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
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
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