Ok so I must say that for the most part I was pleasently suprised by this film. I expected a total piece of crap. And this film wasn't that. From the moment you pick up the dvd box in the video store it's kind of silly with some bad artwork and supposed stars lined up on the cover. The only reason me and my friend rented it was because of ultra cute Kevin Zegers of Wrong Turn and Dawn of the Dead fame. But the film is actually quite clever in a family channel kind of halloween night at the movies kind of way. It's the infamous PG-13 horror that digital horror that veers it's ugly head away when it comes even close to showing anything at all. The film doesn't lack suspense but it does lack delivery. Most of the film is just suspense and than nothing really happening until the absurd and contrived ending. The acting is decent with some truly laughable dialogue. but the film is more than watchable for a straight to video flick it almost rings as gold. Well anyways the film is about a young boy and his older brother as they are left in their house on a dark stormy night. the younger brother is terrified of the dark, it's his illness and no one believes him that their are bad hurtful things in the dark. And they're are. But once they show them they kind of loose their hurtful part and just become plain bad. All in all i would have to say 5/10 it's a nice concious effort but in a film like this if u expected more thats your fault. It's a little creepy, a little corny!

It seems like 2001-2002 was prime season for movies about the dark. We had "Darkness Falls" and "They," which were hugely hyped, a bit pretentious, and fell flat. Then there was "Fear of the Dark," which got almost no attention, yet turns out to be the best of the lot.

Don't get me wrong; there are some big holes in the story (why does the big brother keep leaving his darkness-dreading brother alone? Why isn't the girlfriend at the door when big brother answers?), and the monsters are a bit too fairy-tale-ish at times. Still, the movie holds up pretty well overall. There's a tension at work as the story builds to its climax that keeps things interesting without a lot of outrightly horrifying things happening. The acting isn't bad, and at times its even good. The director and cinematographer obviously took a great deal of care in creating a general environment spookiness in a fairly normal suburban home (although the added artifice of mom's strange metal sculptures didn't hurt).

This definitely isn't a great horror film. There's not too terribly much that's original about it, and it's pretty tame by most standards. On the other hand, I couldn't help but like it... and it's certainly far better than the two similarly-themed duds that came out at around the same time.

There's potential in everything about this movie. The actors have the potential to do bigger and better things. The director could certainly go on to make better movies. If anything, I'd recommend seeing it for what it holds out in the future that were involved with a pretty good effort. As "boogie man" films go, this is one of the better ones.

I have to disagree with some comments that I have read about this movie. Personally, I thought it started quite poor in that it would be another cheesy, cheap, suburban style movie. However, the route that it followed was surprising and interesting.

Basically, from my own personal thoughts, this movie brought into reality, the fears that I've experienced as a kid. Whenever you think there's something in your room, the safest place is always under the covers and if you peak out there's going to be a scary face staring at you. Or if part of your body is not covered by the duvet it'll get grabbed by a hand...

This film takes all these fears and myths into consideration and tries to tie them all in. No it's not necessarily scary in this sense, but I believe it tries more to 'relate' rather than scare, and perhaps 'spook' you rather than terrify.

Without spoiling it for people who have not seen it, the film takes an interesting route as mentioned before, making these fears more than the kid's imagination, and that was a surprise.

Some good camera work has been implemented but the film is still very basic. I would say it's an enjoyable film for those who are a little precautious of dark corners.