Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

1973 "Now you see them, now you don't...now you die."
6.5| 1h14m| en
Details

A young couple inherits an old mansion inhabited by small demon-like creatures who are determined to make the wife one of their own.

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Reviews

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Foreverisacastironmess Very much like with "Dark Night of the Scarecrow" and "Don't Go to Sleep", this is another of those relatively unknown TV-produced horror pictures from back in the day that is all about slow but sure pacing and effective tension and dread that gently builds up to a chilling finish. I saw the remake way before I r watched this and I did like it a lot, I think it's one of the painfully few remakes that are actually well done, but after consideration I find this the much better film simply because it's very scaled down in comparison, and to me its elements of mystery and fear are a lot more deeper richer and satisfying for that, and you care about the poor victim a lot more. The story is a pretty simple and straightforward one, being of a timid young woman who unwittingly releases something awful and devious from a mysterious sealed-up old fireplace that fully intends to drag her back down into the dank hell from which it came and condemn her to a truly dark fate that's probably worse than death, and what can she possibly do to save herself when nobody will even believe her? You can put together where it's all heading fairly quickly, but there's still plenty of eerie suspense and atmosphere to it that it fills out the time nicely and it kept me interested all the way through, it has a great driving subtle build up to the grim ending. It was a wonderful little surprise to me, I'd certainly put it as a buried gem as well as a very early example of a miniature monsters on the attack based horror movie that's told with economy and skill and is a very worthwhile viewing experience, particularly if you're a fan of that crazy sub-genre. It's just trying to tell a good old fashioned spooky tale of encroaching doom in a big dark house with little goblins running around, and an ending that goes for quieter chills rather than obnoxious jump scare thrills and I love that, that's what we need more of today! I thought Kim Darby was very good, she projected just the right kind of vulnerability and for a little while it almost feels a bit on the psychological slant, like you're not totally sure if she's going mad or not.. She's so darn mousy though that's she's practically helpless and is basically easy prey for the evil relentless tiny fiends. I appreciate the odd onion/raisin head design of the twisted fairy folk, while you do see the age of the makeup effects, it's nice and practical and I think the weird and neat look of the things fits the tone quite well. It's so clever the way they filmed them in a scale that makes them appear a lot smaller than they actually were, it makes them a lot more creepy and effective. It tickles me the way they all jibber-jabber at once so that their demented high-pitched unnatural voices overlap and it sounds like they're all having a little chant! I love the bad ending, it works so well and is pretty sad and unsettling, with the foreboding exterior shot of the house with the spectral green lighting that appears whenever the creatures do, they've won and can wait forever for new 'friends' if they have to... I love the black cat of ill omen at the beginning, somehow very Halloweenish, which is a great time to watch this picture. Simplistic but very engaging and eerie tale of suspense and unseen lurking fears in the deep dark that are closing in... Excellent spooky hidden treasure of a movie that may possibly make you want to always leave a light on!
Theo Robertson This is one of those movies you might have seen on TV late one night in your childhood years and you forget all the details such as what the plot is , and who starred in it and eventually you forget the title and yet you can quite clearly and vividly remember the imagery of it - that of a young woman being trapped in a dark house with a group of malevolent demons with fright inducing faces . I remember seeing this too from my childhood and it is very remarkable that a TVM from the 1970s has so far seen a grand total of over 160 people come to this page to pass comment on it . This must be one of the great masterworks of made for television films musn't it ? Sadly after seeing this 35 years after seeing it for the first time I came to this website and looked through a fair amount of comments that summed up my feelings and that is my memory cheated and much of my affection I carried towards this TVM might mainly be down to nostalgia . Reading a comment from 2008 it appears DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK had an average user rating of 7.3 and now it's dropped considerably to 6.9 which isn't too bad for a made for television production and far far higher than a great number of Hallmark and SyFy productions get but one knows the rating will fall further as more people either having seen this many years ago and rewatching it as an adult or people hearing of its great reputation and seeing it for the first time will be disappointed To be fair a lot of thought has gone in to the realisation of the demon people . . They're never entirely convincing but some congratulations for the effects crew for putting some imagination in to their creations . They are somewhat daft and yet when they're revealed their never as silly looking as they could have been . There is also something practical about the way they use implements such as a coat hanger to switch off lights as they stalk Sally . They do work best when they're unseen and whisper in cold unearthly tones . Little else is outstanding and the cast are very wooden especially Jim Hutton who is capable of giving light comical performances even in the most mediocre of movies yet seems entirely bored with everything here . I don't know if it's the fault of the cinematographer or if I saw a disgracefully poor print copy but I often couldn't see was happening on screen to due scenes being dimply lit and DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK - BE FRUSTRATED BY IT would have been a more appropriate title
Joxerlives Interesting film but let down by some very leaden and unimaginative production values and direction. It would have been better had they left the creatures more in the darkness, once you actually see them then they lose all credibility. Also they seem to be not that formidable, they retreat from light so why doesn't Kim Darby just dump a can of petrol down the chimney and fry them? Why doesn't she just buy herself a shotgun and blow them away? And in the immortal words of Eddie Murphy why the blazes doesn't she just get out of the house?Kim Darby is extremely good just as she was in True Grit but she's by far the best thing in it, the other actors are very weak. It's interesting to see it all in retrospect in terms of the feminist revolution, this is the very beginning of woman's lib (which is even referred to in passing)and the patronising attitude everyone exhibits towards housewife Sally is quite startling.The ending is probably the reason why everyone remembers this film, for a TV movie of the week to have an ending where the heroine actually 'joins' the bad guys must have been quite daring at the time. So what happens next? Does Sally's husband and her friends try to rescue her? Or do they just brick up the chimney and make sure no one ever opens it again? Has she actually become one of the creatures or is she their queen and do they feed off her soul (one of the creatures says they want Sally's 'spirit'). What about the photos she took as she was being dragged towards the chimney?Interesting but really doesn't live up to its' reputation.
MARIO GAUCI The fact that this has just been remade (under the aegis of executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, no less) suggests it has classic status within the genre but, then, so many horror films from this era have been revisited during the last decade that it hardly matters anymore whether the original actually had any real merit to begin with! And, to be sure, this emerged to be just fair – not really scary and not all that engaging either: the problem lies with the fact that the monsters that terrorize the heroine are not only given too much exposure but, even more regrettably, they are made to speak – which rather dissipates their other-worldliness! Kim Darby does well enough by her role but, again, because the Gremlins-like creatures are introduced at the very start i.e. before the leading lady herself even shows up, there is no chance of the audience considering that what she is seeing is only in her own mind! Having grown up – via Robert Aldrich's notoriously violent and sleazy gangland thriller THE GRISSOM GANG (1971) – from the tomboy-ish girl she played in TRUE GRIT (1969; which has itself been reworked last year), Darby is here married to Jim Hutton, representing the rather hollow aspirations (that is to, say, be made a partner in some big-business firm) of every working-man-emanating-from-a-small-town of the day. With this in mind, he has little patience with his wife's 'tantrums' when she tells of strange goings-on in their home (a bequest of her grandparents) and that she is even seeing things. Predictably, when he gives a dinner party to impress his future associates, all hell breaks loose.The film is certainly tolerable at just 74 minutes but, typical of 1970s made-for-TV efforts, it tends to hold back too much, so that one ends up wondering what was the point of it all. Here, in fact, we never learn what the creatures are or where they came from, not to mention the real nature of their relationship with the elderly handy-man (former Preston Sturges regular William Demarest!). The finale is surprisingly downbeat, then, but it is too rushed and obscure to really be given much thought: although we are told why the creatures want Darby specifically and what they intend doing with her – since she was the one to liberate them from their centuries-old imprisonment in the walled-up fireplace, she has to join their ranks (even though, when they are carrying her there, she tries to defend herself by repeatedly activating the flashlight of a camera that happens to be on a nearby table) – but why would they willfully seek refuge there again at the end rather than escape out into the open through the broken windows of the main door (cue another stretch of enforced waiting in the fireplace with Darby in tow)?! Mind you, the notion of there being 'something creeping in the dark' probably resonates with most viewers (especially those living in big, old and out-of-the-way houses) but one would have hoped that something a little more gripping had been devised in this case. As it stands, the one genuinely unsettling thing about the whole film is the music score!