Blackwood Manor has new tenants. 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)–neglected by her real mother and brushed aside by the careerist father–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: the homunculi. Confronted with the horror that now threatens to taker her life and destroy her family, Sally desperately tries to warn the whole house, but there’s just one problem: no one believes her. Will she make them understand in time, or will they become another chapter in the centuries-long horror story of Blackwood Manor?
Based on the 1973 telefilm that Guillermo del Toro believes to be the scariest TV production ever made, DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK was co-written and co-produced by del Toro and directed by Troy Nixey. Akin to Pan’s Labyrinth, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark focuses on a young girl’s struggle against menacing and terrifying forces.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is en American dark fantasy horror film written by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro, directed by comic book artist Troy Nixey and filmed at the Drusilla Mansion in Mount Macedon, Victoria and Melbourne, Australia. The film stars Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, and Bailee Madison, as a family moving into a 19th-century Rhode Island mansion, where the withdrawn daughter (Madison) begins to witness malevolent creatures that emerge from a sealed ash pit in the basement of the house. It is a remake of the 1973 ABC made-for-television horror film of the same name that starred Kim Darby.
About the Story
At Blackwood Manor in Providence County, Rhode Island, renowned wildlife painter Lord Blackwood summons his housekeeper into the basement where he reluctantly kills her with a hammer and chisel. He removes her teeth, as well as his own, and offers them to mysterious creatures down an ash pit within an old fireplace; however, the creatures demand the teeth of children. Blackwood begs for them to give back his kidnapped son, only to be dragged down the ash pit by the creatures.
In the present day, 8-year old Sally Hurst arrives in Rhode Island to live with her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim, both restoring Blackwood Manor to put it on the market for their client Mr. Jacoby. Sally is depressed due to her mother forcefully putting her in Alex’s care and giving her copious amounts of Adderall. On the first night of her stay, the melodious tune from a carousel-styled nightlight awakens the creatures in the ash pit. The next day, Sally wanders the grounds and finds the hidden basement’s skylight. One of the workmen restoring the house, Mr. Harris, warns her, Alex and Kim not to venture into the basement, although they do regardless. Sally takes interest in the sealed fireplace where she hears the creatures calling her name and follows the mysterious voices. “BE AFRAID” is written in runes above it.
Sally opens the fireplace to meet the creatures and finds one of the old housekeeper’s teeth. The creatures quickly prove to be hostile, stealing Alex’s razor and shredding Kim’s clothes. Alex immediately blames Sally and finds a 19th-century silver coin in her possession, which she found under her pillow after the tooth disappeared. Alex and Kim head into town on a business trip and Sally sneaks to the basement to talk with the creatures, but Harris sends her away and tries to seal the fireplace. The creatures emerge and brutally wound him with his own tools and he is hospitalized. Sally’s increasingly frightening encounters with the creatures prompt Alex to call a therapist to talk to Sally, who draws a sketch of one of the creatures that attacked her under her bedsheets.
Kim visits Harris in the hospital, who tells her to find the unpublished artwork of Lord Blackwood in the local library. The librarian reveals the artwork, one of which is of a creature whom he describes as being like tooth fairies, which every now and again turns a human into one of their own. Kim races home as Sally is attacked again by the creatures while having a bath, the lead creature being a transformed Lord Blackwood who proclaims the creatures will make Sally one of their own. Kim finds an undiscovered mural painted by Lord Blackwood in the basement, depicting his son being taken below ground by the creatures. Kim confronts Alex who is more interested in hosting a dinner for Mr. Jacoby and friends. However, he finally realizes what is happening when Sally is trapped in the library by the creatures, but she fends them off by using her camera flash to distract them.
Alex and Kim decide to flee the house with Sally, but both are ambushed by the creatures and knocked out, Sally tries to wake Kim up but also gets ambushed by the creatures and is knocked unconscious. When Sally wakes up, her feet have been tied up with rope, and the creatures are starting to drag her to the basement for her transformation. Kim awakens and goes to basement confronting the creatures, cutting the rope around Sally’s feet but only to get herself in the ropes and her leg broken by it as she struggles to get free. The creatures drag Kim into the fireplace, as a distraught Sally crushes the creature who used to be Lord Blackwood to death with a large flashlight. Alex arrives just as Kim disappears, and the father and daughter mourn their loss.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Directed by: Troy Nixey
Starring: Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, Bailee Madison, Jack Thompson, Alan Dale, Garry McDonald, Julia Blake
Screenplay by: Guillermo del Toro, Matthew Robbins
Production Design by: Roger Ford
Cinematography by: Oliver Stapleton
Film Editing by: Jill Bilcock
Costume Design by: Wendy Chuck
Set Decoration by: Kerrie Brown
Art Direction by: Lucinda Thomson
Music by: Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders
MPAA Rating: R for violence and terror.
Studio: Miramax Films
Release Date: August 26, 2011
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