A funny thing happened after I watched this movie. I was with a group of people, and as soon as the movie was done, we could not help but stand together in the theatre, dissecting everything thing that went wrong with the movie. We were relentless, this movie had so many logistical problems and eye rolling moments, it was almost insulting. The story is about a young girl named Sally who basically unleashes tiny little killer fairies into a creepy mansion that is being restored by her architect father and his new girlfriend. What begins as an effective first half of a movie, ends in something while jarring, is incredibly disappointing. In one sequence, we are given an interesting scenario. Sally is trying to convince her father that the little creatures who are in the house are real, so she is given essentially three chances to do this. 1. She gets a Polaroid camera to get evidence. When she succeeds in getting a photo, the photo is snatched away from her at a dinner table by one of the fairies. 2. Rather than saying, hey look, that fairy thing is under the table, she scrambles after it into the library, where she is attacked, but manages to actually squish a creature with a book shelf. 3. Now, I don't answer to the name Sherlock Holmes, but I thought the body would be perfectly acceptable evidence. Wrong. This is just one instance of many. I love me some Guillermo del Toro, that is why it pains me that this movie fails on so many levels. After an attack on the grounds-keeper, Katie Holme's character leaves Sally to go research the creatures in a library, where, coincidentally, she is able to find out exactly what the creatures are. I hate research in horror movies, like everyone who is ever scared has to become re-affirmed scientists bent on collecting enough information so they could write an expose. Its such a cliché plot point, I can't bear it. It could have been even worse had their been a google page for these fairy things, but still the whole library scene was horrible. Every other scene had me saying to myself, really? This movie has scares, yes, but jump scares to me can be done by anyone with timing, and access to a loud orchestral screech at the right moment. This movie had little ambiance for me, everything was about cheap horror thrills that can equally be achieved by walking through Universal's Haunted House, where men in bad make up jump out at you behind the pulsing rays of a strobe light. Do I jump? Yes. Does it keep me awake at night that I jumped? No. The movie seems to tease you just a little bit with a few minutes of atmosphere, and then blows its load in a hurry suspecting we need something loud to keep us engrossed in the movie. Yes the odds were stacked against the movie from the outset, as it is a remake. But I had so much faith in Del Toro I thought if anyone could squash the remake curse, it would be him. Yes he didn't direct it, but he co-wrote the screenplay and his DNA is very present in this movie. This one, sad as it is to say, is a miss...
Review of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
