怕黑怪谈录

Director: Blutch, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo Screenwriters: Blutch, Charles Burns, Pierre Di Sciullo, Michel Pirus, Romain Slocombe Starring: Aure Atika, Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia Genres: Horror, Thriller, Animation Release Date: 2008-10-03 Country: France Language: French Runtime: 90 minutes Directors: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire Awards: Screened at the 2007 Rome International Film Festival, Screened at the 2008 Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rated 3 stars by French magazine "Cahiers du Cinéma" in 2008 If fear is indeed a spiritual disaster, rather than avoiding the ever-pervasive dark sentiments, why not confront them head-on and treat them as a bitter cup we must take a sip from? Every night, hearing the escaped humanoid insect specimens whispering faintly by the bedside, the person next to you transforming into a monster that imprisons you; lying helplessly in bed receiving injections, forced into endless nightmares... The colors have faded, but the nightmares are just beginning. Eight master illustrators join forces to place the scenarios we least wish to face right before our eyes, revealing what it means to experience raw fear, to be trapped between life and death. Between the frames, poetic and ambiguous monologues can also be interpreted as critiques of social culture. "Peurs du noir" gathers eight artists to tell a series of stories about fear in a minimalist black-and-white style. The stories are set in the Victorian era: a man with an evil smile parades through the streets with four vicious dogs, taking great pleasure in watching them tear innocent people apart; a boy spends his summer vacation in the marshlands, gradually realizing that the people around him are disappearing one by one; a young Japanese girl is tormented by nightmares (reminiscent of Junji Ito's style); several eerie and magical insects invade the life of a shy boy, leading him on a nightmarish journey (a blend of Kafkaesque delusions and David Cronenberg-esque visual style, creating a dizzying effect)... A woman's lonely narration ties these eight stories together. The eight artists drew inspiration from poetic works on death, childhood memories, and nightmare hallucinations, creating this visually bizarre "record of strange tales." The film further blends multiple artistic styles, ranging from charcoal drawings to simple flash animation—some with intricate and graceful lines, others featuring strong geometric shapes and a bold, hard-edged style.