Don’t be Afraid of the Dark
Starring: Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes
Dir: Troy Nixey
One and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Comic book artist Troy Nixey’s debut feature Don’t be Afraid of the Dark boasts the writing credit of Guillermo del Toro, but the film is undermined by a nonstop barrage of flimsy characters and gigantic plot holes. While such drawbacks are not entirely unexpected in horror films, they are ill matched to the unfrightening little CGI monsters in the film, who appear to have been added in an effort to broaden the film’s audience.

It is a pity, because Don’t be Afraid of the Dark begins on a tense, brooding note about unspeakable horrors lurking beneath the earth’s surface, with a chillingly grotesque reference to human teeth and a murder. Nixey’s film is the exact opposite of the one he probably proceeded to make – it has characters about whom we never care, plot points that never excite, and zero moments of shock or unsettling horror to even cause minimal effect of the viewer’s pulse.