Day 3 - Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973/2011)

Having seen the new Guillermo Del Toro produced Don't Be Afraid of the Dark last weekend, I thought it would be fun to go back and watch the old 1973 made-for-TV original, to compare and contrast the new and the old. Both films center on a character named Sally who goes to live in an old house with a mysterious history and quickly discovers that the house is home to strange, darkness-dwelling creatures that mean her harm.

The first and most obvious difference between the original and the remake, is the character of Sally. In the 1973 version Sally is the young wife of an up and coming businessman who is struggling with her husband's dedication to his work, while trying to restore her grandmother's house and play "the perfect host" to help her husband get a promotion. In the remake Sally is just a little girl who has been sent to live with her father and his girlfriend, who are currently living in and restoring a gothic mansion. With the exception of a bit of additional background information on the history of the house and the nature of the creatures added by Del Toro, the rest of the films are fairly similar. Curiosity drives both Sallys to stick their noses in where they have been warned not to, thus releasing the creatures that will stalk them from then on. There is the husband/father character who refuses to believe what is happening, the supportive friend/father's girlfriend who believes Sally but doesn't know what to do about it, and the old carpenter who is connected to the house's past. Many of the scenes and elements in the new film are almost taken exactly from the original - the first real attack, the bathroom scene, the party, the camera, and most certainly the closing scene. Another, smaller difference is in the creatures themselves. Of course the creatures in the original film were a bit hokey but I'm almost inclined to like them more simply because they were done with practical effects as opposed to the CGI monsters of the remake.

Neither film is really all that scary now. Had I seen either of these movies as a kid however, they both would have scared the crap out of me. That brings me to something I've been thinking about since seeing the remake. Del Toro clearly loves to use children as a primary protagonist - e.g. The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, even to a slightly lesser degree in Cronos and Mimic - but always seems to use these young characters to explore and express more complex adult issues and situations. The new Don't Be Afraid of the Dark however, felt closer to a kids movie than anything else, and would have worked wonderfully as such were it not for one gory scene.

While both films are fun and creepy, if not scary, they are far from perfect. The remake, for one, has a number of plot holes and small flaws in the story that you can either choose to pick to death or simply overlook for the sake of enjoying the film. This is another movie that you shouldn't go in to with high expectations. The original is a bit dated as you might expect, but the Troy Nixey directed remake does have a more visually interesting and perhaps creepier atmosphere. It is easy to see in Nixey's style why he and Del Toro would work well together. Just as a bonus, you can see Nixey's visually stunning short film, Latchkey's Lament, which won him the attention of Del Toro, in two parts here. Though I thoroughly enjoyed both versions of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, I would only really suggest the original to those movie fans who can't stand seeing one without the other, and would recommend that the remake be viewed without expectation.