Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is that typical type of horror film full of genre cliches. Nonetheless, it is promising, having a screenplay with lot to it, a great set and some pretty cool special effects and great photography. Also, acting was brilliant. Let’s start with the story. Overall, it hasn’t got much to it, i mean - a little child goes to this huge house and finds out strange, mean creatures that act like the tooth fairy (they rip off their teeth and leave them a dollar). Obviously, the child is mentally disturbed and her father doesn’t believe her - after all, he’s a lot more worried about his job than his kid. There is also the step mom, that is the worst person in the world at the beginning of the movie and then turns out she isn’t so bad (as Sally sees it), a housekeeper and a contractor that seems to play the part of the weird butler (and *spoiler alert* died somewhere in the middle of it).
As i said, this story is filled with horror cliches, such as the mansion in the middle of nowhere, a bath scene (this time involving a kid), a scary basement - oh well, this movie has it all. Even the soundtrack was sort of a cliche, with all those strange and scary scores and so on. Special effects are okay, nothing to surprising or genius, just quite average.
Acting was pretty amazing, i really liked Bailee Madison as Sally - she was quite awesome, playing the role of the little disturbed kid who is really disappointed with her dad, her mom and her life in general and then evolving to the scared and terrified little girl. In general, i thought the kid was really brilliant. Guy Pearce was pretty awesome as well, with a quite believable performance, although Katie Holmes was good but not brilliant (her performance had a few flaws, i didn’t bought it completely).
Overall, this is quite and interesting film, with a good beginning (that will take your breath away, a reasonable development and a finale that left a bit to be desired. It’s not exactly the 8th wonder of the world, filled with cliches and having a few raccord flaws, but it is quite good in general. The soundtrack, as i said, is proper to the type of movie (although it seems like you’re watching some black and white film - after all this is JUST a remake of a 1973 movie…) but the general atmosphere is quite good, and there are a few unpredictable scares that await you at the movie theater.