If you’ve ever wondered whether Fatal Attraction, Straw Dogs, and The Purge should all be one messed-up teen thriller … well, the answer is probably no. But if you went a step further and wondered what the resulting movie could possibly look like, the answer to that is James Foley’s Fear.
This is a wild, sleazy, jumbled ride, but it starts with the trashy simplicity of a Lifetime movie: Call it Nightmare Boyfriend. Girl–Nicole (Reese Witherspoon)–meets boy–David (Mark Wahlberg). Boy seems like a real gentleman at heart, but one who’s just rough enough around the edges to be appealing. He fulfills her implicit fantasies, first reverently validating her inexperience–why, yes, Virginia, you are better than the other girls–and then relieving her of it on a rollercoaster as “Wild Horses” earworms its way into my head for what may be the rest of the year. He’s safe but sexy.
But this isn’t a romance, and if it has a conservative streak, it’s not exactly the one it appears to have at first glance. It’s also not a simple bad boyfriend/stalker thriller, either. It’s taking a much weirder angle: Maybe the real safe but sexy option is her dad?
Because David is a psychopath, one who is embodying his own limited, toxic understanding of this love story with everything in him, and when Nicole comes, in fits and starts, to grasp that–that his jealous rages are terrifying, not protective, and that his disdain for all the “trashy” girls who aren’t her doesn’t preclude lustful violence toward them–she tries to break away. She can’t do it on her own, though, and this is where the simple schlock (and female-driven narrative) of the Lifetime setup sputters out. Ultimately, this isn’t about David and Nicole, it’s about David and Nicole’s dad, Steve, a seething, pointedly sexual William Petersen. In the second half of the film, Nicole’s role shrinks, and she becomes less a character and more a piece of contested territory between one man who wants to violently protect her and one man who claims to want that but is less sincere about it. In case you think I’m exaggerating the quasi-sexual weirdness at play here, it’s a key plot point that Steve finds that David has stolen Nicole’s “Daddy’s Girl” jewelry and painstakingly altered it to read “David’s Girl.” You son of a bitch! She was supposed to be his!
Nicole isn’t the only piece of contested territory here, either. Explicitly or implicitly, Steve and David butt heads over every woman here. David taunts Steve with the idea that Steve’s wife (Amy Brenneman, Nicole’s stepmother) has the hots for him; Steve can’t resist ogling his daughter’s flirtatious friend Margo (Alyssa Milano), while David outright rapes her–and uses the rape as a chance to rub another man’s face in his supposed sexual superiority, roughing Margo up until she “admits” she wants him more.
The latter incident moves the film away from being gleefully trashy fun–it’s a shade too nasty for that, like a cut-rate Cape Fear on top of everything else–but the handling of it also perversely elevates things. This kind of movie doesn’t usually care about a Margo. In fact, the movie Nicole thought she was in didn’t care about Margo, who was there only to be the “bad girl” friend to her victorious “good girl,” who would get indiscriminate sex but not lovingly soundtracked deflowering and true love. Fear does care about her, though, at least a little: She becomes not a contrast and not a cautionary tale but a kind of Cassandra, an embodiment of a truth Nicole spends some time willfully overlooking. Not only does the film understand that David rapes her (a hurdle a lot of movies wouldn’t get over, frankly), it understands that she wouldn’t tell anyone at first, because she knows she wouldn’t be believed, and it bothers to portray, painfully, that indeed Nicole, despite witnessing everything, doesn’t believe her, not initially. Despite this, incredibly, Margo stays loyal, and if that’s an acceptable move for a “damaged” supporting character–let them martyr themselves for the “purer” hero and heroine–it’s also a moving one. Even in 1996, I’m guessing most people came away feeling like she has the most pathos of anyone involved.
All of this contributes to Fear‘s jumbled quality. At no point does this stay the movie it seems like it’s trying to be. It’s weirder than that, but also more reactionary than that, but also more ambitiously human than that, but also a German shepherd’s severed head gets chucked through a doggy door.
In a way–and I mean this entirely as a compliment–the film this really reminds me of most is the much more inept and much more problematic Sleepaway Camp, which is also a mess with a dazzling amount of commitment to its own particular vision, and which also seesaws wildly between imagining and inhabiting a marginalized point of view and sloppily replicating the worst takes on it, and which also does this all without shame. But the comparison also showcases why Fear baffles me. Sleepaway Camp was an artistic dead end, a first film made by a guy who never made anything not related to it (I maintain that it was a promising debut despite its multitude of technical and artistic flaws: it could have led somewhere, it just didn’t), and Fear was made by the guy who’d already directed After Dark, My Sweet and Glengarry Glen Ross. Did he devolve? Did he time travel? This should be either a messy first feature or a journeyman’s auteur breakout, where a fledgling personal vision suddenly overwhelmed him. I can’t even pivot to crediting writer Christopher Crowe for it all, because he’d also already written The Last of the Mohicans! He … you know, what, no, this is Crowe’s movie, because he directed the ’80s Alfred Hitchcock Presents version of “The Creeper.” I’ll just assume this was bubbling away on the back-burner since then. Sometimes you just have to find an explanation you can live with.
Fear is streaming on Amazon Prime.
About the writer
Lauren James
Lauren James is a writer who wears many different hats (and pen names). She lives in Connecticut with her wife and two cats.
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A small, sweet story of time travel and redemption.
Streaming Shuffle
Shocking but true: this anthology film does something that almost always annoys me, but here I liked it.
Anthologized
One of the show's worst husbands has a bad time in Vegas.
“So … you cheated on me because of your road rage?” / “I guess when you hear it all at once, yeah.”
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Nobody
I got pretty way into this before I locked onto a thought: I was really only having fun with this during the action sequences, which meant this was simply a new evolution in the Stupid Action Movie genre, variant: not quite smart enough to be a Fun Stupid Action Movie. This is trying to be an Edgar Wright film but it’s not sincere or emotionally resonant enough to balance the tones, coming out as a mismash of them colliding with each other; it doesn’t help that the basic story is a twelve year old boy’s understanding of a guy trying to reclaim his masculinity, or that Bob Oedenkirk is delivering a weirdly lifeless and joyless performance. A little note: the only needle drop that really worked for me here was “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”; everything else felt forced.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Season Eighteen, Episode Five, “The Gang Goes To The Ren Faire”
Also really good – the climax of plot culminating on plot had me howling. I deeply enjoy Dee actually winning in this plot, at least in terms of winning the Gang’s respect for once.
Biggest laugh: Charlie emerging from the darkness, a rare moment of cinematic comedy from this show.
Man, do I hate Nobody. It is not great to crap on a movie for what is not, but getting Odenkirk to fuck dudes up is so obviously a Falling Down situation as opposed to a John Wick one, so it’s a moronic idea from the start. Fortunately, the movie sucks plenty on its own terms for all the reasons you mention!
“Dude, I don’t know if we can be, like, friends anymore.”
The Conjuring – a friend shared a list of 100 “essential horror films” in a group chat, and I realised there were only eight on the list I hadn’t seen. So obviously my first thought was “I should watch the other eight!”, followed quickly by “wait, two of them are Eli Roth movies and fuck that guy!” This one felt like a bit of a blind spot though and the weather is starting to feel a little more autumnal and spooky so why not. Like most of the films in this kind of horror zone (James Wan’s other stuff, Sinister etc) I found it fairly effectively creepy but a little short on personality. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the two investigators are definitely the film’s main strength, I loved how straightforward and matter-of-fact their investigation was (although the real-life couple they’re based on seem like extremely dubious characters). Otherwise, it’s a solid haunted house film that chilled me a little without completely winning me over.
The other unseen ones on the list (which is a bit Recency Bias: The Official List in my opinion): Cabin Fever (no), Hostel (no), The Devil’s Rejects (meh), Paranormal Activity (should probably check this out, another big blind spot), Goodnight Mommy, Suspiria (remake) and Skinamarink. May check out a couple of others over the next few weeks, we’ll see.
Very solid movie though marred by the actual Warrens being con artists and even worse than that.
The actual Warrens are definitely awful, but I’m very charmed by the fictional ones, especially in this first movie (I saw a later Conjuring entry as well, and my gut reaction to that was that this is a franchise with diminishing returns). Farmiga and Wilson have a lovely kind of sweet, lived-in chemistry.
I’m a Paranormal Activity defender–bumpy in spots, unsurprisingly, and with my least favorite horror movie boyfriend of all time, but there’s some really solid horror work there. Paranormal Activity 3 is my personal bright spot in that series, though.
Ooh, and the bar for horror movie boyfriends is not exactly high! Yeah I’m not sure why I’ve never seen one of those, I’ll definitely seek the first one out as we head into the spooky season.
Having run the Conjuring and Annabelle series, “diminishing returns” is kind. Farmiga and Wilson remain solid throughout but the perfect for each other high school sweethearts stuff gets laid on THICK. It took me a bit to get into its groove, but once you dial into it as a theme park’s haunted attraction, Annabelle Comes Home was enjoyable, even if it commits the incredibly common unforced error of showing us the doll moving.
I am a big fan of Skinamarink but if you give it a go, make sure to give it your full attention and try for as theatrical as you can get — dark, big, loud (volume is less of an issue). It’s a movie that really needs to be sunk into on its own rather strict terms.
Can confirm Nüspiria and Skinamarink are worth your time
Star Trek, “The Man Trap” – Sixty years later, and back to the first episode aired on NBC. Ten years ago, I did a weekly “Trek@50” watch-through on the 50th anniversary of the date each episode aired. I don’t think I am doing that again – for one thing, I am neither subscribing to Skydance Inc or sitting through the endless and often annoying ads on Pluto – but it’s good to know that at least for the moment all the old Treks are free to watch. I might occasionally see what random episodes are running on the FAST channels (which might have less commercials). Anyway, how it began for audiences, though the sixth episode filmed, chosen by NBC and Desilu as it had a good degree of action and a monster. It is a pretty good introduction to what is to come: a sci-fi story that is a bit pulpy (and a bit sexist right off the bat), a show with a core cast but at least initially a fair amount of screen time for the supporting cast (oddly not Scotty in this one), and a degree of humanism and thoughtfulness. The salt monster is a threat, but no one is happy it has to be destroyed. Ironically, this one talks about the American buffalo as being extinct by 2266, and many in 1966 thought that would soon be the case. Thankfully, the species has recovered enough that it is no longer considered endangered. Sometimes it’s good to get things wrong.
Elementary, “Ill Tidings” – The title is a quote from Antony and Cleopatra, a quote Joan recites to Sherlock regarding how to broach the subject of breaking up with his girlfriend. Seems Sherlock has realized he simply cannot bring himself to talk to her about his work, and wonders if that means the relationship is doomed. (As the girlfriend makes one more appearance, I guess not doomed yet.) The case, meanwhile, involves several people poisoned with venom at a high toned restaurant, most of whom are part of a select group of experts overseeing internet security for everyone. But their murders and subsequent events are actually all a cover for a daring art heist. Not entirely sure how much sense it makes, but think Die Hard 3 with a lot less kabooms. Guests include Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes, Covert Affairs).
Barney Miller, “Protection” – As the spectre of the 1975 NYC fiscal crisis looms, local merchants actually start paying protection money in preparation for the closing of the 12th Precinct. Thankfully, while Pres. Ford promised to veto any hastily passed bailout package, he also promised to make sure the police could keep on policing. A weird episode that actually uses clips of the inaccurately labeled “Ford to NYC: Drop Dead” speech and tries to capture the moment, but since this is the third time we’ve been through this, it’s not very effective. Though still funny. Ray Sharkey appears as a man who robbed a liquor store and then begs to be sent to prison since he’s more scared of the protection racket than the cops, and Ralph Manza is a retired gangster ran the protection rackets…in the 40s!
If I were not still midway through S1 of Babylon 5, I’d be picking up a ST:TOS rewatch right now: all the anniversary coverage has me feeling tremendously nostalgic for it. The way the salt monster was handled was one of those things they did well with right off the bat.
Live poetry at Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar where I was a featured reader. This is a pretty small dive bar and we were in the back room, with slightly loud sports fans in the front, so it was tricky to hear everyone but I still had a good time. I especially liked Dan Simins who is from Ashland, NH, 30 minutes away from where I grew up, and has written a book called, uh, Ashland. I also met a former member of beloved Jersey punk band The Ergs and it turns out he’s a fan of my work. Geeked out and ended up chatting about being in bands and poetry.
Year of the Month updates:
This September, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1937.
Sept. 18th: Gillian Nelson: Pluto’s Quin-pup-lets
Sept. 20th: Tristan J. Nankervis: The Hobbit
Sept. 22nd: Lauren James: Stage Door
Sept. 25th: Gillian Nelson: Donald’s Ostrich
And here’s all the movies, albums, books from 1998 you can sign up for this October!
Oct. 3rd: Gillian Nelson: Movie Surfers
Oct. 4th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Pi
Oct. 9th: Gillian Nelson: Mighty Joe Young
Oct. 18th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Who Moved My Cheese?
Oct. 30th: Gillian Nelson: Halloweentown
“but also a German shepherd’s severed head gets chucked through a doggy door.”
I think we have a new Oven Cat
Strangely enough, I think here the actual Oven Cat is Mark Wahlberg giving himself a homemade tattoo that says NICOLE 4 EVA. After that point, the dog is just superfluous!