Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010)

When this film ended, my friend and I looked at each other the same way and knew we had something here to talk about. Trust me it was not positive, although this movie did have some areas that it did OK on.

To begin with, the directing was good but nothing to write home about. The same is true for the acting - it held its end of the bargain up. The photography, lighting, and sound was actually some of the redeeming elements of this film.

As for the two most important elements of storytelling, this movie just plain whiffed on the attempt.

The first important thing it failed at was to TELL the story. Sounds like that would be hard to do, but this film accomplished just that. It did ramble on fairly quickly about some creatures, a little girl, and touched base on the prior occupants of the home as well as the new owners. It threw in a couple of make you jump scenes and then just kind of died from there. The fact that it did not go into any depth in some of the most important areas, lets us down as viewers. I believe that this idea really had a chance to work, if just a little more time was taken to fluff up the tale, especially the history of the little beings that dwelled in the dark in the basement. "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" gave it a small try, but that is about it.

The second place it really, really failed was the ending. Without going into detail, all I will say is this film crash-landed. The "Movie Pulse" section of the review will give you a good idea of how bad the landing was.

That being said, the movie did not warrant a D or lower grade. It was a fun little tale and it will let you think throughout the film that it will sink its teeth in you eventually. Well, it never really did, and it bombed the ending, but we had fun getting there I guess.

Perhaps rent it on DVD when it comes out maybe just for fun, but please do not think you will come away with anything more than that.

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