Review of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) by Unisonruss — 11 Sep 2011

It is a terrible film. They got the atmosphere right in the beginning, had a decent ending moment, and that's it. -Characters: completely one dimensional, and boring. No reason to care about them, and the girl was a brat...aren't we supposed to empathize with the lead? - Creatures: laughable. They are shown WAY too early, so no suspense is built wondering what they are. When you don't see the creatures for a while, it's scarier, but we saw them ten minutes into the movie! And TBH, the creature design was very uninspired (unlike his previous works). They could of at least had different looking ones, some small, some larger...diversity is always welcomed! - Pacing: it was really slow. A lot of exposition, and waiting for something to happen. - Plot holes: oh dear, the plot holes! For instance, when the little girl closes the bookcase on the creature, killing it, and severing it's little arm (they show a close-up of the little arm even!), NO ONE SEES IT! There are 20+ people in the room staring at the little girl like she's mad, and she doesn't even point to the bookcase, WTF? If you were her, wouldn't you pick up it's little severed arm and wave it at them, yelling, "Told you they were real!" Wouldn't you? Or at least show them the squashed bugger, or even one of the hundred pictures she snapped (BTW, what was up with that camera? It NEVER ran out of film!?)? Nope, instead we CUT TO: her laying in bed, drugged up, because she's a psycho apparently. There's more, but this one infuriated me in the theater (as you can tell). There's other threads here if you'd like to know more about these lovely plot holes. - Suspense: did I mention there was no suspense? - Katey Holmes: Yep. She's as bland as ever. Yup. I hated this *beep* movie. Worst part is, I tried to salvage my evening by watching Shark Night 3D...didn't work. It was an even bigger piece of *beep* but for different reasons. Which is sad, because I loved Piranha 3D. Why would they make a movie off the success of another, and make it so watered down, cliched, and just bad? A$$holes. A terrible night at the movies, indeed.

I am a huge fan of del Toro, so I feel really let down. He is a genius. so I must wonder what he was thinking. I would have done a ton of re-edits, and recast the three leads. I'm glad some people enjoyed it, I just don't know how they did. I really believe that critics are giving good reviews on the sole purpose it has del Toro's name attached.