Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The 1970s was truly the golden era of the made-for-TV horror movie, and "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is a pretty good example of the genre. Fondly remembered by those who saw it at an impressionable age, it succeeds at creeping out its viewers. It's got very respectable atmosphere, and an appreciable level of mystery to its diminutive terrors. Just where *did* they come from? All we know is the level of fear experienced by our appealing main character, Sally Farnham (played by the very cute Kim Darby), especially as her stubbornly skeptical husband, Alex (Jim Hutton) doesn't take her seriously.Sally and Alex have moved into her deceased grandmother's home, complete with a study and a sealed-up fireplace. Sally wants the fireplace opened up, despite the warnings from their cagey caretaker, Mr. Harris (screen veteran William Demarest) to leave things as they are. Her curiosity gets the better of her, and her actions lead to the release of three beings who are dead set on getting their hands on her.Fortunately, Sally is not the type of person to only do the stupid thing, so it's easy enough to sympathize with her and be chilled by how the story plays out. Darby is fine as Sally, and Hutton is good as Alex; able support is provided by Demarest, Barbara Anderson as Sally's friend Joan Kahn, and Pedro Armendariz Jr. as the briefly seen Francisco Perez. Andrew Jackson's cinematography is appropriately moody and the music score by Billy Goldenberg is excellently spooky. If there's a criticism to be made here, it's only that the three onion headed demons in the movie (played by Felix Silla, Tamara De Treaux, and Patty Maloney) are shown too much, and should have been revealed just a bit at a time.Still, this is fun stuff and worth a look for fans of "old school" horror.Remade by filmmaker and fan Guillermo Del Toro for theatres 37 years later.Seven out of 10.

Made for TV movie from the 70's about to get a glossy makeover. For a TV movie, this is wonderful stuff. They keep the number of characters low, use just a handful of settings, and concentrate on developing a twisted little atmosphere. It was complete in 2 weeks, but you could never tell. The little creatures are eerie and original without being comical. Things are whispered, things are moved, people are attacked, but it carries it off by keeping most things low key. The use of simple panning shots and quiet editing, makes it a film that builds tension with ease. If you are open to less obvious horror, with a love of practical effects, you should find a lot in this mini-treat.

The fact that this has just been remade (under the aegis of executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, no less) suggests it has classic status within the genre but, then, so many horror films from this era have been revisited during the last decade that it hardly matters anymore whether the original actually had any real merit to begin with! And, to be sure, this emerged to be just fair – not really scary and not all that engaging either: the problem lies with the fact that the monsters that terrorize the heroine are not only given too much exposure but, even more regrettably, they are made to speak – which rather dissipates their other-worldliness! Kim Darby does well enough by her role but, again, because the Gremlins-like creatures are introduced at the very start i.e. before the leading lady herself even shows up, there is no chance of the audience considering that what she is seeing is only in her own mind! Having grown up – via Robert Aldrich's notoriously violent and sleazy gangland thriller THE GRISSOM GANG (1971) – from the tomboy-ish girl she played in TRUE GRIT (1969; which has itself been reworked last year), Darby is here married to Jim Hutton, representing the rather hollow aspirations (that is to, say, be made a partner in some big-business firm) of every working-man-emanating-from-a-small-town of the day. With this in mind, he has little patience with his wife's 'tantrums' when she tells of strange goings-on in their home (a bequest of her grandparents) and that she is even seeing things. Predictably, when he gives a dinner party to impress his future associates, all hell breaks loose.The film is certainly tolerable at just 74 minutes but, typical of 1970s made-for-TV efforts, it tends to hold back too much, so that one ends up wondering what was the point of it all. Here, in fact, we never learn what the creatures are or where they came from, not to mention the real nature of their relationship with the elderly handy-man (former Preston Sturges regular William Demarest!). The finale is surprisingly downbeat, then, but it is too rushed and obscure to really be given much thought: although we are told why the creatures want Darby specifically and what they intend doing with her – since she was the one to liberate them from their centuries-old imprisonment in the walled-up fireplace, she has to join their ranks (even though, when they are carrying her there, she tries to defend herself by repeatedly activating the flashlight of a camera that happens to be on a nearby table) – but why would they willfully seek refuge there again at the end rather than escape out into the open through the broken windows of the main door (cue another stretch of enforced waiting in the fireplace with Darby in tow)?! Mind you, the notion of there being 'something creeping in the dark' probably resonates with most viewers (especially those living in big, old and out-of-the-way houses) but one would have hoped that something a little more gripping had been devised in this case. As it stands, the one genuinely unsettling thing about the whole film is the music score!

This movie creeped me out for YEARS, I remember making mental plans to keep them away when I was a kid. I remember for years I would think of this movie. When I saw the trailer for the new one It all flooded back, I could remember so much, I know I had to have seen it again to remember as much of it as I do. I want to see the new one but I am afraid it will be a disappointment I want to see this one again, Yes! OK AMC lets have it.It got under my skin and stayed there. Ahhh to watch a movie from a kids point of view again and be really scared.. Have a flashlight with you when you watch this one..