In Fear (2013) starring Iain De Caestecker, Alice Englert, Allen Leech directed by Jeremy Lovering Movie Review

In Fear (2013)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Iain De Caestecker in In Fear (2013)

Not Much Fear

Having only been dating for two weeks Tom (Iain De Caestecker) and Lucy (Alice Englert) are off to a music festival for the weekend. But before they head there they stop off for a drink in a pub and find themselves having to flee and then Tom's plans for a romantic night in a remote hotel go screwy when they get lost on the back roads. With daylight fading and their sat nav not working they seem to become trapped in the maze of little roads surrounded by tall trees. But is there something worse lurking out there, something after them.

Are you the sort of person who when home alone on a dark Winter's night gets spooked by those creaks and bangs which make you think you are not as alone as you first thought. If so "In Fear" might, and I do mean might, just appeal to you. But unfortunately whilst it has some things which work it also has plenty which doesn't and it is those things which unsurprisingly drag it back and makes it a bit of a nonsense.

Alice Englert in In Fear (2013)

So the opening to "In Fear" which sees Tom and Lucy fleeing from a pub with no real explanation of what went wrong works nicely enough to suggest that maybe there is someone following them especially combined with some shots which feel like we are watching the couple from a stalkers point of view. And then when they find themselves lost in the woods it gets it right as we see the tension between the two of them increase as things go from bad to worse and they find themselves in the dark lanes with no idea where they are. How each other ends up behaving towards each other is spot on from Tom losing his temper to Lucy becoming silent.

But then there is the wrong and maybe it is a case that Tom and Lucy haven't got the common sense they were born with because who having got themselves lost and with light fading leave their car to walk in the woods and leave the keys in the ignition. It is simply a moronic thing to do as is when you are lost deciding to open a bottle of spirits and start drinking whilst driving. I could go on and unfortunately despite the nice idea of the fear of being lost on dark roads at night much of the manufactured horror doesn't work.

What this all boils down to is that "In Fear" will probably work for some but there is sadly plenty which is wrong about it which makes it one of those horror movies where people don't seem to have much common sense.


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