In Fear

(2014) ***

After dating only two weeks, Tom asks his new squeeze Lucy to go with him to a music festival. Unbeknownst to Lucy, Tom made plans for the two to spend a romantic night at a remote inn in the Irish countryside prior to the festival. On route they stop at a pub where Tom gets into an argument with some of the locals. As they head to the inn Tom follows signs that take them on a maze of increasingly secluded roads. Despite following the (misleading) signs they are never able to reach their destination. Instead they appear to be going in circles. As night begins to fall, the two begin to bicker. Stopping to get out of their car in an attempt to gain their bearing they are alarmed when they see shadowy figures in the forest. Later a tree nearly falls on their car. Is someone after them? Soon they meet up with another person who claims that he is also being followed. After accepting Tom’s offer to drive with them things start to get weird.




Director Jeremy Lovering has made a taught, deft little story that proves once again that you don’t need a large budget to create chills and that less is more in these types of stories. Most of the time the characters are in their car as they encounter various scares, (it might be argued that they should never get out of their car) and although this might sound tedious it’s not. It is an interesting exercise to watch two people who barely know one another deal with a threatening situation. My two nitpicks are that the characters don’t always behave the way normal people would behave in similar circumstances (stay in the damn car!) and the final shot of the film is nonsensical. Still, this is creepy movie that will hold your attention to the very end.