Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is based off a made for TV movie that was actually pretty solid when it released. But it was solid for television, and it came out in an age when solid for television was nowhere near as good as anything coming out on the screen. Unfortunately the film does not translate well to the big screen, though this version of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark would probably be bad no matter what size screen you watched it on.
The plot of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is kind of a mix between a haunted house story and Gremlins. Sally (Bailee Madison), a young girl, moves from her mother's into an old mansion her father (Guy Pearce) is renovating and living in with his long-term girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes). They discover a hidden cellar in the old house and soon enough Sally starts be beckoned by strange voices coming from the cellar. Turns out these voices come from ugly, light-fearing, little creatures that eat children's teathe and kidnap them. They start to lure Sally into the entrance to their evil cave in the basement while both her father and Kim ignore her pleas for help.
The bad part is that the afformentioned combination of tiny monsters and an actual want to be scary leads to a film so uneven in its tones you're stuck trying not to laugh when the film is attempting to be scary. The tiny fairy things living in the house's cellar could be really creepy if they weren't murmuring comically to themselves the entire time. On top of this is the fact that in order for Sally to actually be lured into their trap she has to act like the dumbest child in history. Even after she sees the fairies brutally maul someone she is somehow half-compelled to hang out with them. Of course even when she does figure out what's going on her father doesn't pay any attention to her cries for help. Dumb people in horror movies are fine, but when you're entire plot hinges on their ineptitude you've got some major issues with what's going on.
Even worse is the fact that the family dynamic in the film often falls flat, and by often I mean all the time. Katie Holmes as the step-mother who actually carres about the daught more than her actual father is tepid at best and it becomes harder and harder to connect with her as the film goes on. Since you stop caring about the characters altogether by the end since you've pretty much decided they deserve to die for being idiots it becomes diffucult to really enjoy the end of the film, which sacrafices the little suspense that had built up in order to have an all out human/fairy battle. Sadly, the fairy things once again look and act too much like really ugly comedic creatures to strike fear into anyone. This is espeically ture at the end of the film when they aren't even hiding in the shadows anymore.
It is a shame too that the plot of the film doesn't really support what is actually some very solid atmosphere created by director Troy Nixey. His direction makes the old mansion that the film takes place in truly creepy and during many of the scares you could actually see yourself getting sucked in if the character's actions and the constant murmuring of the fairies wasn't pushing you out. He clearly has a great sense for what is scary and an even better sense for building suspense, but the subject matter of the film just doesn't allow it. Of course some of this is Nixey fault as he could have tailored back the inane chatter of the fairies or ramped up their actions a bit more, but he must have some skill for his good work to shine through the awful story.
With a better screenplay and a better handling of the film's evil fairy/trolls Don't Be Afraid of the Dark could have really been terrifying on many levels. Tiny creatures sneaking around in your house is actually quite a scary idea, but the movie never takes full advantage of it and routinely comes of humorous. Whether its trying to be funny or not the humor is a bad call all the way around. Hopefully Nixey gets a few more shots at the horror genre, because with the right direction and story he could definetly make something scary. Then we might actually be afraid of the dark.
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