I’m taking a break from the obscure and the unsubtitled, to review one of the best-remembered TV movies of all time:
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)
Sure, there are far scarier things on television these days… for instance, I’d rather be locked in a house with three murderous demon-imps than with the cast of any reality TV show. But when it comes to sheer craftsmanship, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark can withstand comparison to almost any movie on the big or small screen.
#1 by Alaric on August 2, 2010 - 7:50 pm
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As soon as the theme was announced, I was hoping someone would do this one.
#2 by lyzard on August 2, 2010 - 9:01 pm
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And I confess to being worried someone wouldn’t.
#3 by The Beerman on August 2, 2010 - 9:13 pm
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I’m not sure which gave me more sleepless nights; this, “Don’t go to Sleep” or “Dark Night of the Scarecrow.”
#4 by Braineater on August 3, 2010 - 6:24 am
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Yes! Those were the three I first thought about when the roundtable came up. I watched them back-to-back the other weekend.
Though oddly enough, as much as I love them, they’re not the ones that scarred me (yes, that’s two Rs) as a kid.
#5 by The Rev. on August 3, 2010 - 8:36 am
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I’ve not seen any of those (or the other big one, Trilogy of Terror; I did see Gargoyles on TBS years later, and was surprised by how bloody it was). By the time I was old enough to pay attention to the television, the made-for-TV boom was dying out.
The one I do remember spooking a young Rev. was called This House Possessed. I remember only a couple of setpieces; one with someone drowning in a pool, and one with the mechanical gates to the place closing on a car trying to escape (I think the car proceeded to blow up).
I also want to say a couple of people were attacked by a garden hose, and that someone managed to drown in a glass-walled shower when the water wouldn’t turn off; however, these could be from different movies/shows that my mind edited into this one.
#6 by Mr. Rational on August 3, 2010 - 6:40 am
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As strained as my DVD budget is, I need this movie.
#7 by Baron Scarpia on August 3, 2010 - 11:06 am
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Oddly enough, I caught this one as a child in the UK – it must have been late night BBC some time around the early nineties. I was an absolute coward around horror films at that age, but I remember thinking that given its made-for-TV background, it shouldn’t work as well as it does.
I find it a little weird to find out years afterwards how many people evidently had the same thought.
#8 by Todd on August 3, 2010 - 11:09 am
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How old exactly are these hills?
#9 by Braineater on August 3, 2010 - 11:11 am
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Older than the dirt they’re made of, Todd.
#10 by Todd on August 3, 2010 - 1:05 pm
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OK, I’m going to keep mum about whether or not I saw this when it first aired or not.
#11 by Read MacGuirtose on August 3, 2010 - 3:17 pm
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Actually, there’s enough that makes me feel old that I actually felt a little good about not having been old enough to see this when it first aired. Oh, I was born before it aired, but in 1973 I was far too young to be watching TV, horror movies or otherwise.
#12 by The Rev. on August 3, 2010 - 5:03 pm
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After spending my mornings surrounded by early 20-somethings in class and feeling old, I am actually feeling a bit younger, and relieved, about my never seeing this–I’m not old enough to have done so by a few years.
#13 by Braineater on August 3, 2010 - 6:12 pm
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This is how the conversation went at my house:
ME: We’re doing another Roundtable this month…
MY WIFE: Oh? What is it this time?
ME: 70’s TV movies.
MY WIFE: Ooh! That sounds like fun! What will you be doing?
ME: A horror movie.
MY WIFE: (Groan.) Again? Why don’t you pick something GOOD for a change?
ME: But it is good this time! Really! It’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark from 1973. Didn’t you ever see it?
MY WIFE: (a pause, and a long, level stare) I was two.
So yeah. Enjoy it while you can, kids. Then one day, you’ll realize your childhood favorites have become antiques.
#14 by The Rev. on August 4, 2010 - 6:53 am
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I already do whenever I hear 80s music on an oldies station, or when one of my classmates is unfamiliar with some cultural thing everyone my age knows about.
Kids these days muttergrumblemutter…