Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

I had higher than average expectations for this movie based on who was behind it. Del Torro has been doing some fantastic stuff. Especially his vampire novels.

But this movie by no means being a bad movie just didn't seem to be all that great at anything.

I didn't find the movie to be very exciting, scary, creepy, weird, surprising or anything else you could use to describe it. I did find the back story mildly interesting. And not the flashback at the beginning either. But the sequence of exposition with Holmes and the Librarian when they basically link the creatures to the tooth fairy..

The performances were ok, the house was suitably old and ancient looking.

And they manage to keep the creatures in shadow until the end.. When they just get stupid. Prime example being when they set the trip wire on the stairs to trip Holmes who basically cracks her head on the floor and passes out. Now, I will admit it's unclear if they slices her leg to hinder her, or if she did it in the fall. But either way they proved earlier they were capable of murder and could have killed her, and dragged Sally to the basement. But.. they left Holmes there so she could wake up and follow them down.

Just like the sequences with Pierce. They had the opportunity to kill him as well, but didn't. Instead opted to try and gas him to death with the car. Not too mention, all his skulking around staring into key holes just so the director could try and gross out the audience with the needles to the eye attempts.. Made no sense to me, with what he knew he should have been kicking down doors going to his kid and girlfriend, not taking his time staring into keyholes..

If anything was creepy it was Sally. I don't know the actress, but if she was acting, and not genuinely creepy she was doing a good job.

I feel this movie could have been much better than it was. It had all the pieces but they just didn't seem to click. I didn't care about any of them. Except maybe Mrs. Underhill (If I remember the name). And I had no sense of dread as Holmes discovered the houses' secret. And most of that you could see a mile away. The fact that she would be the one to believe while the father was so wrapped up in work, and not paying attention the details. Give them credit for making the Mom a deadbeat and the father dealing with it all though. As well as Holmes dying in the end instead of some sort of noble male sacrifice. I did like how that ended.

So basically overall I didn't hate the movie, but didn't particularly like it all that much either..

2.5 stars out of 5