Fear of the dark
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Fear of the dark |
| Original title | Afraid of the Dark |
| Country of production | France , Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mark Peploe |
| script | Mark Peploe, Frederick Seidel |
| production | Simon Bosanquet |
| music |
Richard Hartley , Jason Osborn |
| camera | Bruno de Keyzer |
| cut | Scott Thomas |
| occupation | |
| |
Fear of the Dark (original title: Afraid of the Dark ) is a French - British thriller with James Fox and Fanny Ardant from 1991.
action
Eleven-year-old Lucas fears for the life of his blind mother Miriam when a brutal serial killer is up to mischief in London , targeting blind victims. His father Frank, a police officer, is entrusted with the case, but cannot catch the perpetrator, so Lucas investigates himself. First he suspects a window cleaner, then a locksmith. When Lucas witnesses a photographer threatening Miriam's blind friend with a razor in his studio, the boy is convinced that he has found the killer. Lucas takes all his courage and sticks the alleged violent criminal in the right eye with a knitting needle.
More and more, however, the boy, who is himself severely visually impaired, loses touch with reality and he can no longer distinguish nightmare from reality. In a panic, he stabs the neighbor dog, also with a knitting needle, and later runs with his newborn sister to a cemetery, where his family chases him. It turns out that his parents wanted him to have a complicated eye operation to save him from impending blindness. Fearing the risky operation, Lucas increasingly fled into a fantasy world in which his mother and older sister Rose lose their sight in his place and the fear of the serial killer reflects his fear of the operation.
background
The budget of the film was 43.3 million francs. Filming took place in London from September 1990. Fear of the Dark premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan in October 1991 . In Germany, the film was first shown in cinemas on February 27, 1992.
Reviews
For the lexicon of international film , fear of the dark was a “subtly sophisticated psychological thriller about the themes of eye pleasure and fear, which of course gives too many scenes for free”. TimeOut London spoke of an “ingenious psychological thriller” and praised Ben Keyworth's “touching game”. The script, which is actually based on a “very simple plot”, is “full of Freudian symbols, cinematic references and narrative twists”. Variety described the film as a "tricky mix of Schlitzer film and psychodrama that tickles the nerves, but ultimately remains weak in the implementation". Janet Maslin of the New York Times found the film "gruesome" and "carefully made". In a “precise” and “playfully macabre” way, the film explores the boy's “suppressed fears and moods”.
Craig Butler from the All Movie Guide found that the thriller was “initially very familiar and effective as ice”, but in the middle suddenly mutated “into a completely different psychological study”. Anyone who can deal with this upheaval will find fear of the dark “fascinating” and “probably also appreciate the degree of artificiality in relation to the representations”. The film is "puzzling and disturbing" and therefore "not suitable for everyone", but will be "enthusiastically received by those who understand it".
Web links
- Fear of the dark in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Pictures of the film on cinema.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. bfi.org.uk ( British Film Institute )
- ↑ Fear of the dark. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ “[A] n ingenious psychological thriller […]. To some extent, it succeeds, thanks partly to genuinely touching playing from Keyworth, partly to a script that contrives to endow what is essentially a very simple plot with a wealth of Freudian symbols, cinematic references and narrative twists. " See Afraid of the Dark on timeout.com
- ↑ " Afraid of the Dark is a tricky mix of slasher movie and psychodrama that's strong on tease but weak on final delivery." See Review: 'Afraid of the Dark' ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Variety , 1992.
- ↑ “Mark Peploe's chilling, meticulous Afraid of the Dark […]. Afraid of the Dark is in fact a precise, playfully macabre exploration of this young boy's unexpressed terrors and resentments. " Janet Maslin : Afraid of the Dark (1992) . In: The New York Times , July 24, 1992.
- ↑ “Starting out as one kind of very familiar (and chillingly effective) thriller, it abruptly switches gears entirely in the middle and becomes a psychological study of a very different sort. Those who can deal with this change will find Dark a fascinating study […]. These same people will also probably appreciate a degree of artificiality in portions of the performances […]. Enigmatic and disturbing, Dark is not for everyone, but will be embraced enthusiastically by those with whom it does resonate. " Craig Butler, cf. omovie.com
