LOS ANGELES – Once upon a time, more than a hundred years ago, the only son of the renowned naturalist and artist Emerson Blackwood disappeared into the inky blackness of their basement ash pit. Blackwood soon discovered, to his horror, that his boy had been abducted by an ancient race of creatures who dwelled in the subterranean depths beneath his home. Shortly after,, Emerson vanished himself, disappearing down a rabbit hole from whose unfathomable darkness he would never emerge.
The horrific story of the Blackwoods' fate—and the ancient evil behind it—has lain buried in that basement ever since, sealed off like a mausoleum and left undisturbed. That is, until now. Several new tenants have just moved into Blackwood Manor: Alex Hurst (Guy Pearce), an ambitious architect and divorced parent with big plans for his new home; Kim (Katie Holmes), Alex's beautiful young coworker and current live-in girlfriend; and Sally (Bailee Madison), Alex's estranged and lonely young daughter.
While Sally's father directs the crews of contractors renovating the historic building, Kim reaches out to the little girl who so reminds her of a younger self. But Kim learns the hard way how unwelcome her sympathies are when would-be step daughter Sally coldly rejects her. Sally prefers to spend her friendless hours exploring the dark corners and lonely byways of the labyrinthine manor, losing herself in the twists and turns of the sprawling estate and of her own imagination—despite the protests of the gruffly concerned caretaker (Jack Thompson) who cryptically alludes to hidden dangers.
It's on one of these solo expeditions that Sally first hears the voices: rasping, scratching voices who whisper her name, who offer her sympathy, who only want to be her friend. "Come to the basement,” the Siren-like voices call to her. “There are children down here...” But when Sally unlocks a door that was meant to stay forever sealed, she unwittingly opens an ancient fault line from which monstrous hordes of hellish creatures emerge. Beady-eyed and sharp-clawed, small in size but endless in number, these trolls have been known since ancient times as the homunculi. As first Sally and later Kim and Alex stare with horror into the dark abyss, the dark abyss stares back into them--and threatens, literally, to swallow them up.
"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" was produced by Mark Johnson and the internationally acclaimed writer-director Guillermo del Toro. The story was adapted from the teleplay of the same name by Nigel McKeand, which was first filmed and broadcast by ABC television in 1973. Executive Producers are William Horberg, Stephen Jones, and Tom Williams. The film is the first feature directed by comics artist Troy Nixey (creator of the critically acclaimed "Trout" and a former illustrator for Neil Gaiman and Mike Mignola).
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