With horror, sometimes what you don’t see and are left to imagine is worse than all the on-screen monsters and gore in the world. Director Jeremy Lovering understands this perfectly with his debut feature In Fear as he has delivered a stripped-down and creepily intimate horror-thriller that ramps up the tension and gets the absolute most out of its very simple premise.
The film follows Tom (Iain de Caestecker) and Lucy (Alice Englert), two relatively new friends and possible couple who are on their way to a music festival but beforehand decide to stay in a purportedly charming countryside hotel Tom has booked as a surprise. However, on the seemingly idyllic roads there, the signs directing them to the hotel appear to be leading them round in circles. Before long they start to notice strange things going on around them as they try to find their way in the dead of night.
In Fear is an effective little chiller that uses many-a-trick familiar to anyone who’s ever watched a horror movie like this before; strange noises in the dark, signs that lead the wrong way, car trouble, seeing things that may or may not actually be there and so forth. There’s something very primal about it, something inherently creepy in the way it’s put together and it’s a testament to Lovering’s talent as a director that despite the clichéd nature of some of the scares that it still has the power to keep you on edge and maybe even send a chill or two (or ten) down your spine. This is the kind of thing that gives the British film industry a good name.
As is the nature with limited premises and casts like this, the film rests on the shoulder of the lead performances and thankfully it’s anchored by two believable and, perhaps most importantly, likeable ones by Caestecker and Englert. Both of them are rising stars – Caestecker recently appeared in Filth and Not Another Happy Ending as well as currently starring in TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., while Englert (daughter of director Jane Campion) recently impressed in the underrated teen fantasy Beautiful Creatures and political drama Ginger & Rosa– and they prove their worth here.
The majority of the film is basically just shots of the two of them driving in their car talking, becoming progressively more paranoid about what’s going on and how they’re going to get out of their increasingly dangerous and scary situation. They make us care about them as people and become interested in what happened to them before this fateful night and what may become of them afterwards. This means that we care if and when something bad happens to them as opposed to them being caricatures only there to be killed off one by one.
The plot and style evokes many horrors and thrillers of years past, from Steve Spielberg’s Duel and Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs to James Watkins’ Eden Lake and Ben Wheatley’s Kill List, and many more in between; that feeling of an idyllic countryside setting taking on a threatening, malevolent tone under high pressure. And what’s most impressive is how it manages to hearken back to those films without feeling like it’s ripping any of them off.
There’s a point about half way through the film (which I won’t spoiler here) that may test some people’s patience as far as believability goes. It’s true that it does strain credibility once it hits that point, not to mention presenting a few moments that make you think, “Why on earth did he just do that?!”, but does that really matter when the film is as tense as it so often is? A few bumps along the road is a small price to pay for the very effective rest of the film.
Lovering’s dynamic and inventive style in the face of a small scale premise – which admittedly relies on certain contrivances to keep going – makes for an unnerving and unpredictable experience. It’s not exactly reinventing the jump-scare but it does everything it can to squeeze every drop of claustrophobic atmosphere and tension out of the situation and on that level it succeeds admirably.
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In Fear is released in UK cinemas on November 15th.
