REVIEW: Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011)

  Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is a new horror remake with Guillermo del Toro’s name used liberally on the marketing, following Juan Antonio Bayona’s excellent The Orphanage and Guillem Morales’ good Julia’s Eyes. It also has a good trailer, which made very clever use of the cinema’s surround sound. On top of this, from the opening shot it is clear that first-time feature film director Troy Nixey has seen Citizen Kane. Then, from the opening prologue it is initially clear that he has a fondness for Hammer horror films. So why isn’t Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark any good?

  Sally (Bailee Madison) is a young girl, who has been sent by her mother to live with her father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes), while they are restoring an old Gothic house. The relationships between the three people are strained by Sally’s dislike of Kim. It isn’t long before Sally starts to hear voices in her room at night, voices that call her down to the basement.

  First of all, one of the film’s major problems is that it is completely redundant. The concept of a child figuring everything out only to be ignored by a busy parent has become rather passé since the Goosebumps series. The film boils down to a collection of set pieces in which a bit more information is divined followed by an uninspired and rather lazy scare tactic and then an unbelieving parent. The calibre of the creative people behind it suggests there is some ironic winking going on and its all about nostalgia and reverence for the 1973 TV movie. However, a film with this much money and this much talent should do more than just hark back to something older.

  Matters aren’t helped by the one-note characterizations. Bailee Madison is convincingly upset and confused by the family situation she finds herself in, but that element is dropped once the horror clichés start up. Katie Holmes is fairly bland in a fairly bland role, in which she has to look worried and sympathetic about Sally until she finally sees one of the creatures, in which case she’s worried and unsympathetic. Guy Pearce gets to play a slightly darker role as his workload starts to make him worryingly negligent, though this is only briefly explored once. The rest of the characters are merely archetypes like the old gardener who knows more than he’s letting on and the nice old maid who is always dependable.

  The film does have fun with its creatures, though it does become increasingly difficult to work out how seriously we are intended to take them. The sight of them running around with razor blades is difficult to take, especially because the film itself is completely ambivalent about them. Where Pan’s Labyrinth managed to make its fairy tale creatures beautiful though otherworldly and threatening but always serious, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark vacillates awkwardly between the comedic and the grisly. Equally the film has an uncomfortable mix of strong violence and child-friendly horror. It is the kind of film that would work much better as a horror movie aimed at children, like Joe Dante’s thoroughly entertaining The Hole. As it is, it is a rather childish horror movie for over-15s.

  Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark is a bungled film that is aimed at the wrong audience, dithers hopelessly on it’s tone and mood, fails to scare because of an adherence to horror clichés, offers no interesting characters to care about and has a messy ending to boot. A big disappointment when you consider the fact that it could have been another Drag Me To Hell.

REVIEW: Animal Kingdom (2011)

  Animal Kingdom is an Australian crime film from first time director David Michôd. With the focus primarily on the dynamics of a family of criminals and with hints at institutional corruption, Animal Kingdom sets up the structure of a traditional crime film but adds its own particular ideas and nuances. The result is a film that feels fresh whilst also remaining reasonably mainstream.

  The film follows Joshua Cody (James Frecheville) as he enters his grandmother’s household (Jacki Weaver) and becomes embroiled in his uncles’ criminal gang. Guy Pearce lends support as a cop who thinks he can get Joshua to talk when he becomes privy to information about a double murder. To give anything else away is to ruin the surprises.

  Boldly avoiding the gangster movie aesthetics of Scorsese and Tarantino, Animal Kingdom eschews the pumping soundtrack and lingering focus on gratuitous violence for a more restrained style, which hits closer to home. The violence, when it happens, is sudden and usually unexpected, with the emphasis on the confusion and shock of the aftermath rather than on splatter effects. In the end, it is the performances that keep the film moving, from Joshua’s demonic grandmother to each of his troubled uncles. Jacki Weaver and Ben Mendelsohn give sterling performances, as do the tougher and more likable Joel Edgerton and Sullivan Stapleton, whose roles seems more suited to the films of Scorsese and Tarantino though they never descend into caricature. Together they make a convincing family, one that is as loving as they are suffocating and, ultimately, murderous.

  Joshua’s dilemma is effectively unravelled, and the film, though not flawless, is remarkably well handled for a debut. It moves at a fast pace, though it leaves time for the characters to breathe. It never feels false or unconvincing. Frecheville may not be another Conor McCarron, but we are certainly behind him, as he gets deeper and deeper into the inner lives of the sinister Cody family. The film works as a crime film with shades of neo-noir with its troubled characters, compromised morality and corrupt institutions. The focus of the film is not in the levels of this corruption, but on the effect it has on the characters. Like The Hurt Locker, its success, in many ways, lies in its refusal to contemplate the bigger picture. However, the film also works as a thriller, with more good jolts than an average horror film and many nerve-rackingly suspenseful sequences. And, to emphasise, it is also refreshingly unexpected in the way that only an apparently conventional film can be.

  The lasting impression of a film like Animal Kingdom, aside from the future greats that are most certainly ahead of the film’s director, is a sense of the crime family. Key as it is in all the best crime films, from Howard Hawks’ Scarface to The Godfather and, to a certain extent, Mean Streets, it is fertile ground for crime cinema. A film like Animal Kingdom succeeds in getting under the skin of one such family, shedding light on it’s loyalties, it’s betrayals and it’s petty grudges. As a result, Animal Kingdom is entertainment cinema at its most productive.