I just read the trades today and got a chill up my spine….
(The Movie that Screwed Me Up For 30 years)
I just heard that the classic 70′s flick Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was being remade. The title rang a bell, so I ran to YouTube to verify what I dreaded most — that this was indeed *THE* film that TRAUMATIZED me in childhood. I had always forgotten the title, but the terror sunk it’s hooks in me. Lo and behold, IT WAS the same film! Moreover, I felt a sense of peace that all the chatboards were flooded with 30-something readers saying how this movie had [read caps] SCARRED them for life… a legion of insomniac culture born of this flick. Damn, I thought I was the only kid who saw it on ABC in the middle of the night as a fluke…. and let me repeat myself, this movie F***** me up!
Anyway, I just sat like a dork on this Summer Friday to see all 7 Parts on YouTube. I kinda laughed out loud. The creatures look kinda silly now. Laughable even. However, after seeing it again as an adult, I noticed the themes were much deeper than that of a slasher horror flick. This movie has no blood… only whispering little sinister creatures. When Sally first buys a Victorian home to restore with her husband, she encounters a “forgotten” room. She gets obsessed with freeing the chimney of its bricked out blockage. The “knowing” handyman protectively advises her NOT to open the chimney (“some things are better left as they are” he tells her). Stubborn Sally ignores his warning. She breaks the bricks open to hell, and unchains the demons who are cheerful to meet their unassuming prisoner. Sally seals her fate. Pretty deep (all inside the vessel of a pulpy 70′s flick).
Anyway, back to the trade mags this morning. It’s just been announced that Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy2, and upcoming The Hobbit) and Miramax Films will create the remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. You can imagine what Guillermo’s imagination will concoct designing these little monsters. He’s making a few changes. Instead of housewife being stalked by demons, it’ll be a younger girl who’s coming to live with her father and his new girlfriend.
Who would have thunk that today, August 1st, would present such a relief for me? I seemed to have blocked out everything about this film — the title, the plot, the details, etc. Only the the psychotic whispering of these little creatures penetrated my psyche for a good thirty years. Whew, I love good closure.
Here’s to Guillermo for trying to “step it up” on the next round and freak out a whole new generation of movie-goers.
J