Expert: Popcorn Guy - 11/23/2005

Question
I am looking for a movie I saw on T.V. in the 70,s?  It has tiny creatures that live in a houses seemingly bottomless fireplace. The fireplace was sealed and the new owner opened it.
The creatures come out in the dark and try to drag the owners into the fireplace. The creatures are sensitive to light. In the final scenes the person getting dragged into the fireplace uses flash bulbs from a camera to stop his slow decent into the bottomless fireplace! ?

Answer
Hi, Jim...

What, was there a rush on this movie on some obscure cable channel? Just kidding, of course, but this is about the fifth time this month someone has asked me about this movie... I am going to HAVE to see this thing!

The film you are loking for is called "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." It was made in 1973, and starred Kim Darby (True Grit) and Jim Hutton. What gets me is, acording to everyting I've read, this film is almost impossible to see because of some legal issue over broadcast rights. Either that's been cleared up, or it made one heck of an impression on a bunch of people...

On a whim, I ran a search on Ebay, and you can find the film on DVD and VHS pretty easily. Dunno if these are black market copies or studio issue, though... but you can get it for about $4.99 plus shipping...

Enjoy!

PCG