Review of A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012) by Don R — 26 Jun 2014

Jack's a writer with a dark secret. But now his demons are taking over, unless one man finds the courage to fight back.

Not bad of a movie! A Fantastic Fear of Everything is probably not what you're expecting from Simon Pegg. It's not horrifically funny like Shaun of the Dead, as outright entertaining as Hot Fuzz and, mercifully, it's not as tepid as Run Fat boy Run or as stagnant as Paul or Burke and Hare. Actually, it's not very funny at all to start with. Well, it's a journey and if you decide to embark upon it you'll need to see it through to the end to decide if it was worthwhile. A Fantastic Fear of Everything is far from being a perfect movie but it's a solid, enthralling film that hints at the possibility of Crispian Mills becoming a very fine filmmaker indeed and a hero of the off-kilter cinephiles who are tired of Tim Burton's ever-downward spiral and in need of someone new to rely on for their fix of surrealism.

Jack is a children's author turned crime novelist whose detailed research into the lives of Victorian serial killers has turned him into a paranoid wreck, persecuted by the irrational fear of being murdered. When Jack is thrown a life-line by his long-suffering agent and a mysterious Hollywood executive takes a sudden and inexplicable interest in his script, what should be his big break rapidly turns into his big breakdown, as Jack is forced to confront his worst demons; among them his love life, his laundry and the origin of all fear.