FEAR OF THE DARK

Twelve-year-old Ryan is terrified of the dark ever since he came face to face, a few years earlier, with a monstrous being hiding in the darkness of his house's basement. Ryan is convinced that the dark is populated by strange and malevolent creatures fueled by fear and intent on devouring humans. One stormy night, his mother and father leave him alone at home with his older brother, who does not believe at all in what scares Ryan. But the night will be long and with a blackout, every corner of the house will be populated by strange shadows and horrible creatures; so the two brothers will have to fight for survival. Distributed in Italy three years later only for the home video market, probably to capitalize on the moderate success in theaters of "Boogeyman", "Fear of the dark" is based on the plot of the atavistic fear of the dark. In this case, there are several similarities with "They – Incubi dal mondo delle ombre", a film directed in 2002 by Robert Harmon (mainly evoked by the discussions on the dimension populated by the creatures of the dark), with the addition of some elements from the recent "Boogeyman" (see the black-clad monster that pursues the protagonist). The viewer, therefore, will certainly not be struck by the originality of this feature film which, moreover, by exploiting every possible cliché of the "fear of the dark" genre (shadows that come to life, monsters in the closet, light that suddenly goes out) and being set 90% in poorly lit environments, fails to create the slightest tension in the viewer. Probably, in addition to the amateur TV direction of K.C. Bascombe, part of the blame goes to the location; in fact, the film takes place in a house throughout its duration, which could have been an advantage, if they had used an appropriate set design and made a claustrophobic use of the environments. But that was not the case, because the house in which the film takes place is a simple residence in a residential neighborhood, in which there is little to fear from the moment that everything seems familiar and reassuring despite the conditions of poor visibility. The creatures of the dark have been depicted with different appearances: in some cases they embody individual fears (for example, a girl explains that she is afraid of dogs and the creatures appear to her in the form of four growling Dobermans), other times they are menacing black-clad monsters. The makeup of the monsters is spot on and, although not very original, quite suggestive; even the rare CGI effects are decently executed for a direct-to-video product. In conclusion, "Fear of the dark" is a product without infamy and without praise; clearly indebted to the moderate success that films exploiting the fear of the dark have been enjoying in recent years, without which it would never have had a reason to exist. Smooth but negligible.