Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) — The One That Got Under My Skin

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[00:00:07]Hi, welcome to my channel. I'm Peas and today I'm going to be talking about the classic 1973 TV film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

[00:00:18]I'm soing excited to be talking about this film today. It's one of my favorite horror films of all time. a film with almost mythical status amongst fans of the genre. As soon as you put this film on, it makes it clear that it wants to creep you out. You're bombarded with so many wonderfully spooky cliches. We got creepy music. We got random black cat footage that's got no relation to anything in the film. We've got a full moon shrouded in clouds. We've got the title morphing from a plain white font into a neon green. It's stormy. The camera tracks across to a large imposing house. Swirls of wind and leaves. Then come the creepy voices. We don't know who or what they are.

[00:01:11]>> They're waiting for her. Waiting for her to arrive.

[00:01:15]>> So many years. When will she come? Set us free. Set us free. Facious, clean patience.

[00:01:24]If all the time in the world, all the time in the world, in the world, in the world to set us free in the world.

[00:01:37]This film used to pop up on television every so often back in the day when there were only four channels and you shut your godamn face and watched whatever the BBC or BBC 2 or ITV or Channel 4 threw at you. You just shut up and got on with it. Don't be afraid of the dark was a treat you waited and hoped for. The kind of horror film they throw on every so often after 10:00 on a Friday night. And like so many of my other favorite horror films, I watched it at a very impressionable age. A fancy way of saying I was probably about 7 years old or something when I first seen it. My parents, even my mother, who's not a horror fan, excitedly would tell me every single time it was on that this film had scared the crap out of her.

[00:02:27]While my dad farted, smoked, sipped on the cardi, and dozed on and off throughout the film, fairy tale memories.

[00:02:39]>> Those bricks are cemented for deep and reinforced with iron bars. There's no way of opening it up.

[00:02:45]>> Now, whose idea was that? Your grandmother had me do that 20 years ago.

[00:02:49]>> Sally and her husband move into an old Victorian house that she's inherited from her grandmother. The house is full of heavy woodwork, shuttered rooms, and a basement study that seems to have been deliberately abandoned. Sally becomes particularly drawn to a sealed fireplace in that study, a strange feature that's been bolted shut for decades. Despite warnings from the handyman that some things in the house are better left alone, Sally's curiosity wins out. Once she tampers with the fireplace, the atmosphere in the house shifts, she begins hearing faint whispers calling her name. Catching movement in the corner of the room and feeling watched whenever the lights are dim. The disturbances are subtle at first, easily dismissed as nerves or imagination, but they grow more pointed, more personal, and more malicious. Alex, preoccupied with work and eager to modernize the house, brushes off her concerns. Sally, increasingly isolated, tries to make sense of what she's experiencing. The whispers seem to come from the dark spaces of the house, and the unseen presence appears to know her routines, her vulnerabilities, and her fears. As the strange events escalate, Sally becomes convinced that whatever she has awakened is not only real, but fixated on her specifically. Now, despite first airing in 1973, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark never received an official commercial VHS release in the United Kingdom. Instead, it thrived in the underground horror tape trading world, passed around like contraband for people who wanted to relive the film that had traumatized them as children. Eventually, it crept onto DVD in the UK around 2010, decades late, but still carrying the same reputation that it had always had. It was the spooky film that you and your school friends talked about. The one nobody could remember the title of, only the feeling of being freaked the [ __ ] out by it. The memories followed you into adulthood the same way. A half-remembered fever dream you'd bring up with like-minded friends who also couldn't quite place it. The lack of official easy to find release only deepened the myth. The plot and imagery were passed around like folklore, as if the film itself existed in the shadows.

[00:05:22]The plot itself is very simple, and its 1 hour and 14minute runtime means there's absolutely no unnecessary fluff.

[00:05:30]The film's entire goal is to creep you out, to leave you unsettled and afraid of the dark. And it succeeds without gore, violence, or bad language. It relies instead on lighting, perfectly timed sound cues, simple vocal effects and whispers, and giant props built to scale with the creatures instead of non-existent green screen props and CGI.

[00:05:57]And because these props are real, the actors playing the creatures interacting with them physically, it gives this thing a more grounded and tactile realism that modern effects struggle to match. It's a handmade horror, and that's why it still works. The creatures themselves are uncanny. They reveal their presence at a dinner party in a room full of people. Only to Sally, mind you, which is terrifying because it implies she isn't safe anywhere. Not even when she's surrounded by people.

[00:06:29]She knows the situation makes no sense.

[00:06:31]And in a way, it would almost be a relief if she was losing her mind like her husband suggested, but deep down she knows the creatures are real and are closing in. The next major reveal of these little bastards comes when Sally's in the shower. She sees them clearly, finds a cut-throat razor on the floor that they were just wielding moments ago. She is [ __ ] herself now, even more than before. The scene finishes up then with the creatures whispering that they're going to come and get her the very next night. When it comes to the creatures, seriously, look at this ugly bastard. groomed, raisinlike head, tiny slit mouth, oddly furry bodies, no bigger than seven or eight inches tall.

[00:07:14]Seeing them in a scene where they're climbing the stairs after Sally, who appears to have completely unraveled by this point is unforgettable.

[00:07:23]Imagine being a kid having watched this scene. You're laying in bed. You hear a creek on the stairs and immediately you start picturing those bloody things. is the kind of image that brands itself, searing into your brain tissues. Still, do you know what? I can't help but wonder what would happen if you were to soak one of those little [ __ ] in a glass of water. Would its head plump out like a big old juicy grape?

[00:07:59]I cannot talk about this film without briefly touching on the 2010 remake from Guiro Delto.

[00:08:07]I was incredibly excited from the moment the rumors started. Especially when I found out he was the one working on it.

[00:08:14]So when I finally watched it the moment that it was released, I was left bitterly disappointed. The creatures were really overdone. They were more animal than humanoid. completely losing the unsettling look of the original.

[00:08:30]They even refer to them as tooth fairies or humunuli, and giving them a label strips away the mystery entirely.

[00:08:38]They're still freaky in their own way, but the uncanny appearance of the original creatures was far more terrifying. Del Toro turned his version into a kind of dark fairy tale, while the original is a dark, creepy horror mystery. The final act is relentless.

[00:08:58]The insistent whispering of Sally, Sally, Sally. Sally has been drugged by the creatures, trapped in the house, her friend locked outside, her husband racing back after hearing a bit of the law from the caretaker about the sealed fireplace.

[00:09:17]Sally slowly being dragged towards the basement. helpless. The theme song from the beginning of the film creeping back in. Nothing anyone can do. It's [ __ ] incredible. Who whispered, "Don't." Her cries for her husband and he's not there. Then the music drops.

[00:09:37]Silence.

[00:09:39]Then just like the start of the film, the creatures speak of being set free and having all the time in the world to wait for the next unsuspecting victim.

[00:09:50]The origin of the creatures, why they want Sally, and what actually happens to her remain a mystery, and the film is so much more frightening for it. I can't say whether the 1973 original would hit modern horror fans the same way. It's over 50 years old now and showing a few blemishes, but if you follow my recommendations, you'll get the most out of it. Wait until autumn or winter when the days are short. You have to watch this late at night when it's as dark as can be. Make sure you're alone. Switch the lights off. Turn your phone off. In fact, just throw that [ __ ] in the bin.

[00:10:32]Sit back, relax, let the film take you in.

[00:10:37]Pause for a moment once the film is finished. The voices, Sally's voice, all left swirling in your ears, staining your mind like a dark red and fullbodied wine. For me, this film is a nine out of 10. It's an important horror film, and if you let it, it will scare the crap out of you. Have you seen Don't Be Afraid of the Dark? I'd love to hear your experience of this masterpiece in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching this video today. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did putting it together for you. Take care, stay unique, look after yourself, and maybe keep the lights on tonight. Peace be with you always. Bulls, get off me. All I was trying to do was enjoy a succulent Chinese meal. Get off me. Get off me.

[00:11:31]Help. Hands off my penis.

[00:11:35]>> And peace the clown.

[00:11:40]Absurd and loud.

[00:11:45]Refuse the films.

[00:11:49]Let's scare the crowd.

[00:11:55]Us with us.

[00:12:02]Let us breaace.

[00:12:05]Let us breaace.

[00:12:08]Let us brea with us.