Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is horror by-the-numbers. Parts of it are effectively chilling, and the performances are fine, but there's no sense of reality.
- Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald, November 03, 2011
The notion that clichés become clichés because they work every time is writ large in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a film that does everything right but nothing new.
- Simon Foster, sbs.com.au, November 02, 2011
The formula is all too predictably followed
- Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile, October 29, 2011
There are a few genuine scares in this fantasy horror movie produced and co-written by Guillermo del Toro, although it smacks of melodrama and manipulation
- Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile, October 29, 2011
Dont Be Afraid Of The Dark will remind viewers to tuck their feet in at night but is unlikely to terrify any hardcore horror fans.
- , Film4, October 13, 2011
A minor Del Toro, perhaps, but a must for his fans.
- Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK], October 06, 2011
All told, it's about as scary as The Tigger Movie.
- Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph, October 06, 2011
There is so much here that one admires, one wishes that there was more to love.
- Nigel Floyd, Time Out, October 05, 2011
A satisfying, well-crafted supernatural horror movie, refreshingly retro in its Gothic trappings. It won't traumatise a generation, but it certainly delivers the shivers.
- , Empire Magazine, October 02, 2011
The film looks good, it sounds great (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders' score is full of darkly murmuring woodwinds), and Madison is a pip of a lead.
- Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle, September 01, 2011
A welcome alternative to the current genre offerings, steeped in old-fashioned atmosphere and faithful to haunted house routine, albeit to a fault.
- William Goss, Film.com, August 26, 2011
This is still a seriously entertaining horror movie, one that will please newcomers as well as fans of the original oddity.
- Matthew Hays, Globe and Mail, August 26, 2011
The season's scariest horror film - and, depending on what the next few months bring, perhaps the year's.
- Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger, August 26, 2011
"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" will turn your nerve endings to Popsicles.
- Kyle Smith, New York Post, August 26, 2011
This artless film even approaches child abuse, in the way it crassly reconfigures the protagonist from the besieged adult woman of the original into a neglected and terrified tot.
- Peter Howell, Toronto Star, August 26, 2011
Mr. Nixey is doing an Alfred Hitchcock homage within a movie lacking anything as subversive, or skilled, as Hitchcock.
- John Anderson, Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2011
There's no denying that his latest monsters are imaginative and detailed creations, but the haunted house-style story is hampered by his desire to show them off.
- Ian Buckwalter, NPR, August 25, 2011
Despite all the care that has been put into it, the film doesn't transcend its dime-store horror roots.
- Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald, August 26, 2011
Del Toro's influence is apparent in the CGI of the bulbous-headed goblins, but the story has none of the shiver-inducing otherness of Pan's Labyrinth.
- Anthony Quinn, Independent, October 07, 2011
a considerable achievement for a first-time director - but while [Nixey] makes a convincing mimic of the del Toro style, he fails to import the sort of political allegory that gives the Mexican director's other works their real substance.
- Anton Bitel, Little White Lies, August 27, 2011
