Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a horror movie from 2010. It was written by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro and directed by comic book artist Troy Nixey.
Get the Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark Movie
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark Horror movie (2010) is a remake of the horror movie with the same name (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark) which was released in 1973 and made by ABC television. The original movie was produced by Nigel McKeand.
The movie is about a family that movies into a 19th-century mansion in Rhode Islands. Once there, the daughter Sally begins to witness malevolent creatures that emerge from a sealed ash pit in the basement of the house. Sally is sent to live with her father and his new girlfriend in Rhode Island. The father and the girlfriend believe that Sally has released creatures from a sealed ash pit in the basement of the home. The idea is that the creatures are supposed to be tooth fairies.
The Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark movie from 2010 is a co-production between the United States, Australia, and Mexico. The movie was recorded at the Drusilla Mansion in Mount Macedon and Melbourne (both in Victoria, Australia).
The official release date was August 26, 2011, first premiered in the United States, released by Miramax Films and FilmDistrict.
The initial release date of the movie was scheduled for January 21, 2011, but due to the sale of Miramax by Disney on December 3, 2010, the release was put on hold until the sale was finalized. This is why you may see “Don’t be afraid of the dark 2010” or “Don’t be afraid of the dark 2011”.
Don’t be afraid of the dark movie (2010) details
- Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Horror, Fantasy
- Directed by: Troy Nixey
- Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Matthew Robbins
- Box office: $23,900,000
- Studio: Miramax Films
- Rating: Violence and terror (R rating)
- Runtime: 76 minutes
- Budget: $25 million
- Gross: $38.3 million
The movie has received mixed reviews. The movie is ranked 5,6/10 on IMDB. It was reported that 60% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 5.87/10. Critique of the movie argues that the movie fails to deliver the skin-crawling chills of the original
Holmes, Pearce, and Madison’s performances Have been praised. Equally so the direction, atmosphere, and musical score.
”While architect Alex Hurst (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) restore their Gothic mansion’s period interiors, Alex’s young daughter Sally (Bailee Madison) can investigate the macabre history and dark corners of the estate. Spurring Sally’s investigation are the voices-rasping whispers who call out to her from the basement, who promise her understanding and friendship, who are so very hungry and would like to be set free. When Sally gives in to her curiosity, she opens a gateway into a hellish underworld from which an army of beady-eyed, sharp-clawed monsters emerge, small in size but endless in number. Confronted with the horror that now threatens to taker her life and destroys her family, Sally desperately tries to warn the whole house, but there’s just one problem: no one believes her”
Don’t be afraid of the dark movie plot
The movie takes place in BlackwoodManor in Rhode Islands and is set in the 19th century.
The focus of the story is 8-year old Sally Hurst who comes to Rhode Islands to lie with her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim. The two works to restore Blackwood Manor to put it on the market for sale for their client Mr. Jacoby.
The daughter Sally is depressed due to her being forced to her father’s care and for being given copious amounts of Adderall. On the second day, Sally explores the house and finds the hidden basement’s skylight. Mr. Harris, a man working on restoring the house warns Alex, Kim, and Sally not to go into the basement but they ignore this warning. When there, Sally hears creatures calling her name and follows the voices. She finds a sealed fireplace with the text ”BE AFRAID” written in runes above it. Unable to resist her curiosity, she opens the fireplace and meets the creatures whom the movie is centered around. She also finds one of the old housekeeper’s teeth. The creatures prove to be hostile and start stealing Alex’s razor and shredding Kim’s clothes.
Prior to this, the renowned wildlife painted Lord Blackwood, the former owner of the estate summons his housekeeper to the basement where he reluctantly bludgeons her to death with a hammer and chisel after having been transformed into a creature. Blackwood removes her teeth and his own and offers them to mysterious creatures down an ash pit within an old fireplace. The creatures in the fireplace reject his offer as they demand only the teeth of children (as they are tooth fairies). He begs the creatures to give back his kidnapped son but is dragged down the ash pit himself and transformed into one of them.
When Alex and Kim go to the torn for a business trip, Sally goes to the basement to speak with the creatures. But Mr. Harris finds her, sends her away, and tries to seal the fireplace.
Out of the fireplace, the creatures emerge and start attaching Harris using his own tools. As a result, he is hospitalized. Because of Sally’s encounters with the creatures, Alex calls a therapist to speak to Sally. When doing so, Sally draws a sketch of one of the creatures who attacked her.
When Kim visits Harris in the hospital, he tells her to find the unpublished artwork of Lord Blackwood in the local library. With the help of the librarian, she locates the artwork and sees a creature depicted, which are described as tooth fairies. Occasionally, they turn a human into one of their own.
As Kim is on her way home, Sally is attacked yet again by the creatures whilst bathing, and the lead creature proves to be a transformed Lord Blackwood. It proclaims the creatures will make Sally one of their own. When in the basement, Kim finds a mural painted by Lord Blackwood. The mural depicts Blackwood’s son being taken below ground by the creatures. When Kim sees this, she urges Alex to recognize the anomalies, as he is more focused on hosting a dinner for Mr. Jacoby and friends.
Alex does not believe the stories he is told nor the signs in the beginning but when Sally finally gets trapped in the library by the creatures, Alex understands what is going on. Sally successfully fends the creatures off by using her camera’s flashlight.
Following this, Alex and Kim try to escape from the house with Sally but they are knocked out by the creatures. In trying to wake Kim up, Sally is also knocked unconscious.
Waking up, Sally finds herself with tied-up feet and with the creatures dragging her to the basement for her transformation. As Kim wakes up, she rushes to the basement to find the creatures and Sally. She cuts the rope around Sally’s feet but then gets tied up in ropes as well. In an effort to break free, she breaks her leg. As a result, the creatures start to drag Kim into the fireplace. Sally successfully crushes the creature who was Lord Blackwood, using a flashlight and it dies.
Alex gets to the scene but it is too late. Just as he arrives, Kim disappears into the fireplace.
After some time, Alex and Sally return to the mansion which is now abandoned, to leave a drawing of Kim there. The entrance is now bolted with metal, but after they leave, the drawing is pulled into the lair entrance. Sally proves to have been transformed as we get to hear her convincing the creatures to hide as, eventually, people will forget and new people will come to the estate.
For designing the creatures for the movie, Troy Nixey to direct the film Latchkey’s Lament, drew inspiration from pictures of mole rats.
Produced by
- Guillermo del Toro – producer
- William Horberg – executive producer
- Mark Johnson – producer
- Stephen Jones – executive producer
- Nick Nunziata – associate producer
- Tom Williams – executive producer
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark cast
- Bruce Gleeson as the Buggy Driver
- Eddie Ritchard plays the Housekeeper (as Edwina Ritchard)
- Garry McDonald as Blackwood
- Bailee Madison as Sally
- Carolyn Shakespeare-Allen as the Airport Cart Driver
- Katie Holmes as Kim
- Guy Pearce as Alex
- Jack Thompson as Harris
- Julia Blake as Mrs. Underhill
- David Tocci as Workman
- Lance Drisdale as Policeman
- Nicholas Bell as the Psychiatrist
- Libby Gott as the Nurse
- James Mackay as the Librarian
- Emilia Burns as Caterer (as Emelia Burns)
- Alan Dale as Charles Jacoby
- Trudy Hellier as Evelyn Jacoby
- Terry Kenwrick as Bill
- Grant Piro as the Creature voice
- Todd MacDonald as the Creature voice
- Angus Smallwood as the Creature voice
- Dylan Young as the Creature voice
- Guillermo del Toro as the Creature voice
- Abbe Holmes as the Joanne voice
- Richard Davine as a Tourist (uncredited)
- Lisa N Edwards as a Cocktail Party Guest
- Kim Ross as an Extra
- ..and more.