Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Maleeha Vincent 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.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Tss5078 Production companies will do anything to get people to watch their movies, that's why the trailer almost always looks good, and the description on the back of the box is so eloquently written, but how often does the film live up to the hype? In the case of Fear of The Dark, it doesn't even come close! 12 year old, Ryan Billings (Jesse James), has an acute fear of the dark and his whole family thinks he's crazy. His parents rarely go out, but on one stormy night they decide to do so, leaving Ryan home alone with his older brother, Dale (Kevin Zegers), who comes to realize, his brother isn't so crazy after all. A creepy cover, a cool trailer, and an interesting description lead me to this film, even with the PG-13 rating. Some of the scariest supernatural horror film were rated PG-13, so i convinced myself, this would be a good choice. While the film has no affiliation with R.L. Stine, it is as much a Goosebumps tale as every other one of his stories. I was worried about the PG-13 rating, when the film doesn't even live up to that. How the company convinced the academy to give this film anything more than a PG rating is beyond me. Fear of The Dark has got to be the most tame and dull horror film I've ever seen. That being said, kids would absolutely love it, but it wasn't marketed to them and the creepy cover and PG-13 rating is exactly what would have kept them from this film. As for the performances, the two young actors were as you would expect, both Jesse James and Kevin Zegers, have look resumes as child actors and have done a ton of films like this and know exactly what their doing. Fear of The Dark is market towards teens and young adults when it should be in the children section. If you have kid, this is the kind of horror film you want them watching. As for me, I was utterly disappointed and shocked that a film like this would be marketed towards young adults.

okiecrabjp I've been pleasantly surprised with a few finds of late, that fit the swiftly disappearing "family friendly" horror movies, especially the supernatural horror movies, that can be creepy or even genuinely scary, but do it without resorting to constant blatant jump scares that startle, or buckets of gore, or pad it with gratituitous sex, cursing or drug use.This movie had a commendable very small cast of just the younger phobic brother, his older brother, understanding and protective but irritated at the younger's phobias, and the older brother's third fiddle but sympathetic girlfriend. To the movie's credit, we get something rarely seen in ANY movie now: likable characters - all of them.The monsters and the effects don't show up all that much but are used effectively when they do, mostly staying appropriately hidden, leaving the movie to be carried by the acting between mostly the two brothers in tense but mostly ultimately mundane scenes, which is admittedly a gamble nowdays, but I have to say I even enjoyed those. I really thought this was a very well done movie and I recommend it to anyone who liked traditional cleaner horror movies suitable for mid and late teens and older.

johannes2000-1 This is such a great movie!! It seems in every aspect a "small" project: just 2 actors (three, if you count the girl next door in); a very simple setting of the interior of one (not even a very special or scary) house; all of the action taking place within a few hours on one and the same evening; a script that's rather straightforward, no complicated twists or multiple layers; and only some slight use of CGI. But they really used all this modest material to the greatest advantage and effect, to create a very entertaining and hair-raisingly scary modern horror-classic. It's about two brothers. Young Ryan (about 12) is scared of the dark, maybe due to some prior traumatic experience that we never much get in to. It's more important that he is convinced that there are real monsters lurking in the dark, threatening him every night. His adolescent brother Dale tries to rationalize the fears of his brother, especially since this night their parents go out and leave them all alone. But soon he must admit that there's maybe some terrible truth and reality in the convictions of his little brother.Sure, there are lots of cliché's: the whole movie through it's storming outside and there's continuous thunder and lightning; there's a scary attic and an even more scary cellar; and naturally at one point the fuses give way and the lights fall out. But hey, what self-respecting horror-flick does NOT use some of these all-time ingredients, and as ever they provide a solid sense of tension. The original side of this movie lies in the relationship between the brothers. Contrary to so many other (horror-)movies, here's two brothers that actually love each other! No sign of rivalry or jealousy, or of Dale being wearied with his little brother's apparently silly fears. He just tries to understand them, he takes his brother actually very serious and does his utmost to help him. Kevin Zegers and Jesse James both do a great job here. I recently saw Zegers in Transamerica and was equally impressed then, but here in Fear of the Dark he has a leading role and he very convincingly carries this whole project on his shoulders. The monsters that eventually DO exist and come out in the open (or do they??) may be a little weird, I mean you would expect a Toothfairy or a Darkness Falls-like screaming witch, but here they turn out to be big guys in long black trench-coats, like the evil versions of hit men in a Sergio Leone western. Although different, this doesn't make them any less scary, they are really some mean and ugly menacing buggers. In short: a great movie that kept me at the edge of my chair for the full one and a half hour. I rank it a heartfelt 10!

stacyschiff This film goes nowhere with a very tired theme. Kids home alone during a storm has been done a million times (and a million times better) and this movie adds nothing to the genre. While this movie has no real plot - just semi-scary images throughout an unoriginal story, Kevin Zegers makes this film watchable. He is able to make the bland dialog work and has excellent energy on the screen; he is the best thing about this movie. One can see why he was cast in Transamerica, a film worthy of his talent. The younger actor does well, also, although the character seems out of place for a feature film and would be better received on Saturday morning TV.