Are you Afraid of the Dark?

So Katie Holmes has been released from the Cruise home once again to return to her original career (prior to being Mrs Cruise) as actress. This annual occurrence sees her in the remake of the 70’s horror, Don’t be afraid of the Dark. Not to be confused with the 90’s children’s TV show, Are you afraid of the Dark, in which a group of children sat around a camp fire, burning the same 3 logs, and exchanging ghostly tales. No! This is a story in which a young girl, Sally, goes to live with her father and step-mother, in an eerie manor house. Maybe it is the grandeur of the house itself, with its dark corners and looming staircases, far from the semi-detached homes of many twentieth century westerners, that makes it immediately unnerving. However, a part from the preordained imagery of the “scary house”, there is very little else in this film that had me reaching for the nearest pillow.

What the film lacked in continuity it replaced in longevity. Instead of explaining itself, it just kept going; apparently adopting an “it will call come out in the wash” narrative style. Regardless of the films inclusion of the traditional horror characters, all of them failed to fulfil their preordained and pre-scripted roles. A frustrating example of this is that of the male housekeeper (son of the previous housekeeper) whose character continuously displays a esoteric knowledge of an antecedent event, which he never discloses to the family, ergo, failing to install the crucial initial level of doubt into one of the family member’s minds. Then in a Shining-like instance, he is removed from the house, hitherto the story, before he can. The British maid of the house, similarly, confused me. I have been indoctrinated to believe that British maids in horror films either, A – are aware of the house’s terrifying past and remain within to provide a level of protection to the unknowing owners, or B – are in on it! In this instance, neither was implied. Alternatively, I was left with a nescient old woman whose role was limited to responding to frequent screams and ensuring the set remained clean whilst a suitable level of creepy dirtiness was maintained.

The personification of evil/ threat in the film was manifested in the forms of multiple mal-nourished gremlins. Unfortunately for this film, one of my person pet hates in horror is the prolonged exposure of creatures, ghosts, demons and so forth. When they are not the narrative lead. For example in Beetlejuice (1988) the spirits are central characters and we must, therefore, be able to see them in order to identify with them and their story. Whereas, Incideous (2011), similarly to Don’t be afraid of the Dark, continually exposes the creatures/ spirits, allowing the audience to become accustomed to the form and, therefore, removes the aspect of the unknown – which for me is the critical in generating fear. Individual imagination has the capacity to create something significantly more terrifying than a collective idea of what is scary, because our minds can curate using our own fears. This is why shadows and images out of the corner of the eye always seem to evoke more fear than a midget demon which pinball eyes and a significantly enlarged ribcage. Add to that there is something abnormally cute about them, they are so small, and I’m sure with a good meal and some love and affection they would be ideal pets. I am adamant the owner of Vodermort cat would love these little devils!

Overall, this film has disillusioned my prior admiration for del Toro's horror capabilities, and left me continuing my search for a good old horror film.