"Don't be Afraid of the Dark" (2010) is Horror Done Right

Now, how to explain why without spoiling anything?

First thing's first: a University of California, San Diego study has found that people actually enjoy stories more when they've been spoiled. That should give everyone something to think about.

Granted, the researchers took their data and came to the apoplectic conclusion that "plot is overrated," proving once and for all that even great data can fuel crackpot theories.

I've never understood the fear of spoilers, but that doesn't mean I can't respect those who don't want to hear them. So I'll go ahead and warn you when the spoilers are coming up. Inevitably, this review is going to be split into two parts, and the far more interesting bit, lemme tell you, is going to be in the spoilerific portion.

Anyhoot.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark is the best horror films I've seen in years, and while it's certainly not a trailblazer for the genre, sticking close to well-established conventions, it's so refreshingly competent that it throws into sharp relief just how far the horror genre has fallen in the last decade, and how quickly it might be able to recover.

We all know what bad horror looks like. Big monsters with mommy/daddy issues chasing around characters we don't give two hoots about in poorly-plotted chase sequences which inevitably end in graphic dismemberment. Since the deaths of the characters themselves mean absolutely nothing to us, the filmmakers try to compensate by loading as much gore into the frame as possible for that final kill-shot.

Replace the gore with, um, another certain body fluid, and what you get is straight-up porn.

Intelligent horror, on the other hand, gets us to care about the characters being chased, draws out the tension, minimizes the gore, and, ultimately, illuminates our fears, rather than bolstering them. All while scaring the bejeezus out of us.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark is pretty much all of that. So kudos.

The directorial debut of comic book artist Troy Nixey, Don't be Afraid of the Dark tells the story of Sally, a little girl who moves into a big, giant, creepy mansion with her estranged father and his new girlfriend, Kim.

Writer/producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Mimic) is in familiar territory here: an introspective little kid, ignored by his/her parental figures, retreats into a self-made fantasy world which turns out to sport dangerously real monsters.

When Sally discovers a sealed furnace in the basement, it begins calling out to her -- or, rather, voices from inside the furnace begin calling out to her, begging her to "set us free." Sally complies, and is paying for her curiosity soon enough.

Turns out the voices belong to little homunculi -- ancient demons, gnomes, fairies, whatever you want to call them -- and, once released, they seem dead-set on getting Sally to join their ranks.

Creepy, right?

I think it's time for a spoiler warning.

If I could only pick one quality that separates this film from the rest of the pack of horror films that get released, it's this: I can't remember the last time I watched a horror film and felt this bad about one of the characters dying.

This movie did a good job making me care about its characters. They've all got difficult problems to face which all illuminate the human heart, and, when one of these characters dies -- heroically, virtuously, redemptively -- it really made me sad. But it was a cathartic sad. So it was good.

Oh, save for one caveat: the last thirty seconds of this film tries to cram in a plot-twist which is not only lame and predictable, but also thematically counterproductive. So long as I forget about that last lame "twist," I can go ahead and call this a great film.

Spoilers end.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark is a breath of fresh air for the floundering horror market. I hope it eventually scores big bucks at the box office (Hurricane Irene is being blamed for low numbers this weekend), and Troy Nixey gets some other killer scripts to direct for us.

--Serge