Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (Remastered, Special Edition)

Creepy old house with little demons that are released by a curious new owner digging around the home's eerie dark dank basement wall, which I believe was at one time a fireplace and was sealed up by the previous owners.

Back in the 1970's, there was a curious art form known as the M.O.W.--Movie of the Week--which was a full length feature film that could be shown to a television audience without warning viewers to use discretion. This posed a challenge for screenwriters and directors as to how you could make a movie appeal to adults without salty language, nudity--not even underpants--or quarts of stage blood pooling on the floor. Add to this a very limited budget--since it would be shown for one night to a non-paying audience, with only the revenue from Rula Lenska's Alberto V05 hairspray commercials to cover the cost, and you've got a project that would reduce Martin Scorcese to tears.With that in mind, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, is a homerun swing in MOW terms. I saw it as a kid, and the daylights were scared out of me, and while I've become a teensy bit more jaded over the past 40 years, watching this film again still creeped me out. It is definitely a "door-checker"; (meaning that you're not going to sleep the night you watch this movie until you've gone through your house to make sure you didn't forget to lock the doors.)The plot is pretty routine: a young couple moves into an old house. There's something sinister and supernatural in the house, but the wife is the only one who can see it. The husband takes off for a business trip, and the wife is left to confront the haint. Sometimes the wife is thought to be suffering from some mental disorder, and most of the time, there's a supporting character of little consequence killed off to play up the danger, and invariably the heroine is given a sedative right before the final showdown.All of this happens in Don't be Afraid of the Dark, and the predictability doesn't matter all that much, because the little goblins are so creepy. I don't know if it's their onion-bulb heads or the little monkey hands, but it's very unsettling during the brief time they are shown on camera, and that's thanks to the low budget. We're not talking state of the art special effects here--the goblins' mouths didn't move, and it was obvious they built oversized set pieces to make them look smaller. However, if they had better makeup and better graphics, veteran TV director, John Newland might have been tempted to show the goblins more, and that would have killed it. After things kick in, it's when you can't see those rascals that you really get the heebie jeebies.The logic of what happens in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and why the little goblins are there in the first place is a little sketchy, but the flashes of creepiness will draw you in, and Sally, (played by chubby-cheeked Kim Darby, the teenage cowgirl in the original; "True Grit"), has a certain vulnerability that invites sympathy, even though there were about a million ways she could have avoided her predicament in the first 15 minutes. (Which, of course, would have meant 1 hour and 45 minutes of Rula Lenska showing her American friends around London, and carpet-bombing her head with Alberto VO5.)There were also parts of this movie that didn't faze me in the least when I was 6, that scared the holy hallelujah out of me the last time I saw it. The husband, (Darren Stevens lookalike Jim Hutton), obviously had borderline personality disorder, and would pop off at his wife and the handyman, (William Demerast, who was Uncle Charlie from the;"My Three Sons", sit com), with little or no provocation. Sally Fields' husband in; "Not Without My Daughter", was better balanced, and I guess it must have been more acceptable then for a guy to have a couple of drinks, yell and gesticulate at his wife, and then demand dinner than it is now. He was far scarier than the little onion heads...Until the very end.Will this movie thrill everybody? No. Sadly, Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg have all but exterminated our willingness to suspend disbelief for anything South of 30 million dollars. I don't show this to my kids, not because I am concerned about nightmares, but I'm a little sick of the look they give me every time I throw a cult movie from my youth on the DVD player. (Also, I don't want them to get the idea that their grandma and grandpa had that sort of relationship...even though some of it was pretty accurate.) This movie is definitely for Cold War babies, and nobody else. If you've seen a few MOW's but not this one, you owe it to yourself to get "Don't Be Afraid...", and if you did see it in '71, then...my bet is you already bought it. Cheers!

I suppose this might have scared people in the 70's, but I like the movie because it's cheesy funny. Another keeper for my Halloween collection.

The movie is definitely scary. To all of the whiners out there that complain about the costumes, IT WAS A MADE FOR TV MOVIE circa 1973. It was not a big budget theatre release, HELLO! Sure it has it's flaws, but overall a very good scare movie to watch on a rainy day, or just to add to your horror movie library. I am from the generation that saw the original TV release on broadcast TV, I must've been in the 3rd or 4th grade at the time. Don't know what Mom was thinking about that night, and allowed me to watch this. It is funny, because I have read many other reviews all saying essentially the same thing, that this movie deeply affected us as children of the 1970's. That in itself says something about this movie, that after all of these years, we still have memories of this film, and collectively seek it out to view again. It is the storyline and quite honestly, the creepiness of the whole idea of tiny little demons living in a sealed off fireplace, and no one believing you that is the essence of the scariness of the story. I actually thought the costumes were not bad, in fact very creative. I still to this day cannot figure out whether these creatures were demons, goblins, evil little elves or what. I somehow remembered them as little leprechaun like creatures, but they are anything but. ***FACTOIDS*** Felix Silla AKA "Cousin Itt" from the Addams Family is the head demon!! Also it is really great to see the starring role as none other than Kim Darby AKA "Miri" of Star Trek The Original Series fame!! I feel that I can give an unbiased review of this movie, because I really did not remember 90% of it, and recently saw it again for the first time in what, 39 years? I only remember being scared out of my wits, and the demons pulling the main character down the fireplace, so the story and character acting was fresh for me, and a made for TV movie of the 1970's blows away the crap they spit out nowadays, even with all of the CGI special effects, todays movies just don't scare like these do. Of course you would have to actually be able to sit through an actual horror story, and be able to comprehend it. I would agree that in one of the final scenes there is a glaring flaw, an obviously nighttime scene shot in broad daylight, who knows what the reason was for this, could not have been an oversight, maybe they were under time pressures, and had to shoot it during the daytime? Bottom line: If you have memories of this film from the past, definitely a must buy. If you like horror films with a scary storyline, or involving a haunted old mansion, or retro horror, must buy also. To the 20 somethings out there that have read the buzz about this film on the internet, it is true, however, like I stated above, it is what it is, so if seeing a special effect every 20 seconds is what defines a good horror film for you, stay away from this one, otherwise enjoy.

I ordered the lip don’t be afraid of the dark by Robert cray. The first thing I saw is that there was no iner record sleeve and then I saw the wrong record was in the sleeve it’s Jennifer rush lip name movin. Soi wasn’t very happy I reordered will see what happens,

Très bon film, content de le revoir depuis les années 80. Et très bon service

At the time I thought "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark" was strong stuff for a TV movie. It is a variation on the standard haunted house movie, in that it has small goblin like creatures as opposed to ghosts. Despite being made on a low budget it had an eerie atmosphere and some chilling moments. There are some familiar faces in the cast, Kim Darby of "True Grit" fame delivers a convincing "lady in peril" performance, plus there is character actor William Demarest and Barbara Anderson from the "A Man Called Ironside" tv Series. The creatures themselves are scary, but may also make you smile particularly in the scenes where they are trying to get up in the stairs. Ultimately "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark" is something of a gem. I have not seen the more expensive remake, as I regard the 1973 original as a cult classic well worth seeing.

Husband and wife move into a creepy old house, wife finds that fire place has been bricked up and asks manual worker if he can take out the bricks. Like a Scooby Doo janitor he tells her no way, cause he knows what may be lurking- but his backstory will have to wait till the end. Woman inevitably opens up fireplace where a host of demon like creatures await and then run amok in house.This movie has been hyped up to 11 on the scare factor- don't believe the hype. The biggest of mistakes is made here where we see the creatures way too early in this famed and much talked about 70s TV movie. We needed to be creeped out about what we don't see until a big reveal at the end. The creatures talk too, and at a few points start up a conversation- thus taking out any would be scares. You can pick apart each character and the continuity from night time to day light towards the end is shocking.Husband of wife is a .... well I want to swear but won't. But why was he not only so disbelieving to her but also so angry, and yet when her sexier friend told him to believe, he was willing to listen... emmThis isn't terrible, it's watchable just about, and from a nostalgia point of view if you like your 70s horrors as I do, this is well worth watching. But it says a lot about a movie when the DVD commentary is way more entertaining than the movie.

An old classic, and really scary till they show the actual monsters and then it's just funny - worth a viewing for both scary and funny bits.