Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (Release Date: 8-26-2011)

        Alright everybody, we've made it through the season of Superheroes, sequels, rampant special effects, sequels, remakes, and more sequels. Congratulations! Oh, your reward? Well... How about a late-August/Early September parade of Horror flicks?!?! What started with Final Destination 5, and continued on with Fright Night, now carries on with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, the new Guillermo del Toro-Produced scare fest. The movie lays its scene in an old, menacing mansion, where young Sally (Bailee Madison) is forced to move after her mother ditches her with oblivious dad (Guy Pierce). Already throughly displeased about the move, Sally begins to hear voices and bumps in the night, but the only One who will believe her is her father's new flame (Katie Holmes).

        There are a lot of cliches at work within Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a fact that never prevented this year's earlier Insidious from coaxing a scream or Two. But this time, the screenplay relies too heavily on the idiocy of its protagonists to move the plot along, which I understand is a stand-by method of the genre, but it still detracts for me. The eventual culprit at work within the movie is also a bit underwhelming when you finally get to see it/them for any sustained period of time, Thank god for Oliver Stapleton, who's cinematography is easily the best thing about the flick, employing darkness for contrast, and about a million different camera angles. Outside of his work, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is just another horror movie, with occasional scares, and occasional eye-rolling. Welcome to September...

Grade: C