Fear of the Dark (2003)

Directed by K.C. Bascombe [Other horror films: N/A]

A nostalgic favorite of mine, I first saw Fear of the Dark when I was a kid. I remember being home from school, likely sick, and catching this on television. It’s a movie aimed at a younger audience, but as I was a younger audience (if I was older than 12, I’d be surprised), it worked out well, and even since then, I’ve been a fan of this movie.

It’s a pretty simple story with a limited cast – a young boy deals with the dark thing (shadows that come to life, as they oft do) while he and his older brother are home alone. And that’s pretty much it – there are only five relevant characters, and if you discount the parents, just three. It’s a small cast, made with what I’d imagine to be a lower budget, but it works out beautifully.

Part of this is because, as a kid, I grew up on Goosebumps. I watched Goosebump after school all the time, and I’ve seen most of the episodes (along with owning all the ones released on VHS). Fear of the Dark feels like an hour-and-a-half long episode of Goosebumps, albeit mildly more mature (in regards to language). It feels like what got me into horror, in other words, and seeing it at a young age, during my early exploration into the genre, really cements this in my mind.

To be fair, one could say it’s a bit slow. The final 15 minutes have a ton of action, but there’s only a handful leading up to the finale. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me, as it just increases the tension, which is made even better by the ongoing lightning storm throughout the film.

Jesse James (The Amityville Horror, Dead Souls) does great as a young kid dealing with an intense, and justifiable, fear of the dark, and his interactions with Kevin Zegers (Shadow Builder, Vampire, The Hollow, Komodo, Wrong Turn), who plays his older brother, strike me as very genuine. In fact, playing their parents are Linda Purl (Visiting Hours) and Charles Edwin Powell (Screamers), and they also strike me as genuine, so the family in the movie feels like a real family.

The only other cast member worth mentioning is Rachel Skarsten (Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer), and while it’s true most of her scenes aren’t until the final 25 minutes or so, she did pretty well, especially with some more emotional material (such as the loss of her brother, along with her fear of dogs).

The night things, or shadow people, do look a little silly. The main one wears what seems to be a cowboy hat, and there’s another one who wears a top hat. Honestly, they don’t look too bad, but it’s more that they pop up in a dark hallway to some raucous rock music, and while it’s not ineffective, it does look a little goofy.

Many of the other scares are decent, though, such as a figure in someone’s closet, or one of the brothers being stuck in the attic with overactive shadows, or faces and hands pushing the wall out, as Freddy famously did in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Actually, aside from some really hideous CGI cockroaches/beetles toward the finale, most of the action-orientated horrors are decent.

Honestly, though, Fear of the Dark is more than just the night things and the scary events the two brothers face during a stormy night – it’s about a strained relationship between an older brother who thinks his younger brother is too old to be scared of the dark, and a younger brother who doesn’t believe he can confide in his older brother, even when he’s being physically harmed by the dark. It’s a good movie showcasing the two of them growing closer, and I think that’s another big draw I feel toward it.

It can’t go without saying that another important aspect is that it’s from this movie that I first heard the song ‘Ski Bum’ by Les Megatones, which is pretty catchy and never fails to amuse me. It pops up during the opening credits, along with playing during the end credits. It doesn’t really seem like the type of song to be in a movie like this – it’s the opposite of anything I consider ‘dark’ – but it’s a fun song, and has graced my iTunes for years.

Naturally, a lot of the stuff in this movie isn’t likely to impress those who don’t already enjoy the 90’s, kid-style horror of Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, but as I grew up on both of those shows, this movie hits the right spots, and though it’s flawed in some aspects, I’ve never seen this movie and not had a good time with it. Honestly, I doubt I ever could.

Fear of the Dark isn’t going to be a movie that every horror fan loves, but it’s one of the movies that got me into the genre, and I personally love it.

8.5/10