Fear(s) of the Dark

Released Oct 22, 2008

1h 25m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

Animation

List

72%

Tomatometer

69 Reviews

58%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Animated sequences explore people's fear of darkness.

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Critics Consensus

This French animated horror portmanteau is monochrome and minimalist, visually stunning, but light on scares.

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Hank Sartin

Time Out

Rated: 4/5

Nov 18, 2011

Full Review

Jason Anderson

Toronto Star

This French-made chiller proves just how scary a pitch-black theatre can be.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 6, 2009

Full Review

Steven Rea

Philadelphia Inquirer

Brilliantly creepy.

Rated: 3.5/4

Nov 14, 2008

Full Review

Ard Vijn

ScreenAnarchy

The differences in quality, but also style and length of the stories, give Peur(s) du Noir a nice change and rhythm.

Jan 23, 2020

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

Taps into something primal in human nature, something that makes the hair on the back of the neck stand up and shivers run down the spine.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 7, 2019

Full Review

Kaleem Aftab

The List

As often happens with these portmanteau projects, some segments (Charles Burns' especially) are better than others.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 4, 2018

Full Review

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Audience Member

An animated horror anthology where all of the segments were created by comic book artists. As is often the case, the quality of the segments is pretty uneven. Charles Burns is responsible for the opening segment, and it's by far the best segment. That's in and of itself a problem since the film has nowhere to go but down after the first 15 minutes. Other sections are good, particularly one featuring a girl afraid of the ghost of a samurai, but a different segment order would serve the film well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Audience Member

Experimental and very interesting anthology.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

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Audience Member

Descent stories but they fails to keep your attention. 83 minutes of monochromic and minimalistic visuals is a way too boring.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

Loved the concept of using phobias as theme of the movie

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

david l

It is very uneven in terms of quality with the second half being quite weak, not particularly engaging and forgettable, but the first half with the first two segments is terrific with original and authentic stories and very creepy and memorable imagery. However, Fear(s) of the Dark, although very flawed, is mostly memorable for the impressive and beautiful animation with many directors each giving his contribution with his own style ranging from hand-drawn to anime to computer animation. Its second half is weak, but it largely benefits from deft editing, great directing and wonderful animation styles making it a very interesting experience.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Excellent work in black and white animation.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

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Blutch

Director

Marie Caillou

Director

Pierre Di Sciullo

Director

Lorenzo Mattotti

Director

Richard McGuire

Director

Gil Alma

Voice

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Synopsis

Animated sequences explore people's fear of darkness.

Director: Blutch, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire
Producer: Genevieve Lemal, Alexandre Lippens
Screenwriter: Blutch, Pierre Di Sciullo
Distributor: IFC Films
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller, Animation
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 22, 2008, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 4, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $77.9K
Runtime: 1h 25m