The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

"We want you, Sally. We want you." Some people can't leave well enough alone. A young woman (Kim Darby; True Grit) inherits a mansion from her dead grandmother, insisting on using a closed-up fireplace, sealed for appropriate reasons she will soon discover to her horror. The old family carpenter (William Demarest; My Three Sons) forewarns Sally (Darby) about leaving the ash door to the fireplace alone, but curiosity gets the best of her and in opening it with a wrench releases a long dormant evil. "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is definitely one of those "the monsters in the dark of the cellar are out to get you" movies. I was quite amazed at how faithful Guillermo Del Toro was to this film with his remake (starring Katie Holmes , except featuring a little girl as the one desired by the fireplace creatures), applying many of the basics presented here. John Sutton (The Twilight Zone) is the frustrated husband who believes his wife is delusional, her ravings about hearing and seeing monsters inspired by the elderly construction worker, who was insistent upon not opening the fireplace. Alex (Sutton) is on the fast track at his firm, at that time in his life when promotions and a promising career are of great importance to him. Sally feels he is more concerned with success than their marriage, but this soon plays second fiddle to the danger of hostile monsters who know how to run and hide, their sensitivity to the light her only real weapon against them. While I'm certain you will be screaming at the screen for them just to leave (echoing similar feelings for couples who live in the cursed Amityville house), there wouldn't be a chiller if that were the case; making a rational decision to stay elsewhere when the fear of being harmed is palpable isn't proper for horror cinema. Anyway, the creatures reminded me of the Zulu doll from Dan Curtis' Trilogy of Terror (with Karen Black the one under assault), and it seems as if stop motion might have been used. Carefully submerging them in the dark as not to fully expose the creatures as puppets, it was a good idea and that threat of them lurking somewhere in the house, small enough to stay just out of sight, pop out when they are least expected, able to move about freely (…because who but Sally believes these things exist?) is always reminded to us. Darby presents a confused, bothered, and frightened victim of these beings, her situation amplified because Sutton criticizes her for talking such "crazy nonsense". Demarest has a key role in the film because his character knows more than he can reveal. Barbara Anderson also has an unceremonious part as the friend, Joan, who cares and is concerned for Sally, willing to listen even if what she hears sounds a bit far-fetched. Bleak ending is actually lifted exact for the remake and I still don't care for it because it just seemed silly and nonsensical to me. This 70s made for television dark house movie has a cult reputation, celebrated by those who grew up with it during the time when it first aired (and perhaps times shown late at night afterwards). I think the doom and sinister of the scenario and house itself are well directed, even if the payoff didn't quite work for me personally. The motive behind the behavior of the monsters is never quite fully explained, perhaps this is acceptable and welcomed by many, but I found it rather unsatisfying. That said, I did find this rather enjoyable for the most part...I think it is more about mood and suspense than a remarkable storyline. When it is taken into account that the film was made in like two weeks, I have to give all involved a pat on the back for accomplishing what they do within such a limited schedule.

Sally Farnham (Kim Darby) and her husband Alex Farnham (Jim Hutton) move to an old mansion that belonged to Sally's grandmother and they hire an interior designer and the carpenter Mr. Harris (William Demarest) to redecorate the manor. Sally opens a locked door in the house and finds a sealed fireplace and ash pit. She asks Mr. Harris to open the fireplace but the old man argues with her and refuses to follow the order. Sally uses Mr. Harris' wrench to remove the bolts of the ash pit cover. Sooner Sally finds that evil little creatures that fear the light have escaped from the underground through the ash pit and are threatening her. However, Alex and her friend Joan Kahn (Barbara Anderson) believe that Sally's imagination is affected by the words of Mr. Harris."Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is a simple and effective horror film made for television released in Brazil only on VHS. The story of a young couple that moves to an old house and the wife Kim Darby, the unforgettable Miri of "Star Trek" and the girl Mattie Ross of "True Grit", releases demon-like creatures is original and developed in an adequate pace.In 2010, Guillermo del Toro remade this film with a lame screenplay that included silly sub-plots and spoiled the original story. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Criaturas da Noite" ("Creatures of the Night")

The fact that this has just been remade (under the aegis of executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, no less) suggests it has classic status within the genre but, then, so many horror films from this era have been revisited during the last decade that it hardly matters anymore whether the original actually had any real merit to begin with! And, to be sure, this emerged to be just fair – not really scary and not all that engaging either: the problem lies with the fact that the monsters that terrorize the heroine are not only given too much exposure but, even more regrettably, they are made to speak – which rather dissipates their other-worldliness! Kim Darby does well enough by her role but, again, because the Gremlins-like creatures are introduced at the very start i.e. before the leading lady herself even shows up, there is no chance of the audience considering that what she is seeing is only in her own mind! Having grown up – via Robert Aldrich's notoriously violent and sleazy gangland thriller THE GRISSOM GANG (1971) – from the tomboy-ish girl she played in TRUE GRIT (1969; which has itself been reworked last year), Darby is here married to Jim Hutton, representing the rather hollow aspirations (that is to, say, be made a partner in some big-business firm) of every working-man-emanating-from-a-small-town of the day. With this in mind, he has little patience with his wife's 'tantrums' when she tells of strange goings-on in their home (a bequest of her grandparents) and that she is even seeing things. Predictably, when he gives a dinner party to impress his future associates, all hell breaks loose.The film is certainly tolerable at just 74 minutes but, typical of 1970s made-for-TV efforts, it tends to hold back too much, so that one ends up wondering what was the point of it all. Here, in fact, we never learn what the creatures are or where they came from, not to mention the real nature of their relationship with the elderly handy-man (former Preston Sturges regular William Demarest!). The finale is surprisingly downbeat, then, but it is too rushed and obscure to really be given much thought: although we are told why the creatures want Darby specifically and what they intend doing with her – since she was the one to liberate them from their centuries-old imprisonment in the walled-up fireplace, she has to join their ranks (even though, when they are carrying her there, she tries to defend herself by repeatedly activating the flashlight of a camera that happens to be on a nearby table) – but why would they willfully seek refuge there again at the end rather than escape out into the open through the broken windows of the main door (cue another stretch of enforced waiting in the fireplace with Darby in tow)?! Mind you, the notion of there being 'something creeping in the dark' probably resonates with most viewers (especially those living in big, old and out-of-the-way houses) but one would have hoped that something a little more gripping had been devised in this case. As it stands, the one genuinely unsettling thing about the whole film is the music score!

It seems that this film has a special place in the hearts of a lot of thirty and forty-something-year-olds, probably due to nostalgia and their childhood imaginations as to what roamed around their houses at night. I saw this film for the first time yesterday as a twenty-something-year-old, and I can tell you that their love for it is not in vain. The film focuses on young housewife Sally Farnham (Kim Darby), who moves into a Victorian California mansion with her businessman husband (Jim Hutton). The house belonged to Sally's grandmother, and she feels obligated to restore the place. In a basement room, she discovers a bricked up fireplace that the maintenance man insists should stay that way. Sally lets her curiosity get the better of her, and she unlocks the door to the ash pit. Almost immediately afterward she begins to witness glimpses of short goblin creatures roaming around the house, but her husband dismisses it as feminine paranoia. But as the creatures' antics grow more and more violent, they insist that Sally must become one of their own.I've read reviews online from people saying that this is the scariest film they've ever seen, and I'd like to say up front that the people saying this are probably relying on what they remembered of this film from when they were six or seven years old— it's NOT really that scary. Regardless, it does have a sense of dread to it that is unnerving and there are some spooky moments revolving around the little goblins (mostly their raspy whispering, geesh!). What stood out to me most about this film was its atmosphere and the surprising sense of paranoia and dread packed within its 74-minute run time. Kim Darby effectively plays the lone housewife who is dismissed continuously by her business-centered husband, played by the stern Jim Hutton. Is she crazy? Why do the creatures insist on appearing only to her? This uncertainty of events is reminiscent of films like "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" and "Rosemary's Baby", where female protagonists are challenged on their perceptions of reality and their fears go ignored by male characters. This edge gives "Don't Be Afraid" an almost feminist slant, along with its brief dialogic references to women's lib and housewives spending their absent husbands' money on shopping sprees.As for the little devils lurking around the shadows of the house; well, they're creepy. And they're almost cute in a way, except for when you remember their intentions with Sally. To be forthright, the creatures are not scary by modern-day standards. Their presence is frightening, but the actual physicality of them is dated, though still mildly effective if you can tune your brain for it. I certainly wouldn't want to see one running around my house. They are bizarre, and the fact that they emerge from somewhere inside a fireplace is both absurd and horrifying. Add to that the fact that their origin and motives are left completely unexplained— by the end of the film, we have no more a clue as to what they are than Sally does.Accompanying the ominous goblins is a surprisingly good musical score, which really helps the film out in a lot of ways, but not as much as the haunting whispers that echo throughout the house. The vocal work there is probably one of the film's scariest elements.Atmosphere-wise, the sets in the film look very "television" in some scenes, and very real in others, but have a consistently charming vintage feel to them. The house used in the film is a character itself like in many of these films, and its angles and shadows give room for the goblins to be anywhere at any time.The real kicker here is the downbeat ending, which is a bit of a downer now and was probably absolutely horrific back in 1973. You don't see films that end this way often, even today, so the film deserves recognition for being so daring. I don't really know what else to say about this film, besides that I genuinely liked it for whatever reason. It's goofy and dated but there's still something extremely charming about it, and it has some elements of classic haunted house stories and an extremely '70s feel to it that is welcoming and foreboding simultaneously. That's really how the entire film is— where it's ridiculous, it's also spooky. What makes it hokey is also what makes it bizarre. Where it makes no sense, it doesn't need to. The conglomeration of all these elements make it a classic of its own, albeit a product of its time. Worth a watch for fans of 1970s television or horror films, despite the fact that it's not quite as scary as some say. 8/10.