Wondering what ever happened to “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” the Guillermo del Toro-produced remake of the classic 1973 television movie, especially after Miramax folded earlier this year? Well, as they’re doing with many of the Miramax leftovers, Disney is putting the picture out and they’ve just set a release date of January 21, 2011.
The film centers on a young girl, (Bailee Madison) who, after moving in with her father (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes) soon discovers creatures are living in the house with them. Originally thought to be friendly, she soon learns otherwise.The original story, which must have made a big impact on the remake’s writers del Toro and Matthew Robbins, followed a couple getting used to the fearsome goblins hiding behind every nook and cranny of their cavernous new place, but Del Toro loves his child protagonists, so this version will be much different.
For this effort del Toro passed the directorial baton to Troy Nixey, a protege, first time feature-length filmmaker and popular internet personality (a comic book illustrator too), so this is nerd-bait all the way, but we hope the Mexican filmmaker, who has made a series of films about the macabre that aren’t actually that scary, has regained his interest in scares instead of just coming-of-age parables.
So what makes us slightly excited about this one despite the terrible release date which makes it smell of B-movie? Madison was incredible in Jim Sheridan’s “Brothers,” so much so we added her to our Breakthrough performances of 2009 feature.