Don't Be Afraid of the Dark [1973]

Country of Origin: USA
Dates of Original Broadcast: 10 October 1973
Number of Seasons: n/a
Total Number of Episodes: 1
Average Episode Running Times: 74 mins
Format: colour     35mm
Ratio: 1.33:1
Sound: mono

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Lorimar Productions
Executive Producer: Lee Rich
Producer: Allen S. Epstein
Associate Producer: Neil T. Maffeo
Executive Production Manager: Neil T. Maffeo
Unit Production Manager: Ted Swanson
Production Coordinator: Julie Waxman

SCRIPT
Script: Nigel McKeand

DIRECTION
Director: John Newland
1st Assistant Director: Ted Swanson
2nd Assistant Director: Nathan Haggard

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Andrew Jackson
Electrical Gaffer: Tom Hayes
Key Grip: John Black

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editors: Gene Fowler Jr, Michael McCroskey
Editorial Supervisor: Gene Fowler Jr

MUSIC
Music: Billy Goldenberg
Music Editor: Joe Tuley

SOUND
Production Sound Mixer: Charles Knight
Sound Effects Editors: Victor Guarnier, Jack Wheeler, Bill Wistrom

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Mike Hancock
Hair: Jossen (real name: Bruce Jossen)
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Ed Graves
Set Decorator: James Cane
Property Master: Horst Grandt

CASTING
Casting: Hoyt Bowers

CAST
Kim Darby [Sally Farnham]
Jim Hutton [Alex Farnham]
Barbara Anderson [Joan Kahn]
William Demarest [Mr Harris]
Pedro Armendáriz Jr [Francisco Perez]
Lesley Woods [Ethyl]
Robert Cleaves [doctor]
Sterling Swanson [policeman]
J.H. Lawrence [George Kahn]
William Sylvester [Tom Henderson]
Don Mallon [Bob]
Celia Kaye [Anne]
Elizabeth St Clair, Monica Henreid, Robert Priest [party guests]
Ted Swanson [bartender]
Felix Silla, Tamara De Treaux, Patty Maloney [creatures]
Nigel McKeand [voice of demons]

SUMMARY

Sally and her husband move into her old family home and it isn't long before she discovers a mysterious locked room. It's father's old study and the fireplace has been bricked up. She removes the bricks but releases a vicious creature that is soon killing anyone who comes near the house.

CAPSULE REVIEW

It's not as good as its slightly over-inflated reputation would have us believe but one suspects that the optimum age for seeing it was 8 or 9, back in the 1970s, when you hadn't been exposed to too many similar efforts. Seeing it for the first time, as I did, as a rather more cynical adult with far too many haunted house tales, stories of lonely housewives being driven made and monster movies under my belt, the effect was less impressive. Yet for all that, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark remains a spooky, beautifully crafted horror film that certainly deserves to be though of fondly and regarded highly - just not, perhaps, as highly as it usually is. [Full Review]

AVAILABILITY

UK
Television Distributors: BBC

USA
Television Distributors: ABC
Video Distributors: USA Home Video
DVD Distributors: BijouFlix Releasing

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Iceland
Rating: 16

Norway
Rating: 15

USA
Rating: unrated

TIMELINE

1973
October
10: USA - television broadcast [on ABC]

1988
November
27: UK - television broadcast [on BBC]

1991
April
13: UK - television broadcast [on BBC1]

POSTER TAGS

Now you see them, now you don't...now you die.

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Nie bój sie ciemnosci - Polish title
Nightmare - alternative title
Pimeyden oliot - Finnish title

KEYWORDS

decorators, demons, ghosts, handymen, haunted houses, housewives, inheritances, locked rooms, monsters, old dark houses, the supernatural

Last Updated: 11 June, 2007