THE SEQUEL TO THE 1995 FILM "THE FEAR" WHICH I'VE NEVER SEEN.
By all accounts, that's probably a good move on my part. The original film finds a group of people off on a "fear therapy" retreat out in a cabin (always a good idea in a horror movie) and who are terrorized by a life-sized wooden mannequin named Morty. From what I've seen, it's usually described as pretty terrible. So why watch a sequel to a terrible horror movie that itself is usually described as pretty terrible in its own right?!?!? I do it for YOU, gentle reader and for the spirit of the Countdown to Halloween! Now, I have been fairly warned; if by none other than my friend Cheeks who reviewed this movie on his own blog a few years ago for the Countdown to Halloween. But as always, I reserve all opinions until after I see it.
And now I've seen it.
A young boy and his mother are driving home on Halloween night; young Mike in a skeleton costume and his mom dressed as a witch. Unfortunately, on this drive they discover that Mike's Dad is actually the Highway Killer and is in the process of moidering a woman when they happen upon him. Dad chases Mom and buries an axe in her chest and then locks Mike in the trunk of the car -- Mike's glowstick reveals he's not alone in the trunk. A life-size wooden mannequin is there with him. Hey, it's Morty from the first film, guys! Fade to a "20 years later" caption (insert your own Spongebob Squarepants vocal saying it) and Mike and his friends are driving to his grandparents place for a Halloween Hoop-dee-doo. Grandmother is happy to see them, Grandfather is a crotchedy old fart and Mike's friend Crow is upstairs with . . . yeah, it's Morty. Crow's Native American ancestors carved Morty (he was named that by Mike's Dad the serial killer). Around Morty's neck hangs a pouch containing raven's blood; the only thing that holds the evil at bay until they can banish it. Surprising NO ONE watching this, one of Mike's dopey friends removes the pouch from Morty's neck. Mike is also give a full head Don Post mask (yeah probably not really a Don Post mask) of Morty to wear so that he can "see through Morty's eyes"; what a GREAT IDEA for the son of a serial killer! Mike's plan for the Halloween get-together is to perform an ancient ceremony of Crow's people called a "Fear Circle"; this finds everyone wearing a costume representing their greatest fear and, through confronting it, banishing that fear forever. So, it basically sounds like a retread of the first movie. Grandmother thinks it sounds fun. Grandfather thinks it's a sucky idea and breaks the dishes. Mike's girlfriend asks him if he's coming dressed as the fear of commitment. BURN!!!!!!
Cheekies' rather extreme hissy fit that, once the "20 years later" caption appears nothing happens, of course isn't technically true but true in the sense that nothing much of any import happens except the movie forgets what kind of movie it is and gives us soap opera. Now, THE FEAR 2 is 98 minutes long and almost all of this could be cut without any detriment to the film. The problem is the all-too-frequent casting of a group of twentysomething "zero personalities" in all the roles. Then a script which piles a lot of soap opera interpersonal relationship dialogue for people we really don't care about because they're bland and without personality. The script isn't written well enough to be entertaining in spite of the actors so what we have is a group of characters no one cares about speaking a lot of lines no one cares about; none of which advances the plot at all. OK, so here's the rule, low budget horror filmmakers: if you're going to insist on casting unknown, pretty faces with the personality of a candle, then DO NOT give them pages of dialogue about their relationships and problems to say. That's not the kind of movie you're making. You're making a cabin in the woods full of dopey good-looking people stalked and killed by Pinocchio's anti-social cousin! Seriously, there are 10-12 people in this cast; MORE than enough to have one killed every 5-10 minutes; so ditch the soap opera dialogue and get on with the show. Now, this does NOT go for a beautifully written script and a cast of interesting character actors; then you have the goods to include good dialogue and great acting. But that's not the case here. And don't have a movie like this last 98 minutes! Use those scissors to make the movie you worked so hard to make a better movie!
All that having been said, leading man Gordon Currie is not a good enough actor to carry the film; however, he's perfectly OK as Mike. And he was in several other horror movies (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN, PUPPET MASTER 4 and PUPPET MASTER 5: THE FINAL CHAPTER) so you can't really hate on the guy. But of course, the best actors in the film are the wonderful Betsy Palmer and Larry Pennell as Grandmother and Grandfather. Betsy Palmer needs no introduction from her long and storied Hollywood career to Mrs. Voorhees in the FRIDAY THE 13TH movies. I had the absolute privilige and pleasure to meet her in the early 2000's and she was incredibly sweet and grateful to all her fans. Larry Pennell has a substantial history in genre movies as well: THE SPACE CHILDREN, SUPERSTITION, HELTER SKELTER, BUBBA HO-TEP and one of my favourite spaghetti westerns THE REVENGERS. As for Morty's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally rubber-looking monster suit . . . .I'm incredibly lenient towards things like that and I don't mind it at all . He's still pretty cool lookin'. So, no. Not a movie I'd recommend at all. But it's there.
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