Afraid of the Dark (1992)

I saw this film when it was released, and I remember the negative reviews. They weren't outright pans, but most complained about the film's jumpiness and inconsistencies. I remember liking the film but having that experience afterward that I hadn't really caught everything. After having now seen it four times, I have come to truly appreciate it.The two things really holding it together are writer/director Peploe's one-of-a-kind story and little Ben Keyworth's unbelievably deft performance as the protagonist who is slowly going blind.What's awesome about Keyworth's performance is his pitch-perfect reactions and expressions. They perfectly bottle a portrait of a severely depressed, extremely terrified young man who is simultaneously fighting as a mini-superhero to both save his life and flee his fears. My jaw dropped when I read people's interpretations of his performance as affectless and...snotty??? O-kay...there's someone whose imagination has the depth of a wading pool! And this is why the movie bombed...as many people have highlighted, you need to be watching every frame of this movie to really follow it. It's not an easy entertainment. Then again, I can't think of many other films that effectively start as a very creepy slasher film and then morph into a psychological exploration of impending psychosis. You have to let it take you on the journey and drop your preconceptions of what it should be, which is extremely hard for, I would say, 80% of the potential audience.This movie has some great iconographic visuals, most notably the shot of Keyworth tapping the knitting needle on his opaque glass lenses. It is both ominous and rather heart-rending once you understand just what he's doing. Would have made a great movie poster. But again...marketing.

Young Lucas, an adventurous young boy, is seen as a fearless creature who seems to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. When we first meet him, he accompanies his mother to a sort of care center for the blind. There are reports of a slasher that is cutting the faces of some of the blind people that attend the center. When he follows one of the women, who leaves nearby, he watches in horror as her face is slashed by the intruder. Lucas flees to the cemetery nearby, where he likes to play. It's at this point that we realize something is wrong with Lucas, who ends up spying on his half sister posing for a photographer.Then, everything changes.The mere reality is that everything one has witnessed is just not so. The fact is that Lucas is going blind if he doesn't have the operation to save his sight. His loving parents, Frank and Miriam, are ecstatic because they are expecting another baby, something that doesn't play well in the young boy's mind. Lucas, who probably feels jealousy toward the unborn baby, thinks of ways of dealing with the intrusion in his life. His obsession with knitting needles prove to be a dangerous proposition.Mark Peploe, who co-wrote the screen play, creates a film that will be disorienting for a lot of viewers, but which ultimately, satisfy the ones that stay close to the story. There are many indications the first section of the movie is just how Lucas' mind work, just the opposite of what one sees on the screen.Ben Keyworth, who plays young Lucas, is perfect for the role. He makes the most of his Lucas, by just being where he is. This boy is an enigma who is not immediately understood and has to assert himself. James Fox and Fanny Ardant play the parents. The supporting cast does fine under Mr. Peploe's direction."Afraid of the Dark" is a film that makes the viewer think because it's not what one sees what's really is going in Lucas' mind.

This one can be a bit challenging, but it's well worth the ride. Written and directed by Academy award nominee Mark Peploe. Without including a spoiler it is difficult to describe too many elements of this surprising film. Sufficed to say, as the revelations begin, you can see layers of complexity and psychology that you weren't expecting at the beginning. There are many original things in this movie; not the least of which is numerous interpretations of blindness and helplessness through the eyes of a child. Now that probably makes you recoil - too artsy/fartsy, but I assure you this is a thriller. Genuinely creepy and the young actor Ben Keyworth that plays Lucas is outstanding.

AFRAID OF THE DARK is a very subtle, very off-beat film...as you might expect from the directorial hand of Mark Peploe, who writes screenplays for Bertolucci (THE LAST EMPEROR) and Antonioni (THE PASSENGER). James Fox and Fanny Ardant (as the father and mother) have never been better; David Thewlis and Robert Stephens are deliciously creepy.Viewers expecting anything like a traditional thriller or horror film may be thrown for a loop--in the very best way. Metaphors about blindness and vision are all through the film, providing a kind of layered richness that was more common in the best films of the 1960s (such as Antonioni's BLOWUP). The story is not quite what it appears to be, and the way the film pulls a twist to reveal the "reality" is a stunner!