Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Editorial

Producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toro was spooked — and influenced — by John Newland’s creepy little film. Indeed, his script fuses old material with touches of Pan’s Labyrinth, stirred with personal enthusiasms, like H. P. Lovecraft and nasty origins of the tooth fairy.

Of course, the new version benefits from effects advances, running to a CGI horde of human-faced, rat-bodied, sharp-toothed little imps. Still, they’re less likely to stick in the memory than the lumpier, crueller creatures of old.

The heroine of the first version was a childless woman with a disbelieving husband; this splits the role between a del Toro-esque little-girl protagonist (Bailee Madison) and a stepmum-to-be (Katie Holmes). That change makes for a less concentrated, less ruthless horror ride.

All the same, it’s a well-crafted old dark-house chiller, with a gorgeously designed main set and eerie fairy-tale leftovers littered around. Director Troy Nixey brings more to the table than most remake hired hands, coordinating sustained terror-by-critter sequences.

A satisfying supernatural horror movie. It won’t traumatise a generation, but it delivers shivers.

Kim Newman