The Big Picture

Guillermo del Toro adds deep emotional cores to his films, showing sympathy for the “other.”
The story reflects the dismissal of female fears, highlighting the consequences of minimizing concerns.
Katie Holmes’ character adds complexity to the story, showcasing female solidarity in mother/daughter-type relationships.

Guillermo del Toro has been giving audiences incredible creature designs and fantastical worlds for decades. But beneath the makeup, prosthetics, and special effects, there are also strong characters and deep emotional cores to del Toro’s films. His movies often show sympathy for the “other,” like in Hellboy or the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water. He also comments on social issues in his films, which is a strength he brings even when he’s not the one directing. In 2010, he lent his compelling storytelling to the script for Troy Nixey’s underrated film Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.

A remake of the 1973 TV movie of the same, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark stars Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce as a couple who takes in Pearce’s estranged daughter, Sally (Bailee Madison). Sally is soon tormented by small, horrible creatures after moving in with them, but struggles to get her father to believe her before it’s too late. While the original examined how women’s concerns are often minimized by the men around them, the remake adds more complexity to its themes with the mother/daughter-type relationship between Holmes and Madison.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark Release Date November 6, 2010 Director Troy Nixey Runtime 99 Main Genre Horror Tagline Fear is never just make believe Expand

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ Explores the Dismissal of Female Fears
In both versions of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, a female character is terrorized by malicious creatures that like to prowl in the dark and shadows. And in both versions, the male figures in that character’s life are unaware of the creatures and assume the protagonist is simply imagining things. It speaks to how often women’s fears are dismissed as irrational, and how such dismissal can have grave consequences.

This dismissal is harsher in the 1973 version, as the husband, Alex (Jim Hutton), never quite comes around to the side of his wife, Sally (Kim Darby). He leaves in the middle of her distress to go on a business trip, putting her in the care of one of her friends. Not only is the friend killed, but Sally is also taken by the creatures, who drug her with sedatives, which were prescribed by her doctor for her “nerves” (i.e., her distress from being stalked by actual monsters). This echoes a common complaint of many women that their concerns are often ignored or minimized by male doctors.

2:36 Related This Guillermo del Toro Sci-Fi Horror Gave Us an Inventive Creature Feature “Evolution has a way of keeping things alive.”

The remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark changes things slightly. Sally is now Alex’s (Guy Pearce) 8-year-old daughter; he still doesn’t believe Sally at first, but he eventually comes around with the help of his girlfriend, Kim (Holmes), a new addition to this version. Alex also witnesses firsthand the existence of the creatures and the moment they abduct Kim. In the original, Sally is the one taken, and the ending is ambiguous about whether her true fate was ever discovered by her husband. By letting Alex witness Kim’s fate, it gives him a chance to learn from his mistakes, and, hopefully, he won’t be so quick to dismiss his daughter’s – or other women’s – fears in the future.

Katie Holmes’ ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ Character Adds an Important Layer to the Story

The 1973 version of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark had Sally as the single female protagonist. Sure, she had a friend that slowly starts to believe her, but that relationship pales in comparison to a budding mother/daughter-type relationship like the one between Katie Holmes’ and Bailee Madison’s characters. Their relationship is even more complex because they’re not truly mother and daughter; instead, Katie Holmes plays the girlfriend of Sally’s father, Alex.

Madison’s Sally already has a strained relationship with her parents after being abruptly sent away by her mother to live with her father. Sally rejects Kim as a potential mother figure, and Kim herself is also struggling with the parenting role suddenly put upon her. Her situation is even harsher because Alex is shown to be reluctant to even propose marriage at all.

But as Sally is tormented by the small creatures living in her new home, her relationship with Kim slowly strengthens. Kim, trying to fit into her new role, supports Sally even before Kim realizes that the little girl’s fears are real. Once the true danger becomes apparent, Kim does her best to protect Sally (even to her own demise), cementing their roles as surrogate mother and daughter.

Katie Holmes Represents Female Solidarity in ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’
Image via Miramax

Not only does Sally and Kim’s relationship add more complexity to the story, it also adds another feminist layer of women supporting women. In a situation where Sally can’t rely on her father, Kim steps in to emotionally support her and eventually acts as her lifeline. The 1973 TV movie has the creatures simply incapacitate Sally’s friend, Joan, by locking her out of the house. In the 2010 version, Kim is a strong presence from the get-go.

Even though Kim also doesn’t believe Sally about the creatures right away, she believes that Sally is in trouble, even if it’s strictly emotional distress. She tries to help, sticking up for Sally as Alex grows frustrated with what he perceives is his daughter acting out, not believing that there are supernatural forces at play. Kim eventually makes the ultimate sacrifice for the young girl, allowing herself to be taken by the monsters instead of Sally. The key here is that Kim is not Sally’s mother, or even stepmother. Yet when push comes to shove, it’s not Sally’s father that sacrifices himself for his own daughter: it’s the woman to whom her father hesitated to even get engaged. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is showing the strength of female relationships, even as Kim faces a dark fate in the face of her boyfriend’s disbelief.

Critics and audiences were blasé about Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, criticizing both its jumpscares and pacing on its initial release. However, it’s worth revisiting due to how it explores a whole range of fears experienced by girls and women: fear of dismissal, of motherhood, of changing relationships. It’s emphasis on the importance of women relying on each other in a society that still tends to minimize their experiences is also admirable, and it’s a solid entry in Katie Holmes’ performance history to boot.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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