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To better understand what the director was attempting to do, I read many of the other posts on this film after watching it--because, clearly, it was a murky way to tell a story about an odd little boy who thinks he might be going blind. Some of the explanations seem valid enough, but that still doesn't make AFRAID OF THE DARK any more than an experimental film that doesn't quite have the payoff intended.

The boy, played by BEN KEYWORTH, wears extra thick glasses and sees the world in a distorted way. It's through his vision that we perceive what's happening, although much of the action is in his mind and is not reality. That's why there are so many layers to get through if you want to enjoy the film.

Frankly, I was annoyed by some of his choices--particularly, the incident involving the dog Toby--and the only character in the story that I could fully relate to was the father, played by JAMES FOX. Well mannered, he seemed an understanding parent but was willing to put up with an awful lot of wrong and downright odd behavior from his son.

Certain elements of the film were original in concept, such as the knitting needles and how they took on a different significance in the final scene, but overall there were many moments that seemed to drag, the pace suffering from bad editing.

Not the sort of film I'd want to watch again and ultimately has to be considered a disappointment for a film that had so much potential to begin with.

Psychological horror stories often rely on clichéd images and stories to evoke terror from the audience. A notable exception is the film "Afraid of the Dark" which stars Ben Keyworth as an 11 year old boy who struggles with morbid fears of going blind, as well as fears of a stalker in the streets of London who preys on the blind. This moody thriller has a convoluted story and abstract pace that make it difficult to decipher, but the movie is worth the effort due to it's subtle horror that is mesmerizing! This one ferments in the psyche long after viewing. Keyworth is joined by a strong cast including Fanny Ardent, and James Fox, but Keyworth is the true strength of the film. His intense demeanor is riveting!

This is a very interesting film. If you watched it without any knowledge of what the storyline was then you should have been intrigued by the slightly twisted world the lead character lives in.

That is about as much as I can describe the film without ruining it by telling you more.

In terms of a film despite living in England my whole life I do tend to prefer cheerier sets than those seen in this film. I find them depressing to be honest. Some people will probably find that adds to the film or its message.

My strongest post viewing thought was, I wish they had crammed more into the film to push the story along. There is some good stuff here, but I fear that many viewers will just be lost or lose patience; if you don't feed a dog he won't be your friend.

I found it difficult to keep with this film. It is achingly slow with not enough happening to retain interest. Also a big problem is that the actor playing the principal character is appallingly amateurish,with very stilted diction. Little wonder this is a forgotten film. Really they don't make horror films the way Hammer and Amicus made them.

Wasted a couple of hours watching this; unashamed trash based on a desperately thin plot. At times you wonder if the director has the scenes in the wrong order. Yes, I'm not daft, I realise that it's a young man's fantasy existence but I simply wish I'd switched off after a few minutes. I think the strength of the cast made me hope for something better. Still, a view of Clare Holman in stockings and suspenders was a bonus; would Lewis approve?

I would not be giving away too much of the film to tell you that there are many, many, many, MANY scenes of Lucas (the young protagonist) walking and looking at things! Yep. And you'll be happy to know that the first third of the movie is pointless, meaningless, and pretty much ignored for the rest of the film!

This movie is populated by dull people who do dull things, and the dullest person of them all is young Lucas, who is going blind and needs an operation. You see, he has delusions, terrible delusions! He thinks a killer is preying on blind women! He walks around a lot and acts like an insufferable jerk!

Patience does NOT pay off with this film. By the end, the plot and events are just as confusing and lethargic, and it is very hard to care one way or the other about what any of the nightmarish images meant. Nothing is made clear, the film moves at a snail's pace, and it left me with the same effects of a hangover.

Judging from "Afraid of the Dark," the British don't make stupid thrillers like the Americans do; they make boring ones.

This movie changes its way a third of the way in.its totally pointless boring and stupid.i hated this movie so much that i will never watch it again.some bad films can be really funny. this is just a British art house picture that should never of been made.1 out of 10

Horror movies aren't known for their logic. A killer or monster may definitively die, only to return in the sequel, or maybe even within the same movie.

Some will use tricks to go for cheap scares or disorient. Films within the film, a dream, or dreams within a dream may all seem at first to be part of the movie. Angustia AKA Anguish, for example.

Others will have events shown the way a character tells or experiences them, perhaps lies or mental illness make them different than what "really" happened. Dr. Caligari or Haute Tension come to mind.

This is all by way of saying this is one of those movies. About an hour into the videocassette (less than an hour into the movie), things change. There are some constants, while other things are completely different. This opening segment is framed by two identical shots: of a boy tapping a knitting needle against his eyeglasses.

The first part of the movie has a young boy who helps his blind mother, who attends a school for the blind. He follows and watches many of the blind people, and it turns out there is a slasher attacking some of the women, killing some of them too. He observes several likely suspects, sometimes watching through a telescope.

Whether people like the movie or not may hinge on how upset they are by how things change for the last part of the movie. Myself, I enjoyed it.

i am still not sure what the hell this movie is about. i guess the boy was afraid of becoming blind and began imagining all sorts of strange things. this does not explain why he wanted to kill his new baby brother , however , or the unrelenting boredom found within this film. while watching this movie you will wish you were blind so you did not have to see this experiment in futility. skip this steaming pile and opt for anything else at the video store ..... anything else.

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 left me with the impression that several different screenplays were written, all too short for a feature length film, then spliced together clumsily into this Frankenstein's monster.

At his best, the protagonist, Lucas, is creepy. As hard as it is to draw a bead on the secondary characters, they're far more sympathetic.

Afraid of the Dark could have achieved mediocrity had it taken just one approach and seen it through -- and had it made Lucas simply psychotic and confused instead of ghoulish and off-putting. I wanted to see him packed off into an asylum so the rest of the characters could have a normal life.

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!

Young boy Lucas is obsessed with blindness following a series of vicious cut throat razor attacks on blind people by an unknown party. However, this all seems more related to Lucas' delusions than any reality.

The film presents something of an atypical thriller / horror story to the usual killer on the loose type of story in that it focusses pretty much exclusively on what the boy is seeing and feeling as the violence, real or not, increases. The difficulty here is that once it is clear where this is heading, which doesn't take long, the film makers devote far too much time to filming the boy wondering around deciding what he's to do next, liberally sprinkled with various 'clever' pieces of cinematic imagery. It's not enough, and whilst it is perfectly well acted and made and there are periods which are unsettling, ultimately it becomes rather dull, leading to a rather typical lacklustre climax.