BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Scarecrow-88 A young boy, Lucas(stunning, haunting performance from young Ben Keyworth)who is slowly going blind, dreams up a horrifying nightmare about a serial slasher of blind women nearby his London home(..with a graveyard located outside his window, no less). It seems to take shape when he places his thick-lensed glasses on which might mean that the impending surgery of his eyes has created such a subconscious fear it has taken shape in reality. A poor dog, Toby, becomes a victims of this. Those in reality, Tom Miller, a locksmith(David Thewlis), a window washer, and photographer Tony(Paul McGann)all seem to become foreboding possible killers in the horrifying fantasy. Lucas' step-dad Frank(James Fox), in reality a florist, is a cop on the case of the slashings of the blind women in his nightmare. Mother Miriam(Fanny Ardant)is pregnant in reality with perfect sight(..who says she would rather be the one going blind rather than her son)but blind in the nightmare which has the young lass worried for her safety..and later the child after it's born, although the film paints the possible picture he'd rather harm the infant than keep it safe. Rose(the beautiful, fine-figured Clare Holman)is Frank's daughter in reality on the verge of marriage with Tony, but in the nightmare also blind, married to someone else blind, who is possibly threatened by Tony, anything but the person in real-life.In the nightmare we follow the boy as he canvases the area around where the serial slasher might frequent, but watch his unusual, cold manner about things..he's an observer who seems almost unphased at the terror occurring around him. His voyeuristic activities has him seeing people from a different perspective because..and this is the powerful aspect in the nightmare I think..most are blind except Frank, the policeman, an ice-cream vendor who lusts after Miriam, the locksmith, window washer & photographer. So obviously he sees what the innocents do not..how certain people truly are. In the reality, we also see a cut-away Lucas who seems like Waldo amongst a group of people existing as if he's not there. I don't think he is for the most part..his on-coming blindness and the pregnancy about to take place take shape over everything else. The surgery is also the main event that truly terrifies him..the doctor who will have the knife is a scary blind hobo in Lucas' nightmare(one of his eyes has an albino white tint for extra ominous effect).I'm afraid this flick will be frustrating to many who might not attach to the lead character who can be quite creepy, and detached, for most viewers. I saw this as an interesting approach seeing him as a young boy struck with fear losing his sight, both mentally and physically. I think this film goes into some dark psychological places..treads onto that territory of fear using blindness and impending blindness as catalysts to tell the dark tale. The slasher, the glasses and what they see when Lucas puts them on and removes them, and the knitting needle which seems to be his weapon of protection..all seem to represent symbolic images of the blindness he fears of.

Eric-1226 **Spoiler Alert: Possible explanatory SPOILERS ahead, necessary for my review**"Afraid of the Dark" is a movie about a young British boy, Lucas, who suffers from an eye condition which, if not corrected with a surgical operation, will certainly cause him to go blind. The movie shows how he mentally fades in and out of his "real" world, often times creating a hellish imaginary world that only a young, impressionable, and, namely, SCARED little boy could create.I saw it once, didn't understand it, and didn't much care for it, as it seemed a confusing, unentertaining hodge-podge of an art-house film – although I did enjoy the dark, moody, atmospheric feel to it. I also liked the London row-house setting. It is a quiet movie, a virtually humorless movie, with a rather somber, at times slightly eerie soundtrack.Interestingly, I had recorded it on tape, and, not wishing to re-record something over it without giving it at least another chance, I decided to watch it again… surprisingly, it was more compelling viewing the second time through, and I'm glad I saved my tape. It helps to understand that the movie combines healthy doses of artistic license as well as portrayal of events that are purely a child's fantasy, which, upon first viewing can be so confusing and off-putting that I can see why the average viewer might not like this movie. You will spend a lot of time wondering what's real, and what's not.But give it a chance. You may have to watch it twice, like I did, but you will be rewarded. Just remember that many of the "twisted" scenes in the movie are not real: they are scenes that merely reflect a nightmare world as concocted by the hyper-imaginative mind of the scared young boy, Lucas, who is terrified of his upcoming eye operation/possible blindness. So I must give the film great credit for not only being imaginative, but also very sobering, as it is a thought-provoking glimpse into the frightened mind of a child faced with possible blindness.

jamsam-2 i am still not sure what the hell this movie is about. i guess the boy was afraid of becoming blind and began imagining all sorts of strange things. this does not explain why he wanted to kill his new baby brother , however , or the unrelenting boredom found within this film. while watching this movie you will wish you were blind so you did not have to see this experiment in futility. skip this steaming pile and opt for anything else at the video store ..... anything else.

Chrissie Afraid of the Dark left me with the impression that several different screenplays were written, all too short for a feature length film, then spliced together clumsily into this Frankenstein's monster.At his best, the protagonist, Lucas, is creepy. As hard as it is to draw a bead on the secondary characters, they're far more sympathetic.Afraid of the Dark could have achieved mediocrity had it taken just one approach and seen it through -- and had it made Lucas simply psychotic and confused instead of ghoulish and off-putting. I wanted to see him packed off into an asylum so the rest of the characters could have a normal life.