sjalkarjadottir I admit, it is a problem having a video night and watching one poor movie after another .. you almost expect the worst.However, this movie is bad. It is not at all suspenseful, it has quite terrible acting (which is a surprise considering the actors are by no means B-actors), bad, bad CGI .. and most prominently .. a really bad story!At its core, it is a redemption patchwork family movie .. with creatures. Sadly though, the family drama never exceeds "tele-novela" drama quality .. and the creatures themselves are about as scary as muppets. At no point the threat of those creatures feels serious in any way. They only thing they do benefit from is the clumsiness of the protagonists (the usual problem of protagonists being unable to run a straight line without falling to the ground, or fumble a key ... or make it from a room normal sized living room in less than 5 minutes.Stay away from this movie, it is terrible .. and sadly not "so bad, its good"...

Michael Ledo The movie opens with a spoiler by letting us know something evil is in the basement of a home.I enjoyed the animated aspect of the credits. It gave the movie that classic 1960's feel. Afterwards we have Guy Pearce moving into the same home with his young melancholy daughter, Sally, who would prefer to be with her mom in LA. She also has an instant dislike of Katie Holmes, dad's girlfriend. Eventually the family discovers the basement, which had been sealed. The area is famous for its sink holes that go deep into the earth. Sally is fascinated with shaft/tunnel in the basement.The movie initially keeps you in suspense as to what is in the basement and which travels through the old ventilation system. Good suspense. Good creepy story. Good child acting. Great movie to show when the girls want to have a sleep over. And then when things are good and tense, flip the breaker off and let everything go dark.No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Try not to think too deep and enjoy this one.

Davis P Don't be afraid of the dark is apparently a remake of an old made for TV movie, had no clue it was, but that's just some background for ya. First I would like to praise the cast and acting, both were very good I thought. First of all Katie Holmes was great in the film and I really thought she was the best part, she was touching in some scenes and then very serious and dramatic in others, which was called for. Then there's Bailee Madison, who is our star, I thought she showed impressive acting skills for her age, if she chooses I'm sure that a Hollywood career could be in her future. She was very focused and very centered in her role, and I was actually really impressed that her performance wasn't cheesy or over-the-top. Guy Pearce was all right, but to be honest, I think that just about anyone could've played his role and done well with it/fit it. Now the CGI little creatures the crawl around and terrorize throughout the film were a little lackluster looking and it just wasn't scary at all. I really was hoping that don't be afraid of the dark would have some scariness to it and maybe some creepiness, but it seems to me that the only creepy parts were the very beginning and the very ending scenes. But I think the reason I liked it better than I probably thought I would have is because of Katie Holmes and Bailee Madison, they really just made up for what the movie was lacking, not all of it though. I had to take off points for the lack of creepiness/scariness and the CGI creatures that ultimately disappointed. Overall this gets a 7/10.

GL84 After moving into a new house in the countryside, a young girl discovers the area home to a race of diminutive beings who need to feed on human teeth to survive and must convince her parents to help her stop them.This is quite a decent enough effort that does have enough going for it to make it work. The main thing going for this one is the fact that house itself is used to build the kind of atmosphere and presence that gives this a rather impressive amount of suspense throughout this. By being the kind of location that can accurately keep the creatures hidden so well as it does here by utilizing the darkened hallways, light-less rooms and generally creepy layout this gives off, it has the perfect hiding locations to allow the creatures to stay a rather impressive force by having them know the lay-out so that there's an advantage to them that's not available elsewhere. That gives this a few rather impressive attack scenes throughout this with there being the basement brutalizing and the ambush in the bathroom to give this a rather spectacular air about it to having the kind of action required to stay invested here. As well, the final half which is the assault on the dinner party and the guests there is quite a bit of fun and really works quite well, helped by the swarm of creatures there but also managing to get plenty of high-end spectacle coming from this so it all works out quite well. These do help somewhat to overcome the few flaws in here, though nothing overcomes the factor of having the father be so utterly clueless and careless towards his daughter's claims. The blatant dismissals here generally feel solely there to provide an excuse to stay in the house and keep the plot rolling along rather than out of any general kind of rational behavior on his part, as the kind of sequences ushered throughout here are far more worthy of investigation on his part and these are brushed off quite simply to move the plot along so these are quite unbelievable. As well, the constantly-changing tone of the creatures here is somewhat confusing, since it gives them a reverence and feel towards their behavior and general appearance that reads more like a fantasy than a straightforward horror effort so there's a rather alarming clash against the brutal and vicious actions they undergo here. It doesn't help the CGI looks atrocious and off throughout here as they rarely interact well with their surroundings and the size changes throughout, but when they have a whimsical attitude towards someone here only to suddenly swarm them with knives and surgical tools to violently begin hacking them to pieces, it's differing moods is a big problem. Otherwise, this one isn't so bad.Rated R: Violence, Language and continuous children-in-jeopardy.