Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
![Watch film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark — Don't Be Afraid of The Dark Trailer [HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mFE4lGvRt8E/sddefault.jpg)
Short description
Sally Hirst, a withdrawn and solitary girl, goes to Rhode Island to stay with her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim, who are restoring a nineteenth-century mansion. While exploring the house, she finds a sealed basement that has gone untouched since the building's architect vanished more than a century earlier. Sally accidentally releases ancient creatures of darkness dwelling there, and they set out to draw her down into the depths beneath the house. She has to persuade Alex and Kim that what she has seen is real before the beings consume them all. The film draws on a 1973 ABC television movie of the same name.
It is directed by Troy Nixey from a screenplay by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro, who also produced; the cast includes Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and Bailee Madison, with Jack Thompson and Alan Dale. The production, mounted by several companies across Australia, Mexico and the United States, cost about 25 million dollars and took roughly 37 million dollars worldwide, a modest return rather than a strong one.
Released in 2010, it runs 99 minutes and sits between fantasy, horror and thriller. It holds a 5.5 rating on IMDb from about 52,000 votes and a 5.8 on TMDB from over a thousand votes, while a critics' rating of 5.9 from 178 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Runes of the Elder Futhark (an ancient runic alphabet containing only Old Germanic runes) are carved into the stone above the fireplace, and they translate to “Beware.”
- The action takes place in Providence, the capital of Rhode Island, where Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), author of the 1923 story “The Rats in the Walls,” which served as inspiration for the film's scriptwriters, once lived. It should be noted, however, that the story takes place in England, not Rhode Island.
- In John Newland's (1917-2000) 1973 telefilm "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", Sally is Alex's wife, not his daughter. In that adaptation, the wife's name is Kim. Kim Darby played the role of Sally in the telefilm. Here, Sally was made a child to enhance the fairytale motifs, and because screenwriter and producer Guillermo del Toro was convinced that the story would be scarier for the audience if Sally were not an adult woman, but a child. Kim is a reference to the legendary evil stepmothers from children's tales, although Sally only appears to be evil, and in reality, there is nothing particularly malicious about this character.
- As a promotional move, a prequel in the form of a comic book was released, written by director Troy Nixey, which tells the origin story of the Tooth Fairies and explains the past of Emerson Blackwood, played by Harry McDonald. The book was titled "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Blackwood’s Guide to Dangerous Fairies."
- Although the creatures fear light, in the dinner scene they somehow end up under the table standing in the center of the brightly lit room, and also calmly run through illuminated spaces in some scenes.
- The film states that the creatures are very ancient and have been trapped in the chimney since at least the mid-19th century, but they speak modern English, know what a Polaroid photograph is, and understand electricity.
- Initially, it was planned to make Natsu Dragnil a celestial spirit with horns.
- Wendy Marvell, the Dragonslayer of the Sky Dragons, was originally going to be a Dragonslayer of the Water Dragons and be given a magic wand.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
