Review by Mark Dujsik | January 27, 2023 Thereare a couple points during Fear thatone might—probably will, actually—wonder if screenwriters John Ferry andDeon Taylor have any idea what the threat of their horror movie is. The titlegives some of it away, of course, because this ultimately is the story of agroup of friends who are confronted by the deepest fears while spending aweekend at a remote lodge in the woods. It's not until the third act that thefilmmakers do anything with that generic premise, so this is more the case of amovie eventually being about that idea. Untilthat point, it almost seems as if Taylor, who also directs, is playing some kindof memory game with us. Can we remember any of the ideas that are establishedearly in this movie when they finally arise and after spending so much timemeandering around with a bunch of dull characters? There'sa scene here in which all of the friends, sitting around a campfire, offer uptheir biggest fears one by one. After a bit of listening to this group, itstarts to feel akin to homework. We know Taylor is essentially going to quiz usby way of having these characters face those fears by the end, but the phobiasare so generic, the characters are so bland, and the delay before any of itactually pays off that it's tough to remember what those fears are, to recallwho's afraid of what, or to find any reason to care about any of this in thefirst place. Theexcuse for the trip is threefold. First, Rom (Joseph Sikora) is a best-sellingauthor whose next book, a prologue featuring a TV interview with the characterhelpfully informs us, will be on the subject of fear itself. For a reason that'sheld off until much later (It's almost as if Ferry and Taylor figured they'ddecide on the back story once they arrived at that point in writing the script),his research necessitates a trip to this lodge. Thesecond reason is that's a reunion for this group of friends, who have beenisolated from each other on account of a pandemic (It might be the most recentone or a completely different one, although setting the movie in the middle ofthis year shows either past pessimism about COVID-19 or a cynical attempt atforesight about what's to come). Rom has invited the friends of his and of hisgirlfriend Bianca (Annie Ilonzah), an asthmatic who's paranoid about catchingthe disease, to belatedly celebrate her birthday. The third reason is the actualone, which is for the group to celebrate a wedding proposal that Rom fails tooffer upon arriving at the lodge as planned. Anyway,little of this—like the characters, the plotting, the logic of what'shappening here, or the very threat of which we're supposed to bescared—matters. Rom, Bianca, and all of their friends—including Russ(Terrence Jenkins), Lou (Tip "T.I." Harris), Michael (Iddo Goldberg),Serena (Ruby Modine), and a few others who somehow matter less—exist to befreaked out and sequentially killed by the virus, something supernatural, fearitself, or whatever doesn't matter enough to specify until the finale,apparently. Membersof the group start having hallucinations, which lets Taylor try the usual tricksof showing us allegedly eerie things that aren't really there, letting thecharacters become increasingly paranoid about their surroundings and each other,and giving us several cheap scare attempts that repeatedly fall flat. Initially,the group believes the virus, with side effects that include coughing andhallucinations and near-instant death, has become airborne. Later,it becomes clear that the legend Rom is researching for his book is probably toblame, although the revelation feels less like foreshadowing and more like thefilmmakers flipping a coin. The nature of the legend is as generic as the rulesabout its effects on people are inconsistent. At times, everything is inside theaffected person's head, but at others, the thing seems to have a physicalpresence that can drag people down stairs or lift them into the air. Whateverhappens to them, though, is anticlimactic, because the deaths go all the wayback to those awkwardly established and quickly forgotten fears, while alsooccurring so quickly that there's no suspense to these scenes. There'slittle thought behind the narrative of Fearon a foundational level. The result is a horror movie that plays as a hodgepodgeof alternately frustrating and laughable clichés. Copyright © 2023 by Mark Dujsik. Allrights reserved. | Buy Related Products
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