Release Date (UK DVD) – 20th February 2012
Certificate (UK) – 15
Country – USA
Run time – 99 minutes
Director – Troy Nixey
Starring – Katie Holmes, Bailee Madison, Guy Pearce
The one man who casts a long (and suitably dark) shadow over this film is it’s Executive Producer, horror maestro Guillermo Del Toro. A remake of a 1973 John Newland directed TV movie that had scared the bejesus out of Del Toro at the time, the film had become another one of his many long gestating passion projects over the years, before he handed the directorial reins over to a young protege – Troy Nixey who gives us an atmospheric things go bump in the night tale of a dysfunctional family (headed by Guy Pearce) who run into trouble when they move into a house over-run by demons and their young troubled daughter (Bailee Madison) releases them from their basement imprisonment.
Troy Nixey, who has a stack of comic book work and a well regarded short film Latchkey’s Lamet behind him, was personally handpicked by Del Toro to direct the film. The fact that Del Toro would hire a comic book artist to helm his baby is none too surprising, given his own personal fondness of comic books and the fact that he directed two comic book adaptations with Hellboy and it’s sequel. This film shares that same dramatic lighting scheme, those sharp contrasts between inky shadows and dangerously softly glinting lights, that stark expressionistic horror film look. The Director of Photography Oliver Stapleton is one of the film’s true stars, giving the film serious atmosphere and a haunting, dark, Grimmer than Grimm fairytale look.
It must be said that Nixey has undeniable talent and brings an artist’s sense of design, cutting and composition to the table and engineers a few great set pieces, but Del Toro’s influence is unmistakeable in the film, submersing it in his sense of set-design, visual effects and personal themes, no bad thing when you think of how mired in (development) hell the man’s been over the last few years. Del Toro’s constant theme of troubled child encountering the supernatural whilst dealing with and overcoming personal traumas reappears yet again. It’s occurred in Cronos, Mimic, The Devil’s Backbone and, strongest of all, in Pan’s Labyrinth. In each case it’s always deepened the story and yet here, it feels distracting, trite, played out almost.
Guy Pearce, given the right material, is a fantastic actor but sadly the only thing he’s given to work with here is a truly dire haircut, and he seems half asleep. That may be due to the soporific performance put in by Katie Holmes as his clueless girlfriend with “issues” of her own. Holmes is the very definition of bland, sweeter than sweet soap actress who couldn’t be interesting if she tried. She may have tried, I couldn’t tell. But thankfully a film like this stands or falls on the performance of it’s main actress and in the young Bailee Madison. She’s terrifically natural as a scared, lonely, little girl and the few instances where the film does manage to get your heart pumping is all down to the winningly believable actions of Bailee.
However the film does fail in making us believe that she falls falls so easily under the spell of the creatures haunting the houses basement, there’s no real reason shown for her to trust them, given as it’s already been established she’s a withdrawn child. Later when an adult becomes aware of the imps, and is about to alert the others, they are (admittedly very entertainingly) dispatched by the imps after multiple stabbing with a large assortment of bladed weapons. And yet after someone is murdered violently IN THEIR HOME, it’s quickly just written off by the family as “just an accident.” Moments like this really kill the film. That being said horror fans will enjoy it if they’re in the mood for an old school dark fairytale, it’s got a great central performance by Bailee Madison and it’s pretty much unmissable for Del Toro fans, even as a “What If” curio. Keep an eye out for a cameo by the big man himself…
Given the film’s interesting production history, the DVD extras aren’t that extensive. Three making of Featurettes (Focusing on The Story, The Creatures and the Mansion) are short but in depth and interesting for anyone into production design; they show Del Toro’s customary love for the craftsmen who design and build his nasty little creatures. Also interviews with the main cast masquerade as Character Profiles but it’s disappointing not to get a commentary from Del Toro and Nixey as Del Toro’s enthusiasm usually bleeds through on such things.
Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is out on DVD and Blu-ray now – order your copy here
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