Fear
Clinic (2014/Anchor Bay Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: D Film: C
Robert
Hall's Fear Clinic is a Robert Englund vehicle with an
intriguing first two acts (and premise) but lacks a memorable villain
and any sense of logic as it continues to unfold. This film is based
on a web series of the same name and was partially funded through
online crowd sourcing and has just now graced the home video market.
The
premise of Fear Clinic is almost Cronenberg-ian where a
(brilliant but possibly Mad) Doctor works to cure patients suffering
from crippling phobias by placing them inside his invention (dubbed
the Fear Chamber) which induces and controls hallucinations. Robert
Englund plays Dr. Anover who has found himself weakened by the
'terror' that the fear chamber has inflicted upon him over time.
Supporting
cast in the film is Thomas Dekker, Cleopatra Coleman, Felisha
Terrell, Kevin Gage, and Fiona Dourif as Sarah who have all developed
PTSD after surviving a bloody shooting attack in a small diner by a
black masked shooter, which had the unfortunate side effect of either
worsening pre-existing phobias or developing new ones. Englund's
Fear Chamber helps the patients break consciousness and flash back in
an attempt to figure out whom the shooter was. Unfortunately, a
patient dies in the fear chamber and transcends reality and feeds off
the fear of other patients to become an unstoppable killing machine,
feeding off fear.
Being
a huge fan of '80s horror, I was excited for this film not only by
Robert Englund's mention but by the SFX maestros behind the film
(Steve Johnson and Robert Kurtzman) and was not disappointed in this
regard. The film has some great gore and I was especially impressed
with the makeup on Englund towards the end and the strainy black goo
that soaks out of the black mask in another sequence. The conceptual
design of the Fear Chamber was pretty interesting as well and
reminded me of Cronenberg's The Fly.
I
commend the film for working on a low budget and getting some pretty
cool talent and special effects together but feel like it could have
been more effective with a more terrifying monster and perhaps a
different incident to focus upon rather than a shooting. Cutting
back to the incident (reversing, speeding up the footage, etc.) grows
tiresome after about the fifth time it happens. The bottom line is
that the movie just isn't very scary or memorable. It has a lot
going for it but ultimately ends up being just another bland entry in
the modern horror genre.
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a
lossless DTS-HD 5.1 MA track, the presentation by Anchor Bay here is
pretty impressive for the low budget film it is. The detail is
fantastic through with crisp colors and skin tones and pops out
colors, which is important considering how dark the look of the film
is.
What's
really disappointing about the disc is a lack of extras with only a
Behind The Scenes Feature that is only eleven minutes in length. I
would have enjoyed seeing the webseries that spawned the film on the
disc as a supplement and maybe a look closer at some of the special
effects?
Fear
Clinic is worth watching once if you're curious and way better
than that Nightmare On Elm Street reboot a few years ago...
but is that saying much?
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
