A Thomas Bess review of:
Directed By: Blutch, Charles Burns, Pierre Di Sciullo, Jerry Kramski, Richard McGuire, Michel Pirus, Romain Slocombe
Starring: Arthur H, Nicole Garcia, Guillaume Depardieu, Louisa Pili, Christian Hecq
Run Time: 85 creepy, starkly beautiful minutes.
A note about myself before the review commences. I like lists. Or perhaps it would be better to say, I like the act of being able to check items off a list; it gives me a nice sense of accomplishment. One of my longest running lists as of late was my “want to see” list, which consisted of genre titles like Paranormal Activity, Trick ‘r Treat, The Hills Run Red, Laid to Rest and so forth and so on. As of Halloween night the sole remaining title on that list was Fear(s) of the Dark, a French anthology of black & white animated shorts. Now, less than twenty four hours removed, I can say that while it was definitely worth the wait for this dude, it’s probably not for everyone.
Being an honest to goodness anthology as opposed to a series of loosely interconnected stories, there isn’t really an overarching plot to be found, but I’ll synopsize each short as best I can. One details the progress of a guy who looks like a cross between Ichabod Crane and an evil pirate wandering through the countryside with a pack of baying hounds he occasionally releases on a hapless passerby. Another details an awkward young man and his ill-fated insect collection. The third involves a small town menaced by an unseen monster. Yet another details what happens to the new girl in town when she’s confronted by a local legend and the last is concerned with a weary traveler taking shelter from a snow storm in a house that is nowhere near as empty as it looks. Technically there is a sixth short, but it’s broken up to serve as in-betweens for the other stories and frankly, it’s terrible, but we’ll talk more about that later.
So what’s good? First and foremost, the animation in Fear(s) of the Dark is top notch. Each segment is done in a different style, both with traditional hand drawn methods and digitally as well. Now I can hear some of you out there groaning about everything being black & white, but trust me when I tell you it works. Even in the weaker stories your eyes will never be bored with what’s happening on screen. The visual range is quite impressive with the individual pieces sporting designs evocative of wood cut illustrations, pen & ink sketches, pencil drawings and there’s even some anime inspired goodness thrown in for international flavor. Narrative wise, I’d say the strongest installments are the one detailing the young man and his fascination with insects and the final segment about the man exploring the old dark house. The former is done in a sort of heavy lined, pen & ink style with the erratic, jerking movements of the bug creatures benefiting wonderfully from the stark scheme. As for the latter, I’m honestly not sure if it’s traditional animation or not but I can tell you that watching the details of this house spring to light under the glow of the traveler’s candle is one of the neatest thing I’ve seen in any movie, animated or otherwise, in quite some time.
What’s not good? As mentioned earlier, the sixth “story”, the one that’s broken up to serve as a sort of buffer between the others, commits the two pronged crime of being not fun and not scary. What you’ve got is basically a prolonged look at an animated Rorschach Test over which some lass yammers about her various fears. Who knows, maybe it’ll appeal more to the crowd that holds long conversations with the mirror before heading out into the world every morning but after the first couple of times I was more than ready to just mute my television and treat it like a screensaver. Of course, I’d put the subtitles on, so there was no escaping the ponderous and often contradictory babbling. Oh and while I have no patience for those who complain about having to “read” their movies, it should be noted that you’ll have to deal with subtitles if you wanna follow along. Finally, a good chunk of these stories have rather ambiguous endings, so if that sort of thing troubles you, consider yourself warned.
But should you see it? Ask yourself these questions. Do I like moody horror? Do I like awesome animation? Do I occasionally enjoy films that could be described as “artsy”? If you answered yes to two of these queries, then you owe it to yourself to track down Fear(s) of the Dark. (Aside, if you wanna find this thing quickly, I’d hit up Amazon. Most of the retailers in my area had no idea what I was asking about or they had like two copies coming in from the other side of the state, due sometime next month. Netflix might be able to help too, but I tend to buy and not rent, so I didn’t check). But if you’re looking for a more traditional anthology with more than four colors in its palette, settle in with either of the first two Creepshows. You’ll get all the spooky without having to endure the occasional outburst of neurotic whining.
Til next time, always remember that the calls are coming from inside the house.
Tom Bess has sideburns that are so big they might be considered a beard shaving accident from afar. He blames his current mental state on Stephen King, Mike Nelson, Seth McFarlane and Vince McMahon but bears them no ill will. He passes his time writing movie reviews, but will flee the interwebs forever as soon as Allison Mack starts returning his calls.
You can read more Thomas Bess reviews here.
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