Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark: Interesting Effort …

3rd April, 2015.

I have to admit, there’s several things I’ve not done for a while.

No, really.

I’ve not gone out to the pub, for a while.

I’ve not — thankfully — smoked tobacco.   Or marijuana, come to think of it.

I haven’t had sex, either, come to think of it.   Nor run down Brentwood High Street, stark naked, and singing a happy tune about cheese.

Which is possibly something you didn’t want to know, now I’m come to see the words written down.

At ANY rate … ?

Amongst things likely — or otherwise — there’s one thing I know I’ve not done.

Seen a movie for a while.

And, granted I’ve a few quid on my iTunes account?

Granted I’ve got that, I know I had a copy of the Guillermo Del Toro penned, Troy Nixey directed, Don’t Be Afraid Of The The Dark lurking around in my collection: and it’s something I wanted to watch.

Having nothing else to do?

I thought I should clear the movie watching backlog.

Given there was nothing else on … 

~≈Ê≈~

Set in an un-named part of Rhode Island, in the US, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark opens by showing us Lord Blackwood: an artist who specialises in painting animals.

Who’s in his basement: extracting the teeth from a maid who’s fallen down the stairs into the cellar.   Seemingly … ?   There’s something he’s trying to do a deal with, in order to rescue his kidnapped son.

Something that like’s … teeth … 

Many years later … ?

Many years later, we see a little girl called Sally (Bailee Madison): sent by an awkward mother to live with her father, Alex, and his girlfriend, Kim — Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes, respectively — who restoring a mansion in Rhode Island.

The same one, we learn, with the cellar that saw gruesome goings on, in earlier years.

It seems SOMETHING lives in the ash pit in the cellar.

Something old … something nasty … 

And something with a decidedly strange interest in teeth … 

You can tell it’s going to get weird, can’t you … ?   Any … minute … now … 

~≈Ê≈~

Now, I’ll be frank, I went in to Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark with mixed expectations: I’d originally planned on watching Starred Up, but haven’t yet managed to find a copy.   And had notionally wanted to see 47 Ronin: which I have got, but which I m still um’ming and aching about, as it hash‘t had the best of reviews.

So Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark was something of a third choice.

So, as you can possibly appreciate, it’s not something I was planning on watching.

It’s also something I felt was FAIRLY lightweight: very reminiscent of Del Toro’s earlier work, in Pan’s Labyrinth, and — for me as a Torchwood fan — very reminiscent of an old Torchwood episode called Small Worlds*.

Possibly somewhat repetitive, as well.

Saying that … ?

Saying that, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark isn’t a bad film: it wasn’t my first choice, and quite light, but entertaining, nonetheless.

If you’re not looking for a creepy — but not too taxing — horror film, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark might just be the thing.

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark

★½☆☆☆

*        As a point of interest for you, Small Worlds was written by a chap called Peter J. Hammond: who also wrote From Out Of The Rain.   And, more famously, created Sapphire and Steel: I really should sit down with that series, again, at some point …