Fear(s) of the Dark

Five segments by six artists, all in black and white, all about fear. A man walks the countryside with dogs on leashes and releases them one at a time. A boy at school becomes preoccupied with insects. A Japanese girl in a hospital returns to a recurring nightmare. A man enters an abandoned house in the dark and finds his way by matchlight. An abstract narrating voice drifts between the segments. What distinguishes the film is that it is not tied to a single style. The directors come from comics and graphic design: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti and Richard McGuire. Each works in their own line, so techniques from pencil cross-hatching to calculated digital shading sit side by side. It screened at the Rome Film Festival in 2007 and opened in France in February 2008. Who it's for: Viewers who like adult animation, comics aesthetics, and horror built on atmosphere. Who it's not for: There is no connection between the segments and the quality is uneven; some are noticeably weaker. Anyone expecting conventional horror will not find it.