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Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
The horrific film tells of young Sally (Billy Madison) who has been lonely and introverted for a long time. Sally moves to the 19th-century palace, which has restored his father (Jay Pierce) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes). In this bizarre mansion, Sally believes she has released creatures from a sealed ash pit that could turn the tide in the basement of her new home.
17 August 1958, Huddersfield, England, UK
18 February 1982, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
18 December 1978, Toledo, Ohio, USA
15 October 1999, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
1973, British Columbia, Canada
6 May 1947, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
1936, London, England, UK
February 28, 2013
Guillermo del Toro's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is as murky and ill-conceived as its multitude of dimly-lit corners,
August 26, 2011
The season's scariest horror film - and, depending on what the next few months bring, perhaps the year's.
August 26, 2011
This is still a seriously entertaining horror movie, one that will please newcomers as well as fans of the original oddity.
July 10, 2013
Completists of del Toro will want to check it out as a curio but it's hard to imagine general audiences or even horror fans finding anything here they haven't seen before.
May 03, 2015
Straddled uncomfortably between its modest premise and reckless CGI abandon.
August 26, 2015
There's a simple sense of old-fashioned restraint that makes Sally's dark journey a little bit quiet, but also subtly satisfying.
September 01, 2011
The film looks good, it sounds great (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders' score is full of darkly murmuring woodwinds), and Madison is a pip of a lead.
September 08, 2013
If the scares aren't all quite as effective as the rest of the film, then there's still plenty to tickle the nerves of a less jaded horror fan.
August 26, 2011
A welcome alternative to the current genre offerings, steeped in old-fashioned atmosphere and faithful to haunted house routine, albeit to a fault.
August 26, 2011
Despite all the care that has been put into it, the film doesn't transcend its dime-store horror roots.
October 05, 2011
There is so much here that one admires, one wishes that there was more to love.
October 07, 2015
The thoroughly unsympathetic protagonist aside, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" just isn't that frightening.