Dear Reader: Update, Movie Review Intelligence will
continue publishing this website through June (more...)
Search a Movie:
DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (2011)Movie Reviews
Horror thriller about a young girl who opens a gateway into a hellish underworld, then tries to warn her family but no one believes her. Cast:Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, Bailee MadisonDirector:Troy NixeyRelease Date:August 26, 2011DVD Release:January 3, 2012From:MiramaxRating:RLength:1 hr 40 min
JANUARY 3, 2012
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011), Moderate Reviews
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011) played to moderate reviews. • Bill Goodykoontz wrote in the Arizona Republic, "...wants to scare you, but it can't quite seal the deal.... after a promising build-up, what it delivers ultimately is disappointment." • And Michael Phillips wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "The soundtrack never shuts up with the wind, the murmurings, the shudderings." More Reviews Below...
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011) Positive Reviews (44 Reviews, reviews below)
Alynda Wheat, People: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a strange hybrid -- a funny horror movie with scares in all the right places and laughs for all the wrong reasons.... Still, there are real frights in the 'Dark.' "(See all of Alynda Wheat's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 97 words, 08/25/11
David Germain, Associated Press: MODERATE(cg) "...savage and ugly as the tiny monsters are... These wee beasties are not all that interesting, either, and frankly, neither is the movie."(See all of David Germain's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 529 words, 08/25/11
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: FAIR(cg) "...neither colorfully brutal nor especially fun.... a plodding, derivative gothic potboiler: 'The Shining' meets 'Coraline,' with a touch of 'Gremlins' played (boringly) straight."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 298 words, 08/26/11
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: MODERATE(cg) "...the film never takes hold emotionally, despite strong work from Katie Holmes and young Bailee Madison.... We want imagination to run riot."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 122 words, 08/19/11
Claudia Puig, USA Today: MODERATE(cg) "...beware horror flicks that trot out every hoary cliché.... This insipid wannabe frightener features a checklist of derivative conventions."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 428 words, 08/26/11
Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a very good haunted house film. It milks our frustration deliciously.... somewhere in the audience will be a kid who gets inspired to make his own horror films."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 966 words, 08/26/11
James Rocchi, MSN Movies: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...in line with Guillermo Del Toro's cinematic universe of dark fantasy... a welcome enough place to stay for a few hours..."(See all of James Rocchi's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 587 words, 08/22/11
James Berardinelli, Reel Views: VERY GOOD(cg) "...deliciously creepy even if it does exhibit some issues that keep it from being a top-notch example of 'things that go bump in the night' horror."(See all of James Berardinelli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 701 words, 08/25/11
we have an app for when you're out and about
get our iPhone app... or get our mobile web app...
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...enjoyably spooky... you'll find plenty to jump at here. Just don't expect striking originality, or even genuinely memorable eeriness."(See all of Elizabeth Weitzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 322 words, 08/26/11
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "I do hope that this doesn't do director Troy Nixey in, as he has a real knack for staging high anxiety. For co-writer Guillermo Del Toro, the question is, what happened?"(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 632 words, 08/26/11
Kyle Smith, New York Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...will turn your nerve endings to Popsicles.... fantastically creepy... harks back to a 1960s idea of what a horror film should be."(See all of Kyle Smith's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 565 words, 08/26/11
Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: VERY GOOD(cg) "...works nicely as an old-fashioned Gothic chiller, filled with rustling bedsheets and the scritch-scritch of little claws. As for that zinger ending -- well, no spoilers here."(See all of Rafer Guzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 361 words, 08/26/11
David Edelstein, New York Magazine: WEAK "...handsome, craftsmanlike, and snoozy... never gets you exercised, full of long tracking shots down dark corridors and deep, from-the-bowels-of-hell rumbles."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 475 words, 08/26/11
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a very good haunted house film. It milks our frustration deliciously.... somewhere in the audience will be a kid who gets inspired to make his own horror films."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 966 words, 08/26/11
Chuck Wilson, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "...visually lush.... 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."(See all of Chuck Wilson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 209 words, 08/24/11
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: WEAK(cg) "...unimaginatively directed by rookie Troy Nixey... owes a big debt to del Toro's earlier 'Pan's Labyrinth' and to Henry Selick's 'Coraline.' "(See all of Peter Howell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 604 words, 08/26/11
Matthew Hays, Toronto Globe & Mail: VERY GOOD(cg) "...seriously entertaining... will please newcomers as well as fans of the original oddity.... there's nothing scarier than not knowing what lurks in the dark."(See all of Matthew Hays's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 575 words, 08/26/11
John DeFore, Washington Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...feels retro in all the right ways.... Even its imperfect moments benefit from a literary and artistic richness most contemporary spook stories can't muster."(See all of John DeFore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 514 words, 08/26/11
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: MODERATE(cg) "...mostly unrewarding.... fails to involve us in any meaningful way with its characters. Bailee Madison's Sally is a whiner. Guy Pearce's Alex is, well, a whiner..."(See all of Steven Rea's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 406 words, 08/26/11
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...the film is entirely too literal, but it still manages to be a literally hair-raising piece of modern-style old school Gothic horror."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 488 words, 08/26/11
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: MODERATE(cg) "...gruesome, tension-filled and you can't tear your eyes from the screen. But it's also cruel, quite depressing and utterly sad."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 531 words, 08/26/11
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...wants to scare you, but it can't quite seal the deal.... after a promising build-up, what it delivers ultimately is disappointment."(See all of Bill Goodykoontz's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 591 words, 08/26/11
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: WEAK(cg) "...an almost generic scare story about a family moving into a mansion with a tribe of boogedy-boo critters in the basement."(See all of Ty Burr's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 522 words, 08/26/11
Stephen Whitty, New Jersey Star-Ledger: VERY GOOD(cg) "...the season's scariest horror film... the guiding intelligence is undoubtedly that of director Guillermo del Toro, who co-wrote the screenplay and produced."(See all of Stephen Whitty's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 543 words, 08/26/11
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "Is it gory? Occasionally. A killer tooth extraction is the worst of it, followed by an elaborate 'accident' that lands a large pair of scissors in someone's torso."(See all of Amy Biancolli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 372 words, 08/26/11
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...competent, spooky but often frustrating... works better when the scary stuff is purely atmospheric, i.e., before we actually see the computer-generated creatures."(See all of Tom Keogh's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 466 words, 08/26/11
Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...the film's modest ambition gets dwarfed by expectations... A couple of jump scares and a session of cringe dentistry aren't worth the price of admission."(See all of Steve Persall's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 476 words, 08/25/11
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: MODERATE(cg) "...affectionate yet ineffectual... still bears heavy traces of del Toro's presence, which only makes watching it more frustrating."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 452 words, 08/26/11
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (9 Reviews)
Chuck Wilson, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "...visually lush.... 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."(See all of Chuck Wilson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 209 words, 08/24/11
Mack Rawden, Cinema Blend: WEAK(cg) "...beset by boring leads, a running time twenty minutes too long and perhaps worst of all, villains that just aren't that scary."(See all of Mack Rawden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 722 words, 08/26/11
Alexandra Cavallo, Boston Phoenix: WEAK(cg) "...shows promise until the whispers begin to sound more like obscene phone calls... What this film really needs is a good exterminator, or a better director."(See all of Alexandra Cavallo's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 159 words, 08/25/11
Scott Tobias, AV Club: GOOD(cg) "...though Troy Nixey carries it across with some style, some intensity, and some graphic imagination, the whole isn't quite the sum of its somes."(See all of Scott Tobias's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 388 words, 08/25/11
Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "I can't imagine that this version will be remembered, with a shudder... No one or nothing in it will steal into your sleep to get you, though God knows del Toro tried."(See all of Stephanie Zacharek's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 806 words, 08/25/11
Ed Gonzalez, Slant: WEAK(cg) "...inane... a remake of an uneven, sometimes corny, but interesting 1973 TV movie of the same name.... made with an almost frightening lack of conviction."(See all of Ed Gonzalez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 704 words, 08/21/11
Curt Holman, Atlanta Creative Loafing: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...succeeds best as a spine-tingling mood piece, although the prologue, set a century earlier, sets a lurid, Gothic tone that doesn't really fit the remainder of the movie."(See all of Curt Holman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 366 words, 08/25/11
HIGHBROW PRESS (5 Reviews)
John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: WEAK "...problems include the performance of both Ms. Holmes, who never seems to get much traction, and young Ms. Madison, who is everywhere, for very little reason."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 449 words, 08/26/11
Ian Buckwalter, NPR: FAIR "...too little is left to the imagination to do what it does best: fill in the gaps with visions far more frightening than anything a filmmaker could put onscreen."(See all of Ian Buckwalter's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 622 words, 08/25/11
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "I do hope that this doesn't do director Troy Nixey in, as he has a real knack for staging high anxiety. For co-writer Guillermo Del Toro, the question is, what happened?"(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 632 words, 08/26/11
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: GOOD "Nixey delivers numerous nasty shocks and an overriding sense of menace... if the premise is new to you this movie will do more than enough to give you nightmares."(See all of Andrew O'Hehir's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,028 words, 08/24/11
MOVIE INDUSTRY (6 Reviews)
Peter Debruge, Daily Variety: GOOD "Thanks primarily to a predictably sharp combination of lensing, editing and suspense music, succeeds in stinging the audience with a few shock scares..."(See all of Peter Debruge's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 947 words, 06/27/11
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: MODERATE "...manages at least for a while to get you into the head of its young protagonist.... But the adults are very old stock characters, exasperatingly so, and the pay-off is nil."(See all of Kirk Honeycutt's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 968 words, 06/27/11
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: WEAK "I do hope that this doesn't do director Troy Nixey in, as he has a real knack for staging high anxiety. For co-writer Guillermo Del Toro, the question is, what happened?"(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 632 words, 08/26/11
Emanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7: VERY GOOD(cg) "...in the hands of del Toro and its superlative crew, the text becomes a supremely mounted, technically polished A-level movie."(See all of Emanuel Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 713 words, 08/10/11
John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: WEAK "...problems include the performance of both Ms. Holmes, who never seems to get much traction, and young Ms. Madison, who is everywhere, for very little reason."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 449 words, 08/26/11
16.0 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011)'s reviews are separated by an average 16.0 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011) (44 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011)'s reviews cover 81.8% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 22,005 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 500 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011) Coverage, Volume & Length (44 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 43.3 Hours Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011)'s reviews on average broke 43.3 hours before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011)'s opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011) (44 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
Mobile Web App version 1.2 shows a list of all current movies and review information. You can click through to the cast, director, synopsis, release date and rating on page two, plus individual reviews on page three. The information is updated on a live/real-time basis. You can also search our database of films. Designed for when you're on the move and want the latest info, this app will work on any mobile web browser. From your mobile device -- only from a mobile device -- open our Mobile Web App here...
