The film "In fear", judging by the title, and by the synopsis, and reviews, finally, should at least keep in it the viewer, not very impressionable - to make just a little worried. This film will not please you in that sense. The couple goes by car to some festival, but it so happens that got lost and from now until the final will be in a spatial loop, wheeling in fact in a circle. But to wheel it was not boring, the creators wove here a strange type who decided to play with the lost.
Of course, the atmosphere is conveyed quite convincingly: around no soul, dark places, night, soundtrack ... All this to some extent allows you to attribute the film to thrillers, but the scenery today the viewer is not surprised, you need action, which in this film is not. The whole movie the couple rides in circles, and by the middle it already begins to callouse eyes. The motivations of the “maniac” are not clear at all, he does nothing of this, just frightening. The finale – you can’t think of it more stupidly, it feels like it was written in the family of the screenwriter by younger children.
And the meaning of all these movements in a circle is unclear. Heroes don't look for roads. They can, for example, stop and start to find out about the relationship, even though there is a crazy person walking around. It's kind of stupid.
The film “In Fear” is a British thriller, and British filmmakers know how to captivate viewers by pumping suspense, and without cheap shocking techniques, which are stuffed with the same American thrillers. In general, the line of the film is unpretentious: a young couple goes to the festival, the guys got lost, a dead end (but not stupid) situation, they are “in fear” (as the name of the thriller itself indicates). Of course, further - an unexpected meeting with a fellow traveler, who initiates a completely unexpected development of the plot.
And let this tape can be blamed for some template of films “about the wrong road and fellow travelers”, but these patterns are not typical. For example, the heroes of the film under the hood of an invisible (so far) companion from the very first frames. When it comes time to show himself in this spectacle of fear, he does not commit atrocities against the chosen victims, but plays with them, using their emotional instability in the situation, provokes an attack on himself. Here we see its main difference from the template thriller “fellow travelers”. Absolutely unpredictable ending, which echoes the very beginning of the film.
But most importantly, it is a great suspense painting. Even when nothing significant happens on the screen, the tension increases. The film is not destined to enter the golden fund of film masterpieces, but let you not be afraid of a small rating and low fees, you should watch it for all fans of British thrillers.
8 out of 10
Before us is the debut work of a little-known director Jeremy Lovering, the debut for a big movie, because he has already managed to thoroughly work on the fertile field of TV projects and various series. But the soul of the creator craved more, and voila! – there is an idea, there is a script, but the cat cried money. However, the desire for fiction is cunning, especially if it is driven by the enthusiasm of pure water. It is impossible to remember how many such seemingly failed projects, made literally on the knee and with the help of improvised means, thundered around the world, gaining crowds of fans and opening new pages in cinema. So what happened?
First of all, I want to mention the overall atmosphere of the film. With the help of simple but effective methods, the director skillfully catches up with anxiety. The dominant color scheme gives an even more formidable look to the already cheerful landscapes, drizzling rain does not lull, but stirs the soul, and music also gives tension. But the great thing is the road. A narrow clay path along which a car can barely squeeze, thickets coming from all sides, giving absolutely no view. This limited space really unnerves the viewer - how can you notice the danger in such conditions and even at night? That’s why those sudden appearances of someone or something acted in a completely different way than usual – they actually made you shudder. I especially remember the moment with the dresses.
However, for me personally, the pluses of the film ended. I was very disappointed by the motivation of the attacker, or rather, its complete absence. Of course, it must be a bit creepy that because of such a small person is able to do such things, but for some reason I expected a maniac to have a more serious motive. In addition, if the victims performed by Ian de Kesteker and Alice Englert looked normal, then the performance of the maniac (Allen Leach) disappointed me - too unconvincing.
Also, I was haunted by the strange relationship Tom and Lucy had. If they are together so little, then it would be possible to play on it, but the director for some reason did not use such a move. Then why do we need this clarification?
In some places, too much hovering on the faces of the characters was embarrassing, which is strange, because cameraman David Katznelson worked on such series as Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones.
Not bad filmed, but raw work, which will please fans of independent cinema
4 out of 10
A young couple of hipsters Tom and Lucy go to a music festival far beyond the usual metropolis. Very soon, thorny paths will lead them into unknown forest thickets, from where they will not be able to get out unharmed due to the fact that a couple of lovers and music will become the object of persecution of the unknown, whose goals are quite transparent, and motives are inexplicable.
The film “In Fear” became a full-fledged debut in the big cinema of the famous British director and screenwriter Jeremy Lovering, who for a long period of his career worked mainly on television, with extreme diligence sculpting such cult series as “Ghosts” and “Sherlock”. However, big cinema – it is still loudly said, because “In Fear” belongs to the category of low-budget without rolling into excessive thrashiness of what is happening, not the most ambitious and in fact passed absolutely unnoticed by most critics and viewers of the creation, which nevertheless is able to deliver many pleasant minutes for all connoisseurs of independent author’s cinema, masquerading under the usual genre archetypes. Jeremy Lovering in his debut in every possible way tries to break out of the tight framework of the pressing teleformat, becoming someone more and significant than just a promising director, and the film “In Fear” definitely gravitates not so much to a standard road thriller with horror elements, but to a melancholy psychopathological drama in its balanced video series, skillfully deceiving the audience halfway, and in the end leaving a clear taste of bewilderment and lack of catharsis and some satisfaction for all the experience.
The film's cinematic roots are deep: from the classic "Fellow Traveler" Robert Harmon with the main antihero of the eight-costal period Rutger Hauer and Schnaas's "Cruel Shit / Lawlessness", to films of the hixploitation category, ranging from Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to the recent "Wolf's Pit", and a new wave in French horror, the countdown of which originates in "High Tension" by Alexander Aj and Alexander Arkady (all references to the fabric, however, so unsporously, in general, as artistically, from the chosen genre). Actually, with the first and second branches of Jeremy Lovering's film, the common features are visible only at the level of the initial plot and the origin of the main intrigue, while with the third, with the new wave of French explicit horror, "In Fear" shares almost everything, especially with the picture "They" by the duo Moreau and Palyu, synonymous with which arises at the level of intimacy, claustrophobic tightness of what is happening, density and dynamism of the plot, as well as the complete absence of spectacular bloodletting for the sake of themselves, for the sake of this momentary effect of transgression. However, unlike the ever-memorable picture of David Moreau and Xavier Palu, in which the survival game for the central protagonists was the product of just bloody fun, perverse entertainment and unbridled fun, “In Fear” is already characterized by somewhat different rules of survival. The bearer of evil is not moved by the power of the usual pleasure of hunting and subsequent murder, but by sweet revenge, the catalyst for the awakening of which in him was a ridiculous and stupid incident. Up to a certain point, the evil in the picture generally remains an impersonal nothing, demanding its bloody feast without explanation. They received, however, in the final clarity will not add; it seems that Lovering deliberately left the specifics, making his tape extremely conditional and metaphorical, in which there are no innocent, the victims are far from the canons of sheep for slaughter, the torturer only seeks to restore his own reputation, and all the true evil lies in the trifles, in the lack of mutual understanding between people, in this discount and discommunications, leading to tragedies and unthinkable horror.
The film “In Fear” is completely devoid of the bloody mess and rampage of ultraviolence, but focuses on the calibrated tension, the atmosphere of the approaching nightmare and unbearable psychological terror. Asceticism is the only word that can best describe this film. Asceticism in directing, not devoid of authenticity, in expressive means of influencing the public, when instead of rivers of blood and mountains of corpses, only disturbing notes of suspense and a viscous and viscous atmosphere, close to a state of sleep, resembling multiple webs in dense milk mist, in the number of characters totaling three pieces. The plot situation lost in the tape is familiar, she found her flesh and blood in more than one hundred slashers and thrillers; the film initially does not carry TNT for the massive undermining of familiar movie myths. Jeremy Lovering skillfully uses these myths in a frankly strange ending to bring them down and somewhat shift the moral emphasis. It seems that there is a classic maniac in his villainous bloodthirsty appearance, whose motives are syllogic, and there are cute victims fighting for survival. However, the goals of the first in life are much more than those of the second, who constantly indulge in idle pleasures. And he is much more interesting and deeper from the point of view of psychology than the couple he chose to annihilate at least after the fact of possessing this sweet and beautiful feeling of misanthropy, voyeuristic peeping at those who for the first time in their meaningless life felt the most vivid and unforgettable emotion - fear.
If there is a turn on the road, it will definitely lead the wrong way.
Bad is the TV director who doesn’t want to try his hand at big cinema. Probably, such considerations were guided by the little-known but promising British director Jeremy Lovering, who for many years faithfully served on his native television, creating many TV series and paintings for local consumption. Deciding that everything could be said on the small screens he had already said, Lovering went to conquer the big screens and as his first high-profile project chose a tape called In Fear, whose narrative is a blood-colding thriller. Realizing that he would not see a big budget, Lovering tried to do everything possible from himself so that the tension in his picture was escalated by staged methods, rather than a riot of special effects or expensive scenery. The cast of the tape was replenished with young talents in the person of Ian de Kesteker, Alice Englert and Ellen Leach. As it is not difficult to guess, the director found his performers on television and gave the guys a chance to prove themselves in full measure. To be able to continue his career internationally. The premiere of “In Fear” was relatively modest and the film was not trumpeted by the media, but Jeremy Lovering and the company still got their word thanks to the participation of the picture at the screenings at the Sundance independent film festival. Critics and viewers noted in their reviews that “In Fear” can be safely called a picture that can instill anxiety in our hearts and the director skillfully plays the fear of the unknown, showing that in the modern world it is not surprising to get into trouble even where it should not be a priori. Of course, one “Sundance” for Lovering’s tape was not enough, and it dissolved into the world of home video, so that later it was caught by fans of the genre and discovered its strengths and weaknesses. I have seen the picture presented and me. And in fact, it turned out that “In fear” is really quite a good tape. Some special delights when watching is not worth waiting, but at the same time the narrative is captivating and sometimes makes you shudder. And that's the point.
The plot of the film introduces us to a couple of love travelers in the person of Tom (Ian De Kestecker) and Lucy (Alice Englert). The guys go by car to the Irish outback, where a music festival is supposed to take place. However, in addition to this, Tom decides to make an unexpected surprise for his beloved, and booked for them a room in a remote forest hotel, which is not so easy to find, but one thing is clear - far from civilization, they will be left to themselves, and no one will disturb them. Going on the road, the heroes are further and further away from the local village and following the signs, apparently left by the owners of the hotel, penetrate into a kind of closed ring. Driving the same road over and over again, Tom and Lucy finally get confused and realize that they cannot get out so easily. The gloomy, inhospitable road is a maze that so simply does not let its guests go. Heroes to the very end try to find a way from here, considering that the hotel, located in a similar place, it is better not to visit. Just deciding to get out is one thing, and doing it is quite another. Having spent most of the gasoline, and without advancing in search of a way out of the road anomaly, the guys eventually decide to stop and wait out the night by the roadside to explore the nearby areas on foot at dawn. But that wasn't it! A man hiding in the dark is not going to let go of his victims and starts a dangerous game with them. Tom and Lucy are desperate to avoid confrontation, although it is clear to the child that they need to accept the conditions of a stranger and defeat him with his own methods.
Jeremy Lovering's tape, despite the not the most complex plot canvas, in fact turns out to be an intriguing work, without problems keeping the viewer during the viewing. The director proved that he does not need to operate with huge sums in order to shoot a tense, dynamic film that is quite capable of competing with more expensive and advertised films of the thriller genre. Almost the entire story of “In Fear” unfolds on gloomy forest roads that are no different from each other. Plus, while watching, we are permeated by the sensation of piercing autumn cold, dirt and rain, drumming on the windshield. Periodically, an old shed and dilapidated hotel signs appear in the frame. We do not observe anything more special in the frame, but this is quite enough to raise the degree of tension to the highest level. The creators are in no hurry to reveal all their secrets and try to withstand the intrigue until the very end. So the main attention of the audience falls on the duet of leading performers, who were tasked with acting out the true emotions and experiences of young people from the big city who fell into a certain road loop away from home. And they quite professionally coped with the task, periodically revealing previously hidden features of their characters, which will definitely not work. Of course, its role in the proper perception of the picture by the viewer is played out by a precisely selected entourage, within which it is difficult for actors to play their part in half their strength. No wonder Ian De Kestecker and Alice Englert were really scared and showed us their true emotions, rather than acting out artificial intimidation while they were surrounded by a crowd of film crew. This is the beauty of independent cinema, because it is based mainly on enthusiasm and can afford an original approach to creating paintings that would never be accepted by the heads of major studios.
There are many logical holes in the picture, because of which “In Fear” can not be taken seriously. The main characters often make decisions that are not inherent in reasonable people. Perhaps the creators of the tapes should at least somehow justify them, but they did not want to do this. So at a certain point, Tom and Lucy leave their car and go on foot down the road, although what prevented them from driving along it without smearing their shoes in the mud, especially since they had at least enough gas? And it is worth noting that they walked only two hundred meters. After a while, they notice the scattered things of the girl on the road, wondering how they got there, completely forgetting how they personally left the car in the middle of the forest to be torn apart by an intruder. There are many such blunders in the picture, and they are openly striking. The finale also leaves more questions than answers, which is discouraging. Although with all this, the tape looks interesting, the actors play at a quite decent level, and the atmosphere of panic despair without much is transmitted from heroes to the viewer, which evokes genuine anxiety. I think that the creators of "In Fear" coped well with their task.
Newly-acquainted young people are going to a music festival. They choose not quite a clear road, which ultimately leads to the loss of landmarks.
'What a boring landscape'
After a while, the main character, named Lucy, will peer into the gloomy Irish forest and see frightening silhouettes and shadows. With the gradual onset of night, what was the almost invisible presence of the third becomes a tangible fact. This process is shown slowly, it seems, with a clear desire to smoothly and in detail reflect the transformation of fear from a gloomy and disturbing atmosphere into a personified figure of evil. The result of this process is somewhat disappointing, as if some of the energy somewhere lost and the maniac, partly remaining infernal brings the viewer relief, not interest.
The sealed space of the film is placed, only a few components are missing, everything that can prevent you from focusing on the few characters, the forest road, the onset of darkness and their interaction. The content here is secondary, more important is the form that would give a long-familiar (and even archetypal) history clarity and boundaries. The minimalism of the content corresponds to the simplicity of the frame, which is combined with mathematically composed frames and sound effects. Without focusing on the individual characteristics of the characters and the specifics of events, the director, very ' carefully ' addresses the fear itself, apparently inspired and quoting iconic films of the genre. A departure from genre patterns occurs at the end of the film. Maniac’s behavior and motives are irrational, and the film does not even hide it, partly showing on what unconscious grounds this genre is located. Here, the Maniac is not the one who does evil, but, through fear, causes others to do evil, distorting the connections between other characters. ' Joke' Maniac is perhaps some deconstruction of the genre, which, in principle, is not a new technique.
Probably, this film is a little lack of imagination, it is made in a template, albeit with love and good knowledge of the laws of the genre. The leisurely rhythm of storytelling that so successfully created an unsettling atmosphere at first creates some detachment in the second half of the film. At some point, it seems that the film merges with dozens of similar films, in which the fragile girl has to confront the evil in the form of a maniac, despite the fact that this part of the film is devoid of any significant identifying marks. The ending is also created with the idea of leaving only ' most importantly ' and, paradoxically, differs from other examples of such a movie, which is more confusing than bringing the effect of novelty.
In general, a pleasant film, carefully related to genre patterns and making them work, but also trying as a result of the interaction of familiar elements of horror to get something new. The attempt is modest and not entirely complete.
It's a sweet and beautiful feeling of misanthropy.
A young couple of hipsters Tom and Lucy go to a music festival far beyond the usual metropolis. Very soon, thorny paths will lead them into unknown forest thickets, from where they will not be able to get out unharmed due to the fact that a couple of lovers and music will become the object of persecution of the unknown, whose goals are quite transparent, and motives are inexplicable.
The film-participant of last year’s international film festival of independent film “Sundance”, the film “In Fear” became a full-fledged debut in the big cinema of the famous British director and screenwriter Jeremy Lovering, for a long period of his career working mainly on television, with extreme zeal sculpting such cult series as “Ghosts” and “Sherlock”. However, big cinema - this is still loudly said, because "In Fear" belongs to the category of moderately low-budget without rolling into excessive thrashiness of what is happening, not the most ambitious and in fact passed absolutely unnoticed by most critics and viewers of the creation, which nevertheless is able to deliver many pleasant minutes for all connoisseurs of independent author's cinema, masquerading under the usual genre archetypes. Jeremy Lovering in his debut in every possible way tries to break out of the tight framework of the pressing teleformat, becoming someone more and significant than just a promising director, and the film “In Fear” definitely gravitates not so much to a standard road thriller with horror elements, but to a melancholic psychopathological drama in its balanced video series, skillfully deceiving the audience halfway, and in the end leaving a clear taste of bewilderment and lack of catharsis and some satisfaction for all the experience.
The film’s cinematic roots are deep: from the classic “Fellow Traveler” Robert Harmon with the main antihero of the eight-costal period Rutger Hauer and Schnaas’s “Cruel Shit/Infinity” to films of the hixploitation category, ranging from Hooper’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” to the recent “Wolf’s Pit” and a new wave in French horror, the countdown of which originates in “High Tension” by Alexander Aj and Alexander Arkady (all of the artful, however, the artistically not allowed by the laws of the genre). Actually, with the first and second branches of Jeremy Lovering’s film, the common features are visible only at the level of the initial plot and the origin of the main intrigue, while with the third, with the new wave of French explicit horror, “In Fear”, almost everything is in common, especially with the picture “They” by the duo Moreau and Palyu, synonymous with which occurs at the level of cameranicity, claustrophobic tightness of what is happening, the density and dynamism of the plot, as well as the complete absence of spectacular bloodletting for the sake of themselves, for the sake of this momentary effect of transgression. However, unlike the ever-memorable picture of David Moreau and Xavier Palu, in which the survival game for the central protagonists was the product of just bloody fun, perverse entertainment and unbridled fun, In Fear is already characterized by somewhat different rules of survival. The bearer of evil is not moved by the power of the usual pleasure of hunting and subsequent murder, but by sweet revenge, the catalyst for the awakening of which in him was a ridiculous and stupid incident. Up to a certain point, the evil in the picture in general remains an impersonal nothing, spending its bloody feast without explanation. The result, however, in the final clarity will not add; it seems that Lovering deliberately left the specifics, making his tape extremely conditional and metaphorical, in which there are no innocent, victims are far from the canons of sheep for slaughter, the torturer only seeks to restore his own reputation, and all the true evil lies in the trifles, in the lack of mutual understanding between people, in this discount and discommunications, leading to tragedies and unthinkable horror.
The film “In Fear” is completely devoid of the bloody mess and rampage of ultraviolence, but focuses on the calibrated tension, the atmosphere of the approaching nightmare and unbearable psychological terror. Asceticism is the only word that can best describe this film. Asceticism in directing, not devoid of authenticity, in expressive means of influencing the public, when instead of rivers of blood and mountains of corpses, only disturbing notes of suspense and a viscous and viscous atmosphere, close to a state of sleep, resembling multiple webs in dense milk mist, in the number of characters totaling three pieces. The plot situation lost in the tape is familiar, she found her flesh and blood in more than one hundred slashers and thrillers; the film initially does not carry TNT for the massive undermining of familiar movie myths. Jeremy Lovering skillfully uses these myths in a frankly strange ending to bring them down and somewhat shift the moral emphasis. It seems that there is a classic maniac in his villainous bloodthirsty appearance, whose motives are syllogic, and there are cute victims fighting for survival. However, the goals of the first in life are much more than those of the second, who constantly indulge in idle pleasures. And he is much more interesting and deeper from the point of view of psychology than the couple he chose to annihilate at least after the fact of possessing this sweet and beautiful feeling of misanthropy, voyeuristic peeping at those who for the first time in their meaningless life felt the most vivid and unforgettable emotion - fear.
If we consider this film on the level of "Paradise Lake", as one of the successful British thrillers of recent years, then it significantly falls short of it. Shot like the same without Hollywood handwriting, but somehow too far-fetched everything turned out, and it is difficult to predict all events for real life.
The guy invited the girl to some distant music festival, on the way there drove to a country bar – and there someone through the well watched the main character. The couple did not yet realize that even then they were caught in the crosshairs of some strange maniac. On the way to their event, the guys turn into a sparsely crowded place, where presumably there should be a hotel.
Strange in the film "In fear" a lot, ranging from the absurdity of having such a hotel based on the terrain in which the events occur, ending with elementary stimuli in the genre - did no one teach the heroes to close in the car when you stay yourself, and even it would not hurt to turn off the light in the cabin in dark places. But the latter, probably, was the condition of the operator, who, oddly enough tried in this film quite successfully, several good techniques, and the position of the camera operator created a decent effect.
Suddenly there are scattered things of the main character on the road, and from here it becomes clear that they are not alone in the forests. Suddenly, another such unfortunate person is attached to them, and now the three continue to look for a way out of this road maze. To be honest, a fairly predictable film, not that it is unworthy of viewing, but some moments and episodes were banal readable, it is with that fashion now in the thriller genre to make unexpected turns in the plot.
Also, an absolutely stupid villain turned out in this film, not only is the actor frankly annoying with his hysterical laugh, but also his motives are some far-fetched and simple. As a result, someone will definitely like the film In Fear, the short timekeeping and dynamics of the action will be kept at the screen, but there will be someone who quite rightly will not notice anything special in the film.