Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, starring Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes

It's easy to fall in love with Guillermo Del Toro's unbridled enthusiasm and willingness to push the envelope. The horror maestro has been championing a remake of the little seen, inexplicably loved 1973 Don't Be Afraid of the Dark for more than a decade. The unenviable job of translating Del Toro's unique  vision was given to comic book artist Troy Nixey, and while he does a scary good job of ratcheting up the tension, the actual scares are almost non-existent.

Nixey isn't to blame for this deficit, either. The nasty, foreboding atmosphere he creates is the film's strongest point, full of dark corners where creatures appear to lurk. Every step has a creak, every room a terrible shadow. The mood and look of the film rivals that of Del Toro's great Pan's Labyrinth, a dark fairy tale to keep you up at night. Instead what you get is Labyrinth-lite, not particularly scary or fanciful enough to be anything more than just another scary house flick.

The MPAA saddled the film with a hard R-rating, but you'll find only one cringe worthy sequence right in the beginning, the rest is like Ghoulies mixed with Tooth Fairy. Alex Hirst(Guy Pearce) has moved with his girlfriend Kim(Katie Holmes) into an old mansion that might as well have "monster house" plastered on the welcome mat. He's too obsessed with restoring the old haunt so they can get on the cover of some architectural magazine to pay much attention to his stick up the butt daughter, Sally(Bailee Madison).  She's not so fond of being shipped off by mom to go live with daddy and his new lady in the decrepit old manor, so she runs off at every chance she gets.

Surprise! Sally's noseying around unearths an ancient race of bite sized demonic creatures with a taste for children's teeth. Yep, tooth fairies. They even leave coins under your pillow. Scared yet? Yeah, neither was I. The little buggers are pretty disgusting up close, but are most effective when kept in shadow, when their chattering will make your skin crawl. The strongest fears in any horror are conjured up by what we don't see. When in action they're probably more likely to make you laugh than shut your eyes.

Because kids are notorious for making up stories of little teeth eating goblins, Alex doesn't believe a word of what his daughter says, even in the face of overwhelming proof. It's one of those irritating movie cliches that crushes this film like an anvil. Del Toro's script is woefully amateurish at times, unable to define whether it wants to be darkly comic or deadly serious. Katie Holmes and her lopsided grin is actually very good and a welcome change from the typical adult female character in these movies. She's a strong and capable woman, and Holmes presents her well. I don't know what the heck happened to Bailee Madison. After giving what I would consider to be the best performance in the sibling rivalry flick, Brothers, she's been backsliding into becoming just another irritating child actress.

After such a long wait for it this is a major disappointment.  It's not a terrible film by any means, just less than what you expect out of Del Toro. As it stands, you really don't have any reason to be afraid of the dark.