Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)

directed by John Newland
USA
74 minutes
2.5 stars out of 5
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This movie is so boring, I can't believe anybody wanted to remake it. And that's saying something considering how widely hated (and I mean hated) the remake is.

The worst thing about this movie is its downright alarming conservative gender roles. I first noticed it when the main character's husband asks her to make a meal that's "not too simple" because he's having company over and he has to make a good impression on one of his Man Friends. It sounds like straight up caveman behavior* to try and impress your fellow men by showing them that your woman cooks good, but that's not even the first or the biggest red flag in this. All throughout the film are instances where women are basically chained to their men and treated like children- at one point the protagonist's husband calls a guy up and yells at him for putting scary thoughts into his poor wife's head as if she's a literal child who must be kept sheltered.

Also the main character just looks... suspiciously young. I was curious so I looked up the actress and she was around 25 when this came out, but something about her face makes her look like a 15-year-old playing at being an adult. It's just creepy the way she's treated, even if she is an adult. Especially if she is an adult.

But anyway, the actual horror stuff is kind of fun. The film is essentially about a woman discovering weird little imp things in her new home that try to spirit her away, cut her with shaving razors, tug on her clothing, et cetera. They look like tiny versions of the gremlin on the plane wing from that Twilight Zone episode with walnuts on their heads. If you want to get into symbolism, you could definitely see these guys as representations of all the fears the main character represses to create a pleasant, socially acceptable facade. But I don't think this film is that deep. The little creatures are probably nothing more complex than little creatures.

I wish I had more positives to say about this because it's a nicely autumnal little film with original creature design and an occasionally eerie atmosphere, but honestly the politics of it took me by surprise and something about it is just unsettling, in a way that isn't fun and spooky-ooky. Worth a watch if you like goblins, but it isn't even the best movie out there about goblins.

*sidenote- i don't endorse the view that cavemen were all violent misogynists