With this plethora of horror movies on LMN it makes up for the extremely predictable nature of the one I watched last night, “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” starring Katie Holmes. I may just be jaded due to studying the Paranormal.
Then again, maybe not since the movie opens with a man killing his maid to remove her teeth to feed something sinister that lives in his furnace. Something tells him that if he wants to see his son again then he’ll continue feeding them teeth. The old man is discovered as he is trying to put the saucer inside the furnace where you can hear the whispers and hisses calling to him.
We flash forward several years into the future where a man named Alex and his girlfriend, (Katie Holmes) Kim are waiting for the arrival of his daughter Sally played by Disney star, Bailee Madison. She’s sullen and from what we eventually learn her mother thinks she’s disturbed. However, Kim discovers that she might not be so disturbed when Sally’s dad reveals that his ex-wife even medicates her dogs.
Kim begins to believe Sally after investigating her claims as well as the history of the mansion. She gives her a Polaroid camera with a flash bulb to help protect her from the creatures. These evil creatures that Sally calls Fairy (more like the evil unseelie fae which are creatures of the dark) are ugly twisted creatures with razor sharp claws and fangs. They repeatedly attempt to kidnap Sally but are thwarted.
Kim fights for Sally and after Sally is able to get a picture of the creatures that they do not destroy, even Alex now finally believes them and agrees to flee to protect her. The night, they flee is a terrible thunderstorm, knowing that Sally is going to be out of their grasp, they go after the adults. They close the garage door and the third time is a charm. They get her father and knock him unconscious. They’d tried to stab him with metal skewers, which I believe is how they infect adults. Then they knock out the power and go after Kim who has sat by Sally’s bed until things were back trying to protect her from the creatures. She is knocked unconscious and I believe stabbed when they go after Sally. She is able to try to get away. Kim is dragged downstairs and she sacrifices herself so Sally can get away. She claws her way to the furnace and pleads for Alex to help her. He almost reaches her before being jerked away. Alex does get Sally to safety and then they return in the sunlight so Sally can leave a picture for Kim, who is now a ghost trapped by the evil people….or so she thinks.
Alex will not let Sally stray far from the door and the shaft of sunlight falling on the checkerboard floor. She lays the picture she drew of her and Kim holding hands on the floor and says, “I love you, Kim,” as the picture is sucked into the furnace.
It is revealed that Kim’s ghost is not only trapped by the evil creatures who live in a pit beneath the basement furnace, but has also been infected by them. The creatures want to stage another assault but she whispers to them that, “others will come. The house will be sold and people will forget. Soon,” she croons to them as the door closes on the movie.
Not a horrible movie, definitely better than Chain letter and Insidious but not as good as Fright Night’s remake or Mask Maker.
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