First Trailer For 'Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark' Gives Us The Willies

We’ve been fairly intrigued by the upcoming horror flick “Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark,” ever since its announcement. A remake of a 1970s made-for-TV film that appears to have had a significant effect on those who saw it too young, it’s got a strong cast of Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes and young actress Bailee Madison (who was excellent in Jim Sheridan’s “Brothers”) as a family who move into a derelict house, only to unleash some terrifying creatures. It’s produced and co-written by Guillermo Del Toro, and it marks the feature debut of Troy Nixey, who showed some impressive visual chops with the short “Latchkey’s Lament.”

The first footage from the film debuted at Comic-Con, and now IGN have the first look at the teaser trailer for the film, and it’s pretty damn unnerving. The trademark Del Toro feel is very much in evidence, and, even if the whole ‘project footage onto the title’ thing feels a bit 90s, it’s mostly very effective. While the idea of malevolent imps risks being silly, the creature designs seem pretty unpleasant in the glimpses we see, and we can certainly buy being scared by these things for 90 minutes or so.

The film hits, courtesy of the (hopefully) newly-revitalized Miramax, on January 21st next year — a slight worry, it should be said, is that the release date is right in the calendar’s biggest graveyard for decent movies. But with the projects that Del Toro’s shepherded so far including very strong genre pictures like “The Orphanage” and “Splice,” we’re at least looking forward to seeing more from this one.