The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A lonely house with dusty basement and dingy attic; a raging thunder storm; a sudden power outage; eerie noises in the shadows; a creepy ventriloquist's dummy: Fear of the Dark has got everything necessary to make an effective spooky film.... well, everything except one: a decent plot.Having firmly established that it's central character, twelve year old Ryan Billings (Jesse James), has a morbid fear of the dark thanks to the malevolent spirits that lurk there waiting to attack, the film fails to develop the concept any further, preferring to concentrate on simply delivering routine scares.There is no explanation for why the spirits have singled out Ryan for torment all his life, no clues as to who or what these monsters are, and no reason given for why no-one else has ever been bothered by the ghosts until now; it's lazy film-making that relies on cheap modern horror movie tactics (crap CGI spooks and convenient jump scares) to try and disguise the fact that the entire thing has been built around the flimsiest of ideas.Technically, the film is OK, with reasonable enough direction and acting, but there really needs to be more to a film than endless wandering around a dark house waiting for the next lame CGI effect to pop out of a closet.

This movie was a snore. I mean absolutely NOTHING happens for 90 percent of the movie. Then when something does its a letdown. The "monsters" looked like a bad halloween mask and the most violent act was when one of the monster held the kid briefly by the throat. Thats IT!The actors weren't terrible given the horrible writing, but they were wasting their talents on this bore.The whole movie is one long buildup with ZERO payoff.Seriously, why Isn't this rated G??? This was NOT a horror movie. This could have been shown on Nickeloeon.

I am a sixteen year old girl and I have been watching thriller/horror movies since... as log as I can remember. I can rarely find a movie that scares me anymore, let alone gives me a thrill. When I watched this movie on television i was so scared I had to pause it several times and drag my younger sister in the family room to watch it with me. I loved seeing Kevin Zegers in this movie and was shocked to learn that the co-star was older than I thought, but this movie pulls you in and I thoroughly enjoyed. I really liked that there was only one basic set which is hard to come by in the movie world. I felt like such a little kid again having a "Fear of the Dark!"

Those used to blood, gore and cheap thrills most likely will not enjoy this movie at all. I was never afraid of the dark but after having children who were, this movie provides insight into their fears that I couldn't understand. I like the ending where it is the child who has to conquer his/her individual fear. A parent or sibling can provide support but it is the individual who has to finally overcome. As this movie shows, it is our mind that provides our worse fears. From insects, to dogs, to monsters, we all have something that comes alive in the dark. They don't have to be ghoulish or nightmarish as some viewers would hope to see. They only have to be real in our mind, and that is what I enjoyed about this movie. We saw three peoples fears through their eyes and how they dealt with them. I wouldn't recommend this movie to small children or those who may be afraid of the dark, but besides being entertaining, it may help some parent to understand what their child may be going through. I like movies like this that rely on our minds to provide the scares rather than those which rely on blood and gore. I would have to give this an 8.