In Fear, 2013
Directed by Jeremy Lovering
Starring Iain De Caestecker, Alice Englert and Allen Leech
SYNOPSIS:
Driving, lost and tormented in the night, primal fears of the dark and the unknown give way to fear that you have let the evil in, or that it is already there.
As I left the screening with co-editor Oli Davis, we spoke very little. Only often uttering a “wow” or a “crickey” as we let the last 90 minutes of terrifying tension settle into us. In Fear is utterly ‘poop in pants’ scary.
I am not exactly a wuss when it comes to horror movies and have been known to indulge myself in 24 hour Friday the 13th marathons – but there is something about In Fear that gripped me wholeheartedly and it never let up. It’s well crafted, it’s brilliantly acted and the story is heart-racingly good.
You’ll notice that I didn’t say ‘well written’ in that last sentence and that is because In Fear does not have a writers credit. Director Jeremy Lovering did a two week workshop with his two leading actors (Iain De Caestecker and Alice Englert) and then when they were on set, he told them how the story would progress in incremental moments during filming. That means that the actors had no clue where the film was heading or whether their characters would live or die. Because of this, In Fear feels genuinely real which only adds to the scares and tension.
Thankfully, the leading actors are also incredibly likeable. De Caestecker’s Tom can be slightly annoying at times but he bounces off Englert’s Lucy so well. Their characters may have only had a two week romance, but their chemistry is so strong that you could believe they’ve been together for years. I mentioned in my I Didn’t Come Here To Die review that one of its biggest problems is that you can’t relate to any of the characters and therefore don’t care whether they survive. In Fear was the exact opposite – I really hoped they’d both make it to the hotel in one piece.
Because the film is set in one car driving around Irish backroads, the film is quite limited in what it can do to keep us engaged. I would argue that it doesn’t always work and it just feels like Lovering went to the ‘shot of a car driving in the dark’ for runtime padding a touch too many times. However, the story that Lovering has put together was so simple and clever that it never eased up on the tension he was trying to create. Much like the actors, you almost have no idea where the story is heading.
I say ‘almost’ because there a couple of surprises that really aren’t unsurprising. Don’t get me wrong, Lovering does a great job of making the most of them, but hardened horror fans may see some of the twists coming a mile off.
With all that said, In Fear succeeds in what it was trying to do – it’s absolutely terrifying at times and I was gripping the arms of my chair on a fair few occasions. The superb performances from the leading actors elevate the film to another level and Lovering’s extreme close-up shots really add to the ramping tension. Horror fans should love it because it’s a fresh movie for the genre that doesn’t bow down to conventions and non-horror fans should leave the cinema slightly unnerved.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published April 28, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
