Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2010, R)

The title is a lie!  DO be afraid of the dark (at least if you are a character in this movie).
The story is about a little girl going to live with her dad (played by Guy Pierce, from Memento and The Time Machine) and his girlfriend (played by Katie Holmes, from Batman Begins and the Dawson's Creek television series) in the huge stately manor they are restoring (dad is an architect and the girlfriend is an interior designer).  The prologue scene establishes that the furnace-looking grate in the basement is home to little gnome things that like to eat teeth, especially those of children.  Fun times.  An amusing Easter egg in this film that I'm sure I never would have picked up on if I hadn't studied up on paganism a bit in college is that the markings over the basement grate are Elder Futhark (ancient runes) that equate to the Roman letters for the English words "Be Afraid".  I guess Guy Pierce doesn't read ancient Norse.  Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) was a screenwriter and producer on this film and that was apparent (in a good way): the engravings and detailing on the set, the darkly  rich color schemes, the child who encounters supernatural forces that might seem friendly but are instead sinister (Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone), the appearance of the creatures.  The stylistic visuals were not as overt as in Hellboy II, but just added to the richness of the scenes.

I liked some of the subtleties in storytelling.  Example: the dad greets the daughter with a smile and all the standard phrases a dad would say to try to endear a kid but lacks warmth and the teddy bear is the only one to say "I love you" (don't worry, the bear has a computer chip, not a demon).  Whether the audience is conscious of it or not, you can tell there's something missing in the human interaction.  The movie relied on worry, terror and pain for the characters, not simple jump-scares.  I really liked it for a horror movie, but keep in mind it's not like Friday the 13th style.  It doesn't have any nudity and no foul language sticks out in my mind, but it does have blood and some painful looking wounds.

If you like intelligent horror movies (almost a thriller, but not quite), this is great.  While I haven't seen much of Katie Holmes on film, I tend to enjoy everything I see Guy Pierce is in (due to the film itself, not necessarily because of him), so that's a good vote for this movie.  If you don't like yucky wounds, or if you don't like to be scared (or if you don't like movies with kids in the main cast, though this was not a dumb kid), then of course don't watch this movie.
On a personal note, my neighbors keep propping the front door open so now there are a bunch of little bugs in my apartment, and when you look directly at them they look kind of like fireflies but without the glowing, but when you only see them out of the corner of your eye after watching this movie they look like little goblins that are going to eat your teeth.  I'm going to bed now.