Fear, in a nutshell, is one of those things that help humans and other animals to avoid dangerous or threatening situations. Nevertheless, fear comes in various forms. Fear is biological while its other form of hysteria is social – group or collective fear that turns rational defense mechanisms into irrational and unsafe reactions. It is rational to be afraid of being in a crowded place during an outbreak of an airborne disease which is killing millions of people worldwide; it is irrational to fear being without a toilet paper when there’s no connection between this product and the stomach.
The consequences of COVID-19 fashioned by collective fear partly inspired Deon Taylor to produce Fear, which aptly captures the subject matter (and grows scarier gradually). It’s a clever horror movie that appears as if FDR’s quote “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance” has come alive on screen. Again, the problem with Fear in particular lies not in simple fear on its own but rather “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” By doing so expertly and increasingly more intense ways does it explore this aspect.
Fear starts with some disturbing imagery reminiscent of early Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson music videos or even opening credits for American Horror Story thereby setting up an effectively creepy tone at once. This atmosphere remains throughout the film; however it actually takes Fear about 35 minutes before any real horror can be seen at all. This might not actually be bad because it establishes the group dynamic as well as endears us towards certain members among them considering this ensemble cast.
Rom drives Bianca to what seems like a deserted lodge where he will propose her – after surprising her with birthday party – upon their arrival. At Strawberry Lodge they are met by close friends — Serena (Ruby Modine), Russ (Terrence Jenkins), Benny (Andrew Bachelor), Lou (Tip “T.I.” Harris), Michael (Iddo Goldberg), Meg (Jessica Allain) and Kim (Tyler Abron). Maybe two or three too many characters for a film that has only 95 minutes to run, but it does allow the film to look at different types of fear through a larger cast ensemble.
Rom chose Strawberry Lodge for various reasons. It is a great big estate where he can propose to his fiancée, but it also comes with some complicated myths and terrifying stories about its past—Rom happens to be a writer who insists on researching fear. No one else in the group including Bianca who is an emerging religious scholar knows this; however, as they each take in some awful wine possibly laced with drugs before going to bed at night, their worst fears manifest themselves as terrible dreams or maybe even devilish visions.
Following a film’s elaborate set-up, a sense of dread erupts when the group who are already paranoid about COVID-19 watch news broadcasts of an even more dangerous and communicable virus. They are told not to go outside at all but instead suspect one of their own is sick. Paranoia leads to abrasive and violent behavior that disrupts the unity of the group such as during separation when they start witnessing demons and ghouls that seem like reality.
Fear is a symphony of screams whose volume swells for an hour-and-a-half with atmospheric gloom as if being turned up slowly in tandem. Fear has no peaks or plateaus; it is a steady climb to terror as friends are pulled apart by suspicion, distracted by hallucinations, and sucked further into insanity.
This notion of individualized fears becoming deadly realities has been done before–more notably on Channel Zero season 2 and the aptly named movie Fear Inc. This makes fear something that can be felt in many ways, creating great horror template – almost anything can be feared thus turned into horror. In Fear, however, it takes up this idea quite well by personalizing most characters’ greatest fears while also addressing some topical concerns. For example, a black person’s fear of being unjustly arrested by police authorities or asthmatic woman’s fear concerning viruses poisoning the very air we breathe today feels highly contemporary hence driving Fear towards its greater themes.
Fear becomes relentless; it is shocking and filled with gore. Taylor’s visualizations (and how they were executed by cinematographer Christopher Duskin plus Encore VFX) were hauntingly memorable ones. These hallucinations have amazing auditory and visual texture; so much distortion, lighting, sound design, visual effects and good performances make them work out several times scary moments within them. The editing here isn’t too complex but still perfect as it increases pace at times fooling the viewer. Technically speaking Fear does well as a psychological horror movie and a classic haunted house film.
Fear is much more perceptive than most horror movies in terms of its intellectual content since it reflects some real life issues from the past few years. Yes, it uses some clichéd old horror tricks but they serve to explain the movie’s point further. Fear is paradoxical. Hysteria is a group response, but its effects are experienced singly and it’s when characters are left alone with their thoughts and fears that the most suffering and bloodshed occur in this film. Ironically, breaking the spell usually requires a group of brave, compassionate, thoughtful people rather than blind fear of crowds. Even when you are by yourself; fear can rule everything about your life. That’s why we need friends, lovers, kinfolk and sagacious folks around us: they often become our mirrors who show how irrational our terrors are beyond all reason inside us.
Fear is a film that examines fear as groupthink, where by the end of the day it is cleared through love and friendship. It also has an unexpectedly religious aspect (which makes sense—the horror genre may be the last refuge for religion in mainstream Hollywood and media). While Fear does not at all say that one can only defeat their fears by trusting in a higher power, it nonetheless illustrates an interesting contrast between faith and fear; trust on one side, suspicion on the other. Faith or even hope’s minutiae can fight off fear once they locate something larger than itself, something more terrifying. That thing could be God or love in Fear but in real life it could be anything else. In Fear there is a line repeated; “Believing what you fear will bring to the victim what they are afraid of.” Lastly, Taylor’s movie manages to communicate through much bloody violence that we should all know there are things much greater to believe in than being afraid and that is why I would want everyone to watch this movie.
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