interior decorator. Sally's father is played by Guy Pearce, who looks totally right for the role of an artsy type who lives in a Rhode Island Mansion. So look wise, everything fits for the movie. Once Sally arrives, her relationship is immediately cold and distant with her potential new stepmom Kim. But pretty soon, Sally learns that she has bigger problems to worry about. Like the mysterious creatures who live in the basement.

And wnat to whisk Sally away, to make her one of their own. "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark"s opening scene gives some slight backstory to the large blackwood manor, the creatures, and the history of the house. But the movie makes sure not to be engulfed or overshadowed, by the mansion itself. Truly a mark of good filmmaking. We all know that horror films set in large mansions or manors, are usually faded out by the house itself. Which becomes the movies centerpiece and eventually looms over all of the events unfolding in the movie.

But "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark" has enough suspense, creepy scenes and moments, and intense encounters to keep the viewers focus exactly where it should be. On the events occuring themselves. The movie unfolds in a classic scary movie sort of way. But also has that Guillermo Del Toro charm, with some dark fairy tale music, and story caveats that fit the mold of a Spanish horror film such as "The Orphanage". The film is carried by great performances by Madison, Pearce, and Holmes.

Although at times, Pearce can be annoying as he plays the obligatory father who doesn't believe his daughter about the evil creatures living in the basement. The creatures themselves even do a good job of playing central characters in the movie. Above simple pesky, micro-sized villains. They're CGI let me say first. So anyone who hates movies with CGI monsters, well...I don't know what to tell ya. But the CGI here is nice, clean, and not overdone. In fact, the creatures are kept in the shadows a lot of the time. So there's no CGI overdose or anything.

They're shown only in vital and key and pivotal moments. When the suspense and terror needs to be ratcheted up for purposes of getting the best out of the particular scene. The film is quite violent as well. We get a broken kneecap, one persons teeth are spike n'hammered out, and there are some nasty concussion-inducing falls and tumbles that look really good in the movie because they're helped by sound fx, and nice directing. There's also a heavy scene where the creatures gang tackle one unlucky person, and go on the attack against them MAJOR! Capturing the necessary angles and moments.

The jist of the film is basically that Sally's uncomfortableness with her new surroundings draws out the monsters. They try and play on her emotional confusion by luring her into the basement. To set them free. She does, but does not finish the job. As she is interrupted by the manor's caretaker. An old grizzled man who seems to be aware of the nasty little buggers who are bolted up in the basements ashpit. But Sally does just enough to half-free the monsters. They do the rest, and thus the terror begins. However, when Sally becomes afraid of her new "friends".

That's when the creatures become aggressive, and decide to take Sally by force. She doesn't make it easy for them though. Especially, once she learns their weakness is light. And so the movie boucnes back and forth between numerous frightening encounters and close-calls between Sally and the evil tiny beings from the basement. The film lives through two unfolding storylines. And then opens up a third. The first storyline is Sally not getting along with her father's new girlfriend.

After her biological mom sends her to live with them. The second storyline has Sally battling the monsters. But as Sally's warnings about the creatures go unnoticed by her father. Kim begins to believe Sally, and takes it upon herself to further investigate the mansions previous owner, Blackwood. That's when Kim and Sally's relationship kind of thaws out. And this is also when the monsters really ratchet up the attacks and attempts to grab Sally. Nixey does an excellent job of getting the largest amount of scares out of each scene.

No scene in this movie goes unwasted. And that's very key in the movie. Most mainstream horror films these days waste so many scenes with stupid dialogue and random BS. But this movie milks every scene for its optimal and most voracious amount of scare moments. Not wasting a single moment of needless talking or other ridiculousness. Not to mention that every moment for Sally on screen, is a lesson in terror. Good stuff. A movie that keeps it's youngest star scared at all times is truly a HORROR movie.

The films well-placed moments of terror, are matched only by the viciousness and deliberateness of the monsters themselves. They also seem to learn as the movie goes on. Once their initial attempts to lure in and grab Sally fail or are foiled. They eventually begin to attack the lights, and set traps to make nabbing Sally more successful. The movies finale is very powerful, and also in a way kind of sad. As a main character doesn't survive the final encounter with the little kidnapper-demons.

But the fight between the family and the monsters is a grand battle indeed. And very entertaining, intense, and thrilling to watch unfold on screen. As the monsters prove to be very formidable adversaries. And quite deadly and dangerous as well. All in all, the film has no real glaring weaknesses beyond some pilts in the story. Seemed that there were some areas that were not fleshed out either for pacing or just because they didn't want anything too far over 95 minutes.

There's some fuzzy moments about a truce between the monsters and humans eons ago. And some possible connections to a darker version of the old tooth fairy mythology. But these two bits of the story are not touched on enough and perhaps the eventual DVD release will take care of that. "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark" is an exceptional terror movie, and a good way to end the summer on a truly scary note.

Positives:Exceptionally well-placed scare moments. Great performances by Pearce, Holmes, and Madison. The cgi monsters are not shown too much in-full until late, thus maintaining their mystery helps the movie be more thrilling. Not a single weak moment in the movie that hurts it's stock. A terrific finale, and the creatures are very ferocious antagonists.

Negatives:Again, there were two story bits that were not covered enough as mentioned in the review. And I thought they could've made the movie a lot strong story wise. But this is not a big chink in the movies armor.

Overall:Four stars out of four.





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