8 Horror Films Ruined By Showing Too Much

8. Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

Guillermo Del Toro is a good guy. He knows what he’s doing, and balances the seesaw of crazy, fantasy weirdness and disturbing reality with a precision that’s hard to match, expertly presented in films like Pan’s Labyrinth and Crimson Peak. When it comes to films that he chooses to put his name on outside of directing - he similarly backs the weird and wonderful in everyone’s imaginations. Even when maybe, it’s slightly misguided.

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark sees the acclaimed director taking a writer-producer credit, and features a young girl who's moved in with her father and believes she’s unleashed creatures from a sealed pit in the basement. Whilst it’s definitely a barrel of horror tropes, the original 1973 movie held promise - and the 2010 remake had the same, at least, until the creatures make themselves known.

Tiny monkey-rat-chihuahua monsters from underneath the house really don’t deliver the kick that the filmmakers thought they would, evidently, and turn a creepy premise into a CGI nightmare that’s scary for all the wrong reasons. There's really nothing frightening about an annoying imp you can sort out with one swift kick.