Review | Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Credit: Carolyn Johns
Opens: Friday 8/26
Us Rating: * 1/2
Just run away, Katie Holmes! That's what audiences will yell during this plodding thriller. Holmes and Guy Pearce play a couple who don't realize their gothic dream mansion is inhabited by creepy creatures in their basement's furnace. (Their cluelessness is maddening.)
When the lights go off, the critters terrify Pearce's 9-year-old daughter (Bailee Madison) with their whispers and sharp claws. While Homes does the most with her one-note character, the movie adds nothing new to the genre: Every horror cliche is accounted for, including the climactic dark and stormy night and the ominous caretaker who knows too much!
-- MARA REINSTEN
