Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Miramax Films | Release Date: August 26, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
20
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 24, 2011
This is a very good haunted house film. It milks our frustration deliciously. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 25, 2011
The fact that Troy Nixey's debut feature is one creepyass frightmare is what matters, and boy, does he put the nail in that metaphorical coffin the first time out. It's not perfect, but it's awfully close. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithAug 26, 2011
Harks back to a 1960s idea of what a horror film should be. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Matthew HaysAug 25, 2011
This is still a seriously entertaining horror movie, one that will please newcomers as well as fans of the original oddity. But by the end of the film, I was wishing the filmmakers had left us wondering about precisely who and what these critters were just a little bit longer. Read full review
75
Washington PostJohn DeForeAug 25, 2011
Feels retro in all the right ways; it's a bump-in-the-night tale that, if not for the occasional glimpse of a cellphone or reference to Adderall, could have been told decades ago. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 25, 2011
The movie is deliciously creepy even if it does exhibit some issues that keep it from being a top-notch example of "things that go bump in the night" horror. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 25, 2011
Some of the knife-twisting later scenes in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" feel almost campy, like winks at the audience or studious self-referentiality. None of this is quite enough to ruin a gripping, gruesome fable, which of course del Toro's fans and other genre buffs will rush out to see, but it does render the movie a minor muddle rather than a horror masterwork. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderMichael WilmingtonAug 25, 2011
The remake plays like a shallower, more clichéd variation on his masterpiece, "Pan's Labyrinth," but its mix of gory effects and deliciously old-fashioned visuals make for a classy, scary horror show. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnAug 26, 2011
Largely a cut-and-paste affair, although useful for that very reason; it provides a glaring reminder that scary movies have evolved, both in terms of style and expectations, but the evolution isn't worth the effort. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasAug 24, 2011
Absent any qualities beyond the surface, like the history and politics that trouble Del Toro's best films, Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark is little better than a half-decent scare machine. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 26, 2011
One major reason it succeeds is because of 11-year-old actress Bailee Madison, who brings a wonderful believability to her role as the girl at the center of the film. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreAug 24, 2011
Entirely too literal, but it still manages to be a literally hair-raising piece of modern-style old school Gothic horror. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichAug 30, 2011
When the monsters finally show themselves, this potent theme is lost amid a lot of proficiently staged but insubstantial scare scenes - heavy on musical stingers and weightless CGI. Read full review
60
MovielineStephanie ZacharekAug 25, 2011
Del Toro loves his creatures. Maybe he loves them too much: He always wants us to get a good look at them, and that's one of the things that saps the spookiness from this Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 25, 2011
If you flinch at "boo," you'll find plenty to jump at here. Just don't expect striking originality, or even genuinely memorable eeriness. Still, every time "Dark" starts to feel like a generic thriller, it's saved by the distinctive stamp of co-screenwriter/producer Guillermo del Toro. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 25, 2011
Wants to scare you, but it can't quite seal the deal. Read full review
60
Village VoiceChuck WilsonAug 23, 2011
If the grand finale isn't as resonantly scary as the original's, maybe that's just because, try though we might, we're no longer impressionable kids. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 24, 2011
Curled up at home with the lights off and DVD player running, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark might be passable fun. Spread over a movie screen, the film's modest ambition gets dwarfed by expectations, especially after paying for a ticket. Read full review
55
NPRIan BuckwalterAug 25, 2011
Eventually, too little is left to the imagination to do what it does best: fill in the gaps with visions far more frightening than anything a filmmaker could put onscreen. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 25, 2011
Mr. Nixey is doing an Alfred Hitchcock homage within a movie lacking anything as subversive, or skilled, as Hitchcock. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliAug 25, 2011
All of this amounts to so much stylish nostalgia - not half as repulsive as the splatterific torture porn currently dominating the horror genre, and not half as cynical, either. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 25, 2011
None of Mr. del Toro's classy fiddling, however, can improve on the original's marvelously economical scares. But if you've always wondered what the tooth fairies want with all those teeth - or if you just need proof that a terrified Katie Holmes looks not that different from the everyday version - this is the movie for you. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 25, 2011
This insipid wannabe frightener features a checklist of derivative conventions. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 25, 2011
With Del Toro's name in the credits, standard chills aren't enough. We want imagination to run riot. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 25, 2011
Joltingly graphic and atmospheric (Nixey and his crew at least know how to set up a few good shocks), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark fails to involve us in any meaningful way with its characters. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 25, 2011
A big part of the problem comes in the casting. Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes - the kind of odd pairing of actors that comes only after your first and second choices have passed - are unconvincing and curiously unsympathetic as the architect Alex and his girlfriend. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 25, 2011
To my taste there's too much of everything. The soundtrack never shuts up with the wind, the murmurings, the shudderings. And while director Nixey has talent, his indiscriminately roving camera tends to diffuse the tension, not heighten it. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondAug 19, 2011
Blame director Troy Nixey for lacking the touch, or blame the basic material which is better suited to TV - either way, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark never gets you jumping out of your seat. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttAug 15, 2011
The result is a scary movie that is genuinely scary in parts, although an adult can't help noticing this is set in the very worn and tattered territory of the haunted-house genre. Then when you get a glimpse of the CGI critters causing all the mayhem, the scares completely vanish. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 15, 2011
Rather than trying to frighten adults, this entire R-rated exercise feels engineered to emotionally scar any younger audiences who should happen to see it -- much as the original did del Toro back in the day. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 24, 2011
Neither colorfully brutal nor especially fun. It's a plodding, derivative gothic potboiler: "The Shining" meets "Coraline," with a touch of "Gremlins" played (boringly) straight. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyAug 25, 2011
Really, truly, very scary … At least until about 30 minutes in, when you start to be distracted by the lack of logic in the storytelling and the fact that the nasty little gremlins responsible for all the bumps in the night can be offed pretty easily. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 25, 2011
While there are moments of eldritch atmosphere and a few pro forma jolts, nothing here justifies our attention, let alone the film's inexplicable R rating. Read full review
38
ObserverMelissa LafskyAug 24, 2011
It just goes to show, no matter how burnished your backdrop or splendiferous your setting, if your script is crap, you're stuck with a total dud. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezAug 22, 2011
Does Katie Holmes's hubby get script-doctoring rights even on her own film projects? That would explain why Troy Nixey's inane Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, co-written and produced by Guillermo del Toro, at times suggests an anti-Rx PSA. Read full review
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