Ahoy-hoy faithful readers! So, here we are with this week’s new movie and oh, do I have a lovely installment for you.
Before I get into it, let me wax poetic about one of my favorite directors/writers - Guillermo Del Toro, the genius behind today’s movie. Ahem.
I love his movies, muchly. <3
Before I get into it, let me wax poetic about one of my favorite directors/writers - Guillermo Del Toro, the genius behind today’s movie. Ahem.
I love his movies, muchly. <3
Thank you.
Don’t be Afraid of the Dark starring Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes, and Bailee Madison. The story’s pretty straightforward. Sally(Madison) is a little girl with a troubled past moves in with her father (Pearce)and his girlfriend Kim (Holmes) after her mother decides she doesn’t want her anymore. All this occurs right when her father and father’s girlfriend are in the middle of renovating a beautiful old mansion. Everything goes okay until Little Sally stumbles upon fairies in the furnace of a hidden basement.
Now. A few words before we move on. Given that this a horror blog, you’ve probably already guessed that the aforementioned fairies are not sparkly, Tinkerbell-esque, Navi-following-Link-around-a-Deku-Forest fairies. The thing is, if you know anything about the actual folklore, then you know that fairies are not necessarily bright and shiny creatures. In fact, most accounts suggest that should you meet one...or a pack of them...you should endeavor upon not angering them in any way. Under normal circumstances, they are more mischievous than they are anything else, but to piss them off is asking for an entire barrel of kickass to be dumped on your front lawn.
And that’s exactly what happens to little Sally and her dad and girlfriend. The fairies start off pretty cute by playing nice with Sally, but as the story moves forward they get progressively...um...well, aggressive.
Which leads me to the one thing I did not like about this movie. The characters, which sucks to say because I liked literally EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAPPENS in this movie. Like this totally passed my Guillermo del Toro checklist in all regards.
Beautifully frightening cinematography and sets? Check.
High class, top-tier acting from a very well put together cast? Check.
Fairytale like quality story in a real world setting? Check.
Individually imaginative monster design? Check and Check.
The characters, however...well, let’s be real, okay? They are wholly unlikable. The father appeared to care far more about getting in “Architectural Digest Weekly” or whatever than the mental stability of his daughter. The girlfriend is well-meaning but kind of mealy-mouthed and boring and to top things off, the mother (who they only speak of) really did just give her child away. I would go in on Sally, but...well, she’s just a kid and I suppose if I had parents like hers, I might be stupid enough to release fairies from an old creepy furnace just because they asked me to.
So, anyway, the stories follows the typical kid-loosed-evil-and-adults-don’t-believe-them archetype. No matter what little Sally tells her dad, he just doesn’t buy that she’s not the one causing wanton mischief in their house. The monsters that tried attacking her and ripped up her teddy bear are just nightmares, nothing more and while most parents might remedy the situation by allowing them to the request of sleeping with the lights on, or, maybe, sleeping with them for a night or two, Daddy Dearest does nothing of the sort. He does what busy people who don’t engage their children do, send them straight to the psychiatrist to up their meds. Woo, ritalin!
Okay, so fortunately for little Sally, Daddy’s girlfriend Kim gets with the program early and starts actually looking into Sally’s claims. See, the previous owner of the house was a famous photographer and was said to have disappeared after his son disappeared. She does a little digging and finds out that maybe, just maybe, fairies might be real. And maybe they might have something to do with the disappearance of both the boy and his father.
All right, so, Sally’s father throws a big important party for big important people and Kim, who’s fully engaged with the fact that fairies or no fairies, something really wrong is happening and they need to get Sally out of the house immediately, starts packing little Sally’s bags. In the meantime, she tells Sally to use a polaroid to get pictures of the fairies, plus, as an added bonus, the flash will keep them at bay because, much like gremlins, they don’t like bright light.
Don’t be Afraid of the Dark starring Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes, and Bailee Madison. The story’s pretty straightforward. Sally(Madison) is a little girl with a troubled past moves in with her father (Pearce)and his girlfriend Kim (Holmes) after her mother decides she doesn’t want her anymore. All this occurs right when her father and father’s girlfriend are in the middle of renovating a beautiful old mansion. Everything goes okay until Little Sally stumbles upon fairies in the furnace of a hidden basement.
Now. A few words before we move on. Given that this a horror blog, you’ve probably already guessed that the aforementioned fairies are not sparkly, Tinkerbell-esque, Navi-following-Link-around-a-Deku-Forest fairies. The thing is, if you know anything about the actual folklore, then you know that fairies are not necessarily bright and shiny creatures. In fact, most accounts suggest that should you meet one...or a pack of them...you should endeavor upon not angering them in any way. Under normal circumstances, they are more mischievous than they are anything else, but to piss them off is asking for an entire barrel of kickass to be dumped on your front lawn.
And that’s exactly what happens to little Sally and her dad and girlfriend. The fairies start off pretty cute by playing nice with Sally, but as the story moves forward they get progressively...um...well, aggressive.
Which leads me to the one thing I did not like about this movie. The characters, which sucks to say because I liked literally EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAPPENS in this movie. Like this totally passed my Guillermo del Toro checklist in all regards.
Beautifully frightening cinematography and sets? Check.
High class, top-tier acting from a very well put together cast? Check.
Fairytale like quality story in a real world setting? Check.
Individually imaginative monster design? Check and Check.
The characters, however...well, let’s be real, okay? They are wholly unlikable. The father appeared to care far more about getting in “Architectural Digest Weekly” or whatever than the mental stability of his daughter. The girlfriend is well-meaning but kind of mealy-mouthed and boring and to top things off, the mother (who they only speak of) really did just give her child away. I would go in on Sally, but...well, she’s just a kid and I suppose if I had parents like hers, I might be stupid enough to release fairies from an old creepy furnace just because they asked me to.
So, anyway, the stories follows the typical kid-loosed-evil-and-adults-don’t-believe-them archetype. No matter what little Sally tells her dad, he just doesn’t buy that she’s not the one causing wanton mischief in their house. The monsters that tried attacking her and ripped up her teddy bear are just nightmares, nothing more and while most parents might remedy the situation by allowing them to the request of sleeping with the lights on, or, maybe, sleeping with them for a night or two, Daddy Dearest does nothing of the sort. He does what busy people who don’t engage their children do, send them straight to the psychiatrist to up their meds. Woo, ritalin!
Okay, so fortunately for little Sally, Daddy’s girlfriend Kim gets with the program early and starts actually looking into Sally’s claims. See, the previous owner of the house was a famous photographer and was said to have disappeared after his son disappeared. She does a little digging and finds out that maybe, just maybe, fairies might be real. And maybe they might have something to do with the disappearance of both the boy and his father.
All right, so, Sally’s father throws a big important party for big important people and Kim, who’s fully engaged with the fact that fairies or no fairies, something really wrong is happening and they need to get Sally out of the house immediately, starts packing little Sally’s bags. In the meantime, she tells Sally to use a polaroid to get pictures of the fairies, plus, as an added bonus, the flash will keep them at bay because, much like gremlins, they don’t like bright light.
So, the party’s happening and little Sally is going around the house snapping pictures of as many fairies as she can. They manage to trap her in one of the rooms and attack her. Fortunately, her father manages to break into the room and save her before they can do her harm.
Okay, so, with her pictures of fairy attacks all over the place and one squashed fairy as proof, dad finally decides that maybe this environment isn’t a good one for a small child. Kim shows him the basement where the fairies are and they decide that they’re going to leave right away. Of course, that means they have to get attacked by fairies on the way out. And then, the next popular Guillermo del Toro trope, that one truly wholesome character in the story has to die.
Check. Sorry, Kim, it was nice knowing you.
And having survived the harrowing adventure, father and daughter leave the house and drive off into the sunset. The furnace is bolted shut forever...or at least until the next family moves in.
Okay, so this was going to get a jewel just by right of being a Guillermo del Toro joint. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything done by him that I’ve out and out hated. What can I say, he makes good movies. Plus, I might add, this is a REMAKE and if I have not mentioned it yet, I have no love for remakes. If you ever hear me saying that I like a remake, it's a damned good remake.
Okay, so, with her pictures of fairy attacks all over the place and one squashed fairy as proof, dad finally decides that maybe this environment isn’t a good one for a small child. Kim shows him the basement where the fairies are and they decide that they’re going to leave right away. Of course, that means they have to get attacked by fairies on the way out. And then, the next popular Guillermo del Toro trope, that one truly wholesome character in the story has to die.
Check. Sorry, Kim, it was nice knowing you.
And having survived the harrowing adventure, father and daughter leave the house and drive off into the sunset. The furnace is bolted shut forever...or at least until the next family moves in.
Okay, so this was going to get a jewel just by right of being a Guillermo del Toro joint. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything done by him that I’ve out and out hated. What can I say, he makes good movies. Plus, I might add, this is a REMAKE and if I have not mentioned it yet, I have no love for remakes. If you ever hear me saying that I like a remake, it's a damned good remake.
Okay, so next week we are taking a brief detour into Dracula territory with Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary. Another one that I have no idea what to expect, but I have high expectations for Dracula movies and vampire movies in general. I’m gonna grade this one pretty hard so I hope it doesn’t disappoint.
See you next time!
O~
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