Sign In  | Register  |  Help

Critic Reviews

The film looks good, it sounds great (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders' score is full of darkly murmuring woodwinds), and Madison is a pip of a lead.

-Amy BiancolliFull Review

A welcome alternative to the current genre offerings, steeped in old-fashioned atmosphere and faithful to haunted house routine, albeit to a fault.

-William GossFull Review

This is still a seriously entertaining horror movie, one that will please newcomers as well as fans of the original oddity.

-Matthew HaysFull Review

The season's scariest horror film - and, depending on what the next few months bring, perhaps the year's.

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" will turn your nerve endings to Popsicles.

-Kyle SmithFull Review

This artless film even approaches child abuse, in the way it crassly reconfigures the protagonist from the besieged adult woman of the original into a neglected and terrified tot.

-Peter HowellFull Review

Mr. Nixey is doing an Alfred Hitchcock homage within a movie lacking anything as subversive, or skilled, as Hitchcock.

-John AndersonFull Review

There's no denying that his latest monsters are imaginative and detailed creations, but the haunted house-style story is hampered by his desire to show them off.

-Ian BuckwalterFull Review

What they're after is clear from the film's gruesome prologue; what they look like is withheld until long after we have ceased to care.

-Jeannette CatsoulisFull Review

Don't worry about fearing darkness, but beware horror flicks that trot out every hoary cliche.

-Claudia PuigFull Review

"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," expands upon the creepy and effective TV movie from 1973.

-Richard RoeperFull Review

The film never takes hold emotionally, despite strong work from Holmes and young Madison. With Del Toro's name in the credits, standard chills aren't enough.

-Peter TraversFull Review

As a horror film should be, it's gruesome, tension-filled and you can't tear your eyes from the screen. But it's also cruel, quite depressing and utterly sad.

-Colin CovertFull Review

I do hope that "Don't" doesn't do Nixey in, as he has a real knack for staging high anxiety. For Del Toro, the question is, what happened?

-Betsy SharkeyFull Review

While there are moments of eldritch atmosphere and a few pro forma jolts, nothing here justifies our attention, let alone the film's inexplicable R rating.

-Ty BurrFull Review

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.

-Steven ReaFull Review

If you flinch at "boo," you'll find plenty to jump at here. Just don't expect striking originality, or even genuinely memorable eeriness.

-Elizabeth WeitzmanFull Review

The remake plays like a shallower, more cliched variation on his masterpiece, Pan's Labyrinth, but its mix of gory effects and deliciously old-fashioned visuals make for a classy, scary horror show.

-Michael WilmingtonFull Review

While director Nixey has talent, his indiscriminately roving camera tends to diffuse the tension, not heighten it.

-Michael PhillipsFull Review

Nixey does a nice job of creating a weird, menacing world.

-Bill GoodykoontzFull Review

Nixey steeps everything in a surfeit of atmosphere. It overflows. It suffuses every frame. It seeps off the screen and into the auditorium.

-James BerardinelliFull Review

This is an above-average horror flick by any measure, nicely directed by del Toro protege Troy Nixey in an atmospheric, unshowy style that recalls cheapo '70s cinema without mimicking it.

-Andrew O'HehirFull Review

This is a very good haunted house film. It milks our frustration deliciously.

-Roger EbertFull Review

It's a plodding, derivative gothic potboiler: The Shining meets Coraline, with a touch of Gremlins played (boringly) straight.

-Owen GleibermanFull Review

The new version of "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is entirely too literal, but it still manages to be a literally hair-raising piece of modern-style old school Gothic horror.

-Roger MooreFull Review

After announcing he was no longer directing The Hobbit, Mr. Del Toro sustained a blow to his post-Pan's Labyrinth armor, and this washout brings him one step closer to full career rupture.

-Melissa LafskyFull Review

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.

-Chuck WilsonFull Review

The tension del Toro and Nixey create promises much more than it delivers.

-David GermainFull Review

...the moviemakers are refurbishing an older, shabbier piece of workmanship -- and it's a welcome enough place to stay for a few hours.

-James RocchiFull Review

A suspenseful yet markedly less insidious update.

-Peter DebrugeFull Review


© Copyright 2005-2012 mSpot, Inc. All rights reserved.
mSpot®, mSpotTM, mSpot MoviesTM, and mSpot Movies ClubTM are trademarks or registered trademarks
of mSpot, Inc.
mSpot MoviesTM service available in USA only. Watch on supported phones, tablets, computer
browsers, and web-enabled TVs.
Help -  About the Company -  Terms and Conditions -  Privacy Policy
Other mSpot Services: mSpot Music |  Radio |  Music Sync