Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

RichardSRussell-1 For a long while, we could count on a Tournee of Animation every year; then it was Spike & Mike; then there were a couple of years of Animation Celebration; but it's been awhile since there was an animation anthology until The Animation Show 4 hit town last year. (No idea about Shows 1-3.) These collections almost always get a 5 rating from me, because the multiple installments are of wildly varying quality (some gems, some stinkers), and they usually average out to mediocre.Here's the exception, a French import done entirely in B&W, with a collection of dark (and in some cases grisly) short features of remarkably poor drawing quality. The last of these is almost entirely black screen, with occasional half-seen glimpses of strange things fitfully illuminated by candlelight. This would be the ideal background on which to project the all- white subtitles, but no, it's almost entirely silent as well as dark. For the rest of the movie, the all-white subtitles are projected on a background which is itself all white at least half the time. Result: total incomprehensibility.I got the distinct impression from the parts of the film that I could dope out that I wouldn't have liked it very much anyway. The subtitles were the killer touch. What could the idiot distributors have been thinking of?

Polaris_DiB The trailer to this movie was very enticing--gorgeous black and white animation, sort of in the style of "Renaissance", promising Gothic horror from famous graphic artists; in this, the movie certainly doesn't disappoint. Fans of horror, animation, or film noir will definitely get their fill of high-contrast, deep-shadowed, psychological hijinks and darkened imagination. Too bad the presentation itself kind of sucks.First of all, they cut back and forth through the different shorts, for no real good reason I think except that they didn't want it to seem like just a presentation of shorts, but wanted to make the work as a whole thread together. The barbaric Frankenstein's monster that results loses a lot of its tension and beat. There are some truly horrifying moments, and the stories themselves are engaging and fun, but for the fact that they cut back and forth between them, effectively deflating a lot of the carefully built drama.Secondly, some idiot decided for the American release to transcribe the subtitles in white lettering. Whereas white lettering works great for classics of black and white cinema wherein most of the frame is variants of GRAY, in a movie made almost entirely out of half white, half black frames, only half of the subtitles can actually be read. Thankfully I know a smattering of French and was able to basically get the gist of most of it. I cannot say as much for the rest of the people in the theatre, as indicated by their grumbling. Fire whomever planned out those subtitles; I now eagerly await a DVD that comes with an English dub so that I can get the rest of what I missed.Ironically in that vein, it turns out that the quality of the shorts included is pretty much directly proportional to the amount of dialog or voice-over narration contained. The absolute best short came at the end, and was silent except for sound effects. It used brilliant negative space to create a claustrophobic terror unmatched by the rest of the shorts. The worst short was this weird sort of rectilinear Rorschach test where this woman recites a shopping list of contemporary existential fears: "I'm afraid of being bourgeois. I'm afraid of being a democrat. I'm afraid of eating too much." YUP. Definitely will keep ME awake at night. I'm just sayin'.All in all, I feel the potential for a perfectly good cinematic experience was let down by some overthinking in editing and underthinking of actual presentation. It is redeemed mostly by the singular strengths of the shorts individually, and those moments in the movie where shadows flitted tantalizingly across the screen.--PolarisDiB

dbborroughs Multipart animated film from France that is probably high on the love list of Mike Mignola and Frank Miller since its very often all black screens with very little white. Another one from IFC Films that is a rather disappointing film on all but the artistic level. The stories are linked by a lord of some sort walking his dogs across a landscape and setting one loose on a person periodically. This leads into an abstract animated piece with narration which then leads into the stories. The first story is from Charles Burns and it plays like a Charles Burns story, with a guy finding a weird bug that gets loose as he is picked up by a possessive girl.Another story is a manga or anime like tale of a little girl who is being tormented. The third is about a a monster on the loose and the final one concerns a man who breaks into a house.(I think I missed a very short one, but frankly its no loss). None of the stories are really scary or creepy (Maybe the Burns piece is the best because of the unease of the interpersonal relationships.) Worse they are all the sort of tales that we've seen before, mores so if you love short horror fiction be it books, TV films or radio. What works here is the art which at times seems more like fine etchings or story illustrations come to life. it beautiful stuff (the exception being the Charles Burns stuff which looks like everything he's ever done). Worth a look only if you like animation as art, and even then I'd wait for a rental.(I had such high hopes)

ohm_intern The story begins with what appears to be an old, sadistic British general walking a pack of angry dogs. A dog gets away and chases a small boy... thus beings one of a few stories of people's fears. The fears displayed in these animated segments usually involve an insect or animal beast. I think that the director either had a fascination or fear of bugs/animals.In between each segment, a soothing french voice tells us her "fears" but what I interpret as her observations and cristicms of society and social behaviors.One segment, a man is haunted by a praying mantis; in another, a girl is possessed by the ghost of a samuarai, in another.. a man has an encounter with the ghosts of an abandoned house.Each segment has a unique art style where people's bizarre fears become their lives. A great artistic representation of how people's fears can so easily become part of their reality - whether those fears are overcome or succombed to.