"Let's promise to be completely honest with one another". OK. I "honestly" didn't like the flick I'm about to review. Hate, well that's too strong of a word.
Not to be confused with that Mark Wahlberg vehicle from 1996, 2023's Fear has an erroneous title. Why? Because if a film is called Fear it's supposed um, scare you. I wasn't scared and while I was watching Fear, I couldn't tell who was doing the so-called frightening (or for what benefit). In fact, there weren't any real jump scares in Fear. I mean maybe there were but I didn't uh, jump.
So yeah, Fear is one of those retreat horror films, where a bunch of annoying, stereotypical characters spend the weekend at a creepy abode in the middle of nowhere. I bet you can guess what happens next. No? Well they get terrorized by an unknown entity who specializes in all things that "go bump bump in the night".
Fear feels so familiar I tell you, especially if you've seen The Evil Dead, The Shining, or even The Ring. Hallucinations and blood and killing and claustrophobia and isolation. I mean all the ingredients are there. With Fear however, it merely appears like a rerun, where you don't care about the fates of anyone involved and the plotted angle of facing your worst dreads never gets established as a tone. The scene where all the personas are sitting by a campfire and explaining what ultimately gives them trepidation, well give me something other than, "my biggest fear is losing you." Uh, really?
Starring Terrence J, Joseph Sikora, King Bach, and rapper T. I. ("Baskin Robbins don't play" ha ha), Fear is modern, murky-looking, and trivially stylized all at the same time. It's just another fright fest that I "fear" will eventually be relegated to the $3.99 Best Buy bin. Natch.
Written by Jesse Burleson
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