Hollywood doesn't really understand what scares you anymore. I honestly don't believe anyone over the age of fifteen is scared by the Saw movies. They're action movies or, more accurately, exercises in the twisted human desire to watch people get tortured. The fact is that most modern horror movies aren't really going for scares any more. They're going for the jump, the racing heart, and the gory finish. But that doesn't last. It doesn't stick with you. The fact is that a creaking floorboard in the other room when you're home alone is still a thousand times scarier than someone's head getting ripped off by Jigsaw. And movies like Prom Night and the Asian remakes have a LOT more in common with the action genre than the horror one. Show me someone honestly scared by One Missed Call or Wolf Creek and I'll show you someone with a low threshold for fear. The scariest film of the last few years, The Orphanage, was an exercise in mood, atmosphere, and emotion over blood and guts. And that's clearly the same dramatic motivation behind the series of animated short films known as Fear(s) of the Dark. The black and white, French anthology, like most anthologies, has its highs and lows, but is still original and inventive enough to recommend to horror fans looking for something different - a movie that's actually trying to be scary.

Fear(s) of the Dark is a series of short films linked by two recurring mini-films, one a story of a man with killer dogs and the other a series of confessions about common fears like growing old and being mediocre. The structure of a little of one story here, then a stand-alone story, and then back to the continuation of something you've seen before, and back to another story, and so on and so on is effective. It's as if you're dreaming and the stories are folding in on each other. The animation and storytelling in Fear(s) of the Dark is courtesy of some of the world’s most well-known and respected graphic artists - Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire, Pierre Di Sciullo, and Blutch. The incredibly unique style that each one of these artists brings to the table creates a film that's more of a tossed salad than a melting pot and I found myself straining to make the pieces blend together more than they do. It seems that all the filmmakers were told was "black and white" and "fear." I dig that idea, but it seems that an opportunity to make a more complete piece was missed.

Having said that, Fear(s) of the Dark is still an original and daring piece of filmmaking. Charles Burns' segment in particular (the films aren't divided by title cards or really any concrete delineation other than the occasional black screen and musical cue, so I can’t give it a name) is a memorable one. It's a Kafka-esque tale of a man who collects bugs as a child and eventually becomes the collectible himself. It's twisted and very effective. At the same time, an Asian-influenced tale about a girl in a hospital and a samurai by Caillou completely lost me. But all of the drifting back and forth between interest and slight boredom and the feeling that this is a film that's too loosely held together while I was watching the mid-section of Fear(s) of the Dark was completely shattered by the final segment, a mini-masterpiece by Richard McGuire. Forget Haunting of Molly Hartley or Saw V, this is the cinematic haunting you need to see this Halloween.

Rating: THREE BONES

Reviewed by Brian Tallerico (MovieRetriever.com Film Critic)

Release Date: October 31st, 2008

Rating: NR

Directors: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Richard McGuire

Writers: Blutch, Charles Burns, Romain Slocombe, Pierre di Sciullo, Jerry Kramsky, Richard McGuire, and Michel Pirus