Though it was the worst job I ever had, in a way, I consider myself lucky for having worked at a Blockbuster before the great DVD upgrade. Blackbuster was a treasure chest of ancient and obscure horror films that had been released on VHS twenty years ago and taken out of print around then, too, and there was always “that tape” hanging around. The one with the beat-up, crumbling display box and an actual tape so heavy it felt like it was carved out of lead, with the title sticker torn off eons ago and picture quality that’d make the iPod Touch generation wet their beds. In the case of the Blockbuster I worked at, “that tape” was a copy of an obscure little made-for-TV gem called “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”.
Sally (Kim Darby) and Alex Farnam (Jim Hutton) have just moved into a sprawling, dilapidated, ancient manor full of cobwebbed corridors, dark rooms and eerie noises. Because shut up, that’s why. Sally begins redecorating the abode and, despite the warnings of her superstitious carpenter, Mr. Harris (William Demarest), she unbolts a decades-locked fireplace in a mysterious, windowless room at the center of the house. What Sally has unwittingly done is release a horde of small, whispering, sinister creatures that lurk about in the darkness. The creatures want to drag Sally kicking and screaming back into the pit they crawled out of, and though Sally pleads for help, her husband refuses to believe her. Sally’s worst fears come to pass when Alex goes away on a business trip, leaving her all alone in the big, dark house. All alone with… the monsters.
I worked at Blockbuster in 2001, which was the year of the big DVD upgrade. We were basically told that if there were any old movies on VHS we ever wanted to watch, we should rent them now, because in a couple months all the tapes would be meeting a hammer and a dumpster (that was a lot of fun, by the way). So I used my five free rentals a week to essentially raid the horror section and watch everything I figured I’d never get the opportunity to see again. Bear in mind that this was 2001 and the amount of old horror films on DVD wasn’t even close to what it is, now. The reason “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” lingers so strongly in my memories is not just because it was one of the oldest tapes on the shelf, but because it was the first one I rented when I got my job there.
And I’m glad I rented it when I had the chance, too, because the thing didn’t see a DVD release until August of 2009, and even then, only through Warner Bros online made-to-order “Warner Archive Collection” (a fancy name for $16 DVD-R rips of VHS tapes with no picture/audio restoration, bonus features or even menus). “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” was an interesting little horror film, and I do mean “little”. At just over 70 minutes-long, it’s a breeze to sit through and ends almost as soon as it begins to gear up. The scant runtime is both a blessing and a curse, as it gives the picture a greater re-watch value (when I need to kill some time I tend to reach for shorter movies in my collection as oposed to, I dunno, “Lord of the Rings”). On the downside, well, it’s just as I said; as soon as the shit gets rolling BAM! We’re done.
Directed by John Newland, a veteran of the anthology horror and suspense television scene from the Sixties through the Seventies, Newland takes a heavy atmospheric approach to the execution of the film, which considering the budget of the average 70s-era made-for-TV horror movie, was probably the best thing he could have done. Newland uses his considerable skills to give the audience the illusion of being alone in a pitch dark room, hearing voices and sounds and seeing strange movement and shadows out of the corner of their eye. The monsters (which should be ridiculous as they are, what with their being little people in rubber masks running around sets designed to make them appear only inches-tall) manage to overcome the shortcomings of their special effects budget, as Newland cloaks them in the shadows with their whispering, unsettling voices doing most of the threatening for them. When you see them, the glimpses are quick and they’re bathed in so much surreal, green and red lighting that they look far more unearthly than the rubber masks would otherwise have let on.
Nigel McKeand’s script is of the variety that they just don’t make anymore. The film is less concerned with delivering answers to its numerous supernatural mysteries (What are those monsters? Where did they come from? Why do they want Sally, specifically? What’s their connection to Mr. Harris and Sally’s grandmother?), as it is just creeping the Hell out of the audience and letting them draw their own conclusions. And quite honestly, you really don’t need to know where the creatures came from and what their deal is. The fact that they’re there, tormenting Sally for 70-odd minutes is enough, and I’m of the mind that the more you know about the unknown, the less frightening it becomes. There’s a remake coming out in 2011 and I fear it will suck all the mystery out of the film by providing too many answers. I’ll hope for the best, though.
Made-for-TV horror films just aren’t made like this, these days. The modern market, seemingly dominated by the Sci-Fi Channel (or is that “SyFy”, now?) and its unquenchable thirst for movies about giant CG animals, has really given the medium a black eye it didn’t have twenty, thirty years ago. “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” is all about atmosphere, and though it’s tragically short, it completely delivers. The final scenes are a breath of fresh air in this cinematic world dominated by “happy endings” and, you know what? I’m almost glad that Warner Archives doesn’t do any picture restoration for their films, as this thing just looks and feels so much spookier with VHS-quality. Or maybe I’m just being too nostalgic.
Grade: B+ (as in, “But remember, if you tell your best friend that it wasn’t you who killed the interior decorator, but the tiny people living behind the drapes, they will instantly believe you.”)
Sally (Kim Darby) and Alex Farnam (Jim Hutton) have just moved into a sprawling, dilapidated, ancient manor full of cobwebbed corridors, dark rooms and eerie noises. Because shut up, that’s why. Sally begins redecorating the abode and, despite the warnings of her superstitious carpenter, Mr. Harris (William Demarest), she unbolts a decades-locked fireplace in a mysterious, windowless room at the center of the house. What Sally has unwittingly done is release a horde of small, whispering, sinister creatures that lurk about in the darkness. The creatures want to drag Sally kicking and screaming back into the pit they crawled out of, and though Sally pleads for help, her husband refuses to believe her. Sally’s worst fears come to pass when Alex goes away on a business trip, leaving her all alone in the big, dark house. All alone with… the monsters.
I worked at Blockbuster in 2001, which was the year of the big DVD upgrade. We were basically told that if there were any old movies on VHS we ever wanted to watch, we should rent them now, because in a couple months all the tapes would be meeting a hammer and a dumpster (that was a lot of fun, by the way). So I used my five free rentals a week to essentially raid the horror section and watch everything I figured I’d never get the opportunity to see again. Bear in mind that this was 2001 and the amount of old horror films on DVD wasn’t even close to what it is, now. The reason “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” lingers so strongly in my memories is not just because it was one of the oldest tapes on the shelf, but because it was the first one I rented when I got my job there.
And I’m glad I rented it when I had the chance, too, because the thing didn’t see a DVD release until August of 2009, and even then, only through Warner Bros online made-to-order “Warner Archive Collection” (a fancy name for $16 DVD-R rips of VHS tapes with no picture/audio restoration, bonus features or even menus). “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” was an interesting little horror film, and I do mean “little”. At just over 70 minutes-long, it’s a breeze to sit through and ends almost as soon as it begins to gear up. The scant runtime is both a blessing and a curse, as it gives the picture a greater re-watch value (when I need to kill some time I tend to reach for shorter movies in my collection as oposed to, I dunno, “Lord of the Rings”). On the downside, well, it’s just as I said; as soon as the shit gets rolling BAM! We’re done.
Directed by John Newland, a veteran of the anthology horror and suspense television scene from the Sixties through the Seventies, Newland takes a heavy atmospheric approach to the execution of the film, which considering the budget of the average 70s-era made-for-TV horror movie, was probably the best thing he could have done. Newland uses his considerable skills to give the audience the illusion of being alone in a pitch dark room, hearing voices and sounds and seeing strange movement and shadows out of the corner of their eye. The monsters (which should be ridiculous as they are, what with their being little people in rubber masks running around sets designed to make them appear only inches-tall) manage to overcome the shortcomings of their special effects budget, as Newland cloaks them in the shadows with their whispering, unsettling voices doing most of the threatening for them. When you see them, the glimpses are quick and they’re bathed in so much surreal, green and red lighting that they look far more unearthly than the rubber masks would otherwise have let on.
Nigel McKeand’s script is of the variety that they just don’t make anymore. The film is less concerned with delivering answers to its numerous supernatural mysteries (What are those monsters? Where did they come from? Why do they want Sally, specifically? What’s their connection to Mr. Harris and Sally’s grandmother?), as it is just creeping the Hell out of the audience and letting them draw their own conclusions. And quite honestly, you really don’t need to know where the creatures came from and what their deal is. The fact that they’re there, tormenting Sally for 70-odd minutes is enough, and I’m of the mind that the more you know about the unknown, the less frightening it becomes. There’s a remake coming out in 2011 and I fear it will suck all the mystery out of the film by providing too many answers. I’ll hope for the best, though.
Made-for-TV horror films just aren’t made like this, these days. The modern market, seemingly dominated by the Sci-Fi Channel (or is that “SyFy”, now?) and its unquenchable thirst for movies about giant CG animals, has really given the medium a black eye it didn’t have twenty, thirty years ago. “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” is all about atmosphere, and though it’s tragically short, it completely delivers. The final scenes are a breath of fresh air in this cinematic world dominated by “happy endings” and, you know what? I’m almost glad that Warner Archives doesn’t do any picture restoration for their films, as this thing just looks and feels so much spookier with VHS-quality. Or maybe I’m just being too nostalgic.
Grade: B+ (as in, “But remember, if you tell your best friend that it wasn’t you who killed the interior decorator, but the tiny people living behind the drapes, they will instantly believe you.”)
7 comments:
I myself dread the inevitable death of Blockbuster and similar chains to the onslaught of progress in the form of Netflix and RedBox. True, they're more efficient, but there's something to be said for roaming the aisles of the store at 11 pm for a half hour just trying to pick some movie that will most likely be horrible. Ah, memories.
Why, exactly, is this getting a theatrical remake? Is it a cult classic that I've simply never heard of?
It has a fairly good reputation at least within the horror community, or at least the portions I attend, but not much mainstream celebrity.
I was just as surprised as you are to hear it was being remade, but then again, these days, what *isn't* getting remade?
I think once Blockbuster upgraded to DVDs, the browsing of the horror aisle just sort of lost its charm, as all that remained were the big name franchise flicks and the Sci-Fi Channel CG animal stuff. There was no more taking chances on obscure and forgotten classics from long ago because they weren't on DVD and no longer available.
Though my opinion of that era may be tainted by having worked there at the time.
I still remember Blockbuster fondly, though, at least pre-employment, anyway.
According to Wikipedia, the remake is directed by Guillermo del Toro. This does not bode well for the film taking a more subtle approach. Del Toro's stuff is great and can be very creepy, but he's never been a director who believed that less is more in terms of creatures.
(Then again, if I put as much work into creature creation as he does, I'd want the audience to see it clearly, too.)
Off topic: Mattel announced at the SDCC that they'll have a Ghostbusters four-pack (plus Slimer) as a Toys R Us exclusive this fall, if you hadn't already heard.
I think Del Toro is just producing the remake. It's apparently being directed by a guy named Troy Nixey, and this seems to be his very first directorial job. Yeah, I'm a little worried, too.
And I didn't know that about the Ghostbusters toys! Are these similar to the ones they were selling on Matty Collector? If so, then I might have to spring for them. At least assuming the scalpers don't clean the shelves before I get there...
From what I can tell from the photos, they're the exact same toys, just with different paint; their uniforms are the darker ones from Ghostbusters II. But that's a small price to pay for not having to deal with Mattel's online BS.
And the TRU exclusives tend to stick around, at least in my area. (We still have shelves full of TF Universe Countdown and Darkwing.) I'd be surprised if you had any problems.
I hope Warner are going to release the film properly {to coincode with the remake} on a factory pressed, restored DVD with chpater menus, etc. I will never pay more than $2.00 for a DVD-R, it's a rip off.
WHEN IS THIS MOVIE GETTING A PROPER DVD RELEASE? AND I DON'T COUNT WARNER ARCHIVES AS A PROPER RELEASE!
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