It's a strange phenomenon when obscure films are released
and somehow they end up getting sequels. How dothese kinds of events happen in
the time of the 1990s? When The Fear (1995) came out, it wasn't a smash hit nor
did it even gain marginally favorable reviews. It was a horror film that had a
unique concept but lacked any kind of vision to help make it feel largely
different from that of others in the same genre. The one aspect to the film
that still remains a highlight was the antagonist named Morty; the wooden
mannequin. Somehow, somewhere, someone found this movie to be groundbreaking
and demanded a sequel be made. Not sure how this was accomplished with the
absence of social media and internet reviews. But whatever. It's not like it
was worth it. This followup is by no means any improvement to the original.
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| Gordon Currie |
As like the original, the plot is very similar. A group of
adults venture into a house for a weekend getaway during the Halloween season.
The leader of the group, Mike (Gordon Currie) is seeking to rid himself of post
traumatic stress. When he was young, he witnessed his mother's death after his
father (Garvin Cross) axed her and kidnapped him. Now he's taking his soon to
be wife Peg (Stacy Grant), her brother Chris (MYC Agnew), Mitch (Phillip Rhys),
Jennifer (Emmanuelle Vaugier), LisaAnne (Kelly Benson), Ned (Brendan Beiser)
and Trish (Rachel Hayward) all to his grandma Mams (Betsy Palmer). There, they
plan on all facing their fears with the help of Crow (Byron Chief-Moon) and his
friend Morty (John Paul Fedele). Written by Kevin Richards, the script doesn't
try anything new with this plot.
There is barely a drive in this plot. The execution by Chris
Angel as director has the same setup to that of the first film. All the
characters come together for a ceremony to embrace their fears only to have
Morty let loose on them. The fears the group have don't even vary from that of
its predecessor. What is the point in rehashing the same material? Richard's
script doesn't make sense from the beginning either. Mike's father kills his
mother and yet when it's displayed on screen, it looks as though Mike's mother
stumbled across a stranger who killed her. What was Mike's father doing out in
the wilderness? How did Mike escape his rampaging father? None of that is
explored or explained. Not even an exposition dump as some people say. What's
even worse is how oblivious some characters are.
An example of this is when Crow explicitly says that a
certain mystical item needs to be around Morty for it to keep the evil inside
it at bay. However when the object is removed without him knowing, he doesn't
realize until much later. Really? We can't be this neglectful. Yet even with
these problems, there are a couple of noteworthy things. For 1999 and from what
the film looked like it had budget wise, the physical and special effects don't
look too bad. The Morty prop and suit worn by Fedele is about the same in
visual texture as was the old suit from the first film. Although it's a tad
redder in color. Sometimes it even looks like when the prop is still, someone
is actually sitting in makeup. The special effects for this film are used more
for Morty's physical transformations. Whether that be morphing his hands or
entire body.
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| "I look convincing right Mike?..........right?" |
The cinematography to this picture though was rather
unimpressive. Taking place in a similar setting to that of the original,
nothing feels different about it. Shot by Brian Pearson, the camerawork is okay
but just isn't enough to truly make the experience engaging. Mike, the
protagonist also suffers from dizzy spells, where the screen will become wavy
but that's about the only added feature. Pearson also worked on projects like
Final Destination 5 (2011) and Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015). Then there's Robert
O. Ragland who composed the score to this franchise (I can't believe I typed
that) once more. And it's alright for what it's worth. It's has some deep
thumping bass notes at points and can add some suspense to certain scenes.
After all he did work on the original movie and Grizzly (1976).
Points Earned --> 4:10
