Don't Be Afraid of the Dark 2010

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The new version of "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is entirely too literal, but it still manages to be a literally hair-raising piece of modern-style old school Gothic horror. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: The film looks good, it sounds great (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders' score is full of darkly murmuring woodwinds), and Madison is a pip of a lead. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The tension del Toro and Nixey create promises much more than it delivers. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's a plodding, derivative gothic potboiler: The Shining meets Coraline, with a touch of Gremlins played (boringly) straight. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: While the end of "Don't Be Afraid" is creepy, it's far from emotionally satisfying. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: ...the moviemakers are refurbishing an older, shabbier piece of workmanship -- and it's a welcome enough place to stay for a few hours. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: What they're after is clear from the film's gruesome prologue; what they look like is withheld until long after we have ceased to care. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Nixey is doing an Alfred Hitchcock homage within a movie lacking anything as subversive, or skilled, as Hitchcock. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Though Nixey carries it across with some style, some intensity, and some graphic imagination, the whole isn't quite the sum of its somes. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Nixey does a nice job of creating a weird, menacing world. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: While there are moments of eldritch atmosphere and a few pro forma jolts, nothing here justifies our attention, let alone the film's inexplicable R rating. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Reader: The remake plays like a shallower, more cliched variation on his masterpiece, Pan's Labyrinth, but its mix of gory effects and deliciously old-fashioned visuals make for a classy, scary horror show. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: While director Nixey has talent, his indiscriminately roving camera tends to diffuse the tension, not heighten it. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: A welcome alternative to the current genre offerings, steeped in old-fashioned atmosphere and faithful to haunted house routine, albeit to a fault. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: A scary film where the scares peter out far too quickly. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: I do hope that "Don't" doesn't do Nixey in, as he has a real knack for staging high anxiety. For Del Toro, the question is, what happened? Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Despite all the care that has been put into it, the film doesn't transcend its dime-store horror roots. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The season's scariest horror film - and, depending on what the next few months bring, perhaps the year's. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: There's no denying that his latest monsters are imaginative and detailed creations, but the haunted house-style story is hampered by his desire to show them off. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: If you flinch at "boo," you'll find plenty to jump at here. Just don't expect striking originality, or even genuinely memorable eeriness. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" will turn your nerve endings to Popsicles. Read more

Melissa Lafsky, New York Observer: After announcing he was no longer directing The Hobbit, Mr. Del Toro sustained a blow to his post-Pan's Labyrinth armor, and this washout brings him one step closer to full career rupture. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Joltingly graphic and atmospheric (Nixey and his crew at least know how to set up a few good shocks), Don't Be Afraid of the Dark fails to involve us in any meaningful way with its characters. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Nixey steeps everything in a surfeit of atmosphere. It overflows. It suffuses every frame. It seeps off the screen and into the auditorium. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," expands upon the creepy and effective TV movie from 1973. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is a very good haunted house film. It milks our frustration deliciously. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The film never takes hold emotionally, despite strong work from Holmes and young Madison. With Del Toro's name in the credits, standard chills aren't enough. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This is an above-average horror flick by any measure, nicely directed by del Toro protege Troy Nixey in an atmospheric, unshowy style that recalls cheapo '70s cinema without mimicking it. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: As a horror film should be, it's gruesome, tension-filled and you can't tear your eyes from the screen. But it's also cruel, quite depressing and utterly sad. Read more

Matthew Hays, Globe and Mail: This is still a seriously entertaining horror movie, one that will please newcomers as well as fans of the original oddity. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If there's one big flaw with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, it's that in 2011, there's only so long that we can watch movie characters face the perils of a haunted house without thinking, "GET OUT ALREADY!" Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: There is so much here that one admires, one wishes that there was more to love. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: This artless film even approaches child abuse, in the way it crassly reconfigures the protagonist from the besieged adult woman of the original into a neglected and terrified tot. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Don't worry about fearing darkness, but beware horror flicks that trot out every hoary cliche. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: A suspenseful yet markedly less insidious update. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: If the grand finale isn't as resonantly scary as the original's, maybe that's just because, try though we might, we're no longer impressionable kids. Read more