If you live in the UK your only option seems to be to an expensive region 1 import or a VHS quality bootleg on ebay. Anyway, I am delighted to learn that it will be playing on the Horror Channel (Freeview channel 70) on June 7th and 8th. Great chance to finally grab a digital copy (not counting VHS transfers).
http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/shows.php?title=Don't%20Be%20Afraid%20Of%20The%20Dark&episode=384509
It may be digital but the picture quality is awful, as is usually the case with the Horror Channel. On those rare occasions when they actually show something worth watching, it looks dreadful.
"Say it with flowers . . . give her a Triffid."
Yeah I've wanted to see this for a few years and I watched it the other day on there, I appreciate that they have a lot of cool, more obscure films on the horror channel but the picture quality is terrible on most of them, i have no idea where they get the prints from ? It was so muddy and murky - not good when a lot of the film takes place at night
shareHorror Channel is also Standard Definition, which doesn't help.
"Say it with flowers . . . give her a Triffid."
Most SD channels look better than the horror channel though, it must have a really low bitrate- even newer films like ' The Mist' look bad on there - I hope one day it goes HD
shareThe Mist even looks bad on blu-ray because it was purposefully shot on low quality film stock to give it a documentary feel.
The Horror Channel I believe broadcasts in 544x576 format (at least on Freeview/Freesat), a common resolution for the second-tier digital channels (think ITV3/4, 5Star, the +1 channels etc) so it doesn't look quite as good as BBC 1 SD, for example. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark was also a TV film too so it's quite possible it would not benefit from an HD transfer. That said even Horror Channel quality is a step up from my VHS transfer.