by Dani Norton
Contributing writer
“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” is writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s latest chilling endeavor to hit the box office. Del Toro provided the screenplay but left direction up to the relatively unknown Troy Nixey. Unfortunately, this does not work in the movie’s favor.
The film stars Guy Pearce as Alex, a divorced architect, Katie Holmes as Kim, the new live-in girlfriend and Bailee Madison as young Sally, Alex’s troubled daughter.
Sally has been sent, unwillingly, across the country by her mother to live with Alex and his girlfriend Kim in an old New England mansion the couple is renovating to resell.
From the start, Sally is depressed and resentful towards her father and his new love interest, choosing to brood and sulk rather than get to know her future stepmother.
Eventually, Sally begins hearing voices whispering her name, inviting her down into the basement to play. What she finds down there are not her friends but terrible little creatures with a horrifying diet.
The horror, unfortunately, stops there. Without del Toro in the directing chair, moviegoers will not find the unsettling atmosphere or visuals they would expect with his name attached to the film. The scares are few and far between, and the tiny villains are actually sort of cute, if not a little toothy.
The R rating does nothing to facilitate the horror either. With a promising opening scene of implied violence, the rest of the movie does not live up to the mood the scene establishes. A potentially good story turns out to be predictable and flat, never surprising or unnerving.
Young Madison actually carries the entire film on her little shoulders, proving to be, as usual, a powerhouse of emotion with the saddest pout in Hollywood. Her performance makes the movie worthwhile, though maybe not worth $8.50.