Horror Movie Review: Be Afraid (2017)

Be Afraid (also known as Within the Dark) is a horror film produced and directed by Drew Gabreski & stars Brian Krause, Kevin Grevioux and Louis Herthum.

John Chambers (Krause) & his family have just moved to a small town in Pennsylvania. Not long after they arrive strange things begin to occur. John starts to suffer sleep paralysis & his son keeps wandering off into the woods supposedly playing with a little girl. A little girl that went missing, having been snatched from her home.

John’s sleep paralysis worsens & he begins to see shadowy figures while lying in bed unable to move. These are entities that exist in the dark shadows of the night and can only be seen out of the corner of the eye.

“You have seen them”

This town has a sinister past, one that the people who live there have tried to keep hidden. A secret that might end up costing John & his family.

Be Afraid is all style & no substance, it’s well shot with some creepy looking locations but that’s about it. It breaks the number one rule of horror, don’t be boring. Be Afraid is incredibly boring, it’s not that the cast are poor either, they just don’t have that much to work with.

The standout is naturally Brain Krause who has some decent credits to his name (Sleepwalkers, Charmed TV Series). His reactions during his sleep paralysis are believable & the highlight of his portrayal.

Unfortunately, it’s such an unremarkable movie that once the end credits are rolling you’ll likely to have forgotten most of what occurred. The villains of the movie don’t excite & their story just isn’t expanded on enough.

It feels as though there are way more interesting stories to tell surrounding the entities then them just kidnapping children. That puts all the focus on the family & we’ve seen this kind of tale far too many times. The child is in peril & the parents don’t fully understand/don’t care to understand.

It has moments that build minor tension & imply a much more sinister plot but it never takes full advantage of that. Be Afraid had promise, it’s execution just leaves a lot to be desired.