DVD Review: ‘Fear(s) of the Dark’ Dazzles More Than Scares

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

CHICAGO – Though graphic novels may read like great movie storyboards, they often fail to translate into compelling cinema. From “Sin City” to “Watchmen,” filmmakers have tried replicating graphic art with a reverence more suffocating than exhilarating. Images that reverberated with power on the page become coldly calculated on the big screen. No matter how tightly structured a film may be, it must give viewers the illusion of spontaneity. And there’s nothing more tiresome than a horror film in which all the scares feel telegraphed.

DVD Rating: 3.0/5.0

That’s the interesting challenge facing “Fear(s) of the Dark,” a compilation of short subjects from six of today’s most celebrated graphic artists. As an animation exercise, the film is consistently fascinating. Each artist’s approach to the cinematic medium is as distinctive as their trademark visual styles. Though their films are wildly different from each other, they all grapple with the inherently consuming nature of fear, as well as the inherently unsettling nature of insects, animals and other mysterious creatures. The film is often wonderful to watch, but as horror, it falls flat. Few of the artists seem to understand the rhythm and pacing necessary to produce a good jolt onscreen. But most of the shorts do succeed at creating an appropriately eerie atmosphere.

Fear(s) of the Dark was released on DVD on October 27th, 2009.
Photo credit: IFC Films

Ironically, the two most memorable tales utilize the often annoyingly uncinematic tool of narration. Charles Burns evokes the fluid yet stark style of “Waltz with Bashir” in his piece about an alienated schoolboy who spends his time capturing bugs in jars. His antisocial behavior causes him to view women in the same way, as if they were all encased in glass. But once he finds a girlfriend, the tables begin to turn. While Burns methodically builds dread, Lorenzo Mattotti sets off miniature eruptions of fright in his tale about an unknown beast terrorizing a small community. This segment has the best editing of the bunch, and its varying shades of gray and black are simply mesmerizing.

In contrast, the films from Marie Caillou and Richard McGuire would probably inspire more nightmares on paper than on film. While Caillou’s canvas consists entirely of pale, ghostly grays (with the occasional bloody splash of red), McGuire creates the only segment primarily consisting of darkness. Both of their segments are intricately designed, but feel oddly empty. The same can be said of the transitional vignettes by Blutch and Pierre Di Sciullo. While Blutch unleashes a series of increasingly gruesome episodes involving a deranged man and his pack of wild dogs, Di Sciullo takes a more clinical approach to the theme of fear. His abstract images resemble a Rorschach test that consistently morphs, as anonymous voices confess fears along the lines of, “I’m scared of deluding myself politically.” Sadly, there’s no mention of clowns.

Like Burns’ schoolboy, viewers may feel as if they are watching a picture encased in a glass frame. There’s a lot to look at, but not a whole lot to feel. It’s a film to admire rather than enjoy, but since it offers a great deal to admire, it’s certainly worth a look.

You don’t need a Blu-Ray player in order to marvel at the endless visual delights in “Fear(s) of the Dark,” thanks to the DVD’s masterful picture quality. The film is presented in its 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. The disc includes English and Spanish subtitles, as well as an assortment of extras that are guaranteed to captivate any animation buff. Artistic director Etienne Robial guides viewers through an exhibition of the film’s various production stages, while another featurette focuses on the evolution of each short subject. Best of all are the winning videos and drawings of the “Fear(s) Myspace French Contest,” many of which are more viscerally disturbing than anything in the actual film.

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com