Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Don't be afraid of this movie!

Sally moves into a new house with her father Alex and his girlfriend Kim. Shortly thereafter, she begins to hear noises and learns that they are not the only ones in the house. But are these other inhabitants friendly or evil?

For a film that was supposed to be thrilling and/or suspenseful, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark certainly failed to be either. The story, which was based upon a 1973 made for television movie of the same name that apparently haunted Producer and Screenwriter Guillermo del Toro so much that he had to help remake it, focused on a family dealing with a group of bizarre creatures (fairies perhaps as the film was never too clear on the origin of the nasty little things) that threatened to destroy them. But the members of the family were so bland or annoying that the audience could not get involved in their stories. Katie Holmes was somewhat believable and likable as Kim, the new girlfriend who was trying to win over Sally, but her performance was not enough to lift the whole film beyond dismal. And then there were the creatures, who did not strike fear into the audience and seemed more silly than vicious. Plus Kim, Alex and Sally never took, what would have been, the easiest action in order to defeat the creatures (kick the damn things, they're smaller than you are!)

You should be afraid of this film for if you watch it, you will have wasted an hour and forty minutes of your life.

Grade: D

The Haunting in Connecticut: A not so scary trip

For some, there's nothing better than popping in a scary movie on a Friday night and seeing if it's creepy enough to make them check under their bed bfore they turn off the lights. Unfortunately, it is rare to find scary movies like that anymore because most, including The Haunting in Connecticut, have a hard time even keeping an audience entertained.

After her son Matthew is diagnosed with cancer, Sara decides to move him and the rest of her family up to Connecticut so he can be closer to the hospital for treatment. Soon after moving into their new house though strange things start happening, and the family begins to wonder if their new home is haunted.

Having previously read about the true events which inspired this movie, it was rather disappointing to see the "Hollywood spin" which was grafted upon the story of the Campbell family, but even audience members unaware of the real life events are likely to find the film both repetitive and commonplace when viewed against most recently released horror films. It's true that there were some effective jumps and scares scattered throughout but not enough to make one check their closets before saying good night. It seemed as though that instead of drawing upon the true experiences the real life family went through, and showing how those events affected their relationships as well as the paranormal vs. religious questions the incidents raised, screenwriters Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe decided to turn the film into something preposterously mundane that has been done to death in the horror genre. The result was a messy story which tried, and failed, to be effectively scary or even entertaining on a regular basis.

However if you're desperate for a few cheap scares on a dark and stormy Friday night then The Haunting in Connecticut just might be able to help you out.

Grade: D

The Grudge: Finally, a horror film with an effectively creepy kid (and so much more).

Before Hollywood started remaking and Americanizing Japanese horror films like Ford use to mass produce the Model T, films like The Grudge laid the ground work for the onslaught. However, unlike all the rest of those "J-horror" remakes, The Grudge is actually a good movie.

After the original caretaker is reported missing Karen, an American student, is sent to look after an older woman in a house where strange things are occurring. She has an encounter with something she cannot explain. Soon after she attempts to discover what it was she saw and what happened to the previous owners of the house.

What made the film such an effective horror picture was the fact that the scares and frights were constant throughout. A person would barely be recovered from the last terrifying situation when another would pop up out of nowhere and cause them to jump in their seat (again). The scares in the film were also effective because they were accomplished via quick cuts with the camera or editing or by creepy CGI work. The sound design also deserves special mention here due to the fact that the "death rattle" that comes from Yoko (the violent ghost haunting the house Sarah Michelle Gellar has the misfortune of being in) will haunt a viewer for days on end. Add to that Yoko's eerie staccato movements and she becomes one of those keystone horror icons that is so often immitated, but never duplicated. If the filmmakers had depended on excessive blood and gore to achieve a scare, it would have diminished the frightening parts and the movie as a whole. The Grudge also benefited from have a non – linear story presentation. By cutting forward and back in time, director Takasi Shimizu was able to show why the house was the way it was without alienating the audience with extraneous exposition. This was a great haunted house film with more scares than Jason, Freddy, or any other manic killer could muster.

Grade: B