Meet The Insane Cousins Of The Borrowers

Much like my last blog post, this movie review will cover something that was technically a release from last year, but went straight to DVD here and wasn't released until this year. Today, it's the remake of the 1973 horror movie with the same name, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark.

Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison) has gone to live with her father, Alex (Guy Pierce) and his girlfriend, Kim (Katie Holmes), who are staying at Blackwood Manor, an old house that the two are in the process of restoring. Sally soon hears voices coming from the basement, and finds out about the creatures who have been living in the house for sometime. These creatures become hostile and Sally tries to convince everyone around her that they are not alone in the house.

This may be the shortest blog I've done since, to be blunt, the movie is unremarkable. It's not a bad movie, but there's really not much to say about it.

Not having seen the original, I can't compare the two. However, based on what I've seen in this version, I have a feeling the original would win out by relying more on making the most of what little they had to work with.

Acting-wise, everyone is serviceable. There are only four people that the movie really focuses on (the fourth is Jack Thompson's character, Mr. Harris, a workman restoring the house), but no one really rises above the occasion. Bailee, as the character with the most screentime, is required to be inquisitive, scared and determined and while she pulls it off, it's not something we haven't seen before.

Guy and Katie do well as the parent and surrogate parent to Bailee's character but Guy is strictly cast as the non-believer and thus, his dialogue consists of confronting his daughter and wondering what to do with her and beyond that, he doesn't have much of a character.

Katie essentially plays the mystery solver (or as close to it as we see) and, again, does what is required but nothing more.

Atmosphere-wise, once again, nothing outstanding. Loads of shots with no dialogue, slow wandering around, loud music playing when the supposedly scary parts happen (and it keeps playing, thus killing any tension). Really, not much to say.

I do have one thing I can commit to, however: the creatures that serve as the antagonists as the film? Their design sucks. They look to me like hunchbacked rats, and they resemble rejected designs for villains from the Madagascar series. Attempts to be scary come across as unintentionally amusing and their whispers throughout the house are easily mocked, thus robbing them of any intimidation.

Without spoiling it, I will say I liked the ending, but then I'm into that sort of thing.

I really wish I had seen the original, but I don't think it's been released on DVD here, it would have been an interesting comparison. Oh well. I do apologize for such a paltry sized blog but really, this movie could very well be one of the contenders for the definition of average. On the whole, it gets a 3/5.