I don't know about you, but if I had moved into a creepy country mansion as a child, the last thing I would have done would be wandering around the cellar at night to investigate the source of ominous whispers. Written by Guillermo Del Toro, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark goes for a dark fairy tale approach, with its kid protagonist's casual reaction to supernatural phenomena - when malevolent rat-like creatures reveal they inhabit the house, she tries to befriend them instead of, you know, being scared out of her wits and ending up under psychiatric care for the next 20 years.
A lovely-crafted Gothic story in the Arthur Machen / early H.P. Lovecraft mold, the movie is spooky, competent, mildly disappointing when you realize there is nothing novel about its narrative, characters and mythology. Cue disbelieving father, tension between daughter and stepmother, supernatural intruders becoming more and more aggressive. To call it a triumph of style over substance would be slightly ungenerous, but not too far off the mark.
6/10
A lovely-crafted Gothic story in the Arthur Machen / early H.P. Lovecraft mold, the movie is spooky, competent, mildly disappointing when you realize there is nothing novel about its narrative, characters and mythology. Cue disbelieving father, tension between daughter and stepmother, supernatural intruders becoming more and more aggressive. To call it a triumph of style over substance would be slightly ungenerous, but not too far off the mark.
6/10