Review of In Fear (2013) by Michael G — 22 Mar 2014

The first movie that came to mind when watching In Fear is the first movie filmed for T.V. that kicked off Stephen Spielberg's directing career. It was called Duel and it features a businessman traveling to a meeting on a desert road in the American southwest.

Duel is filled with tension, mystery as the character is chased by a large truck whose driver is never seen throughout the whole movie. It is a cat and mouse the whole way. With In Fear, some of that same suspense can be found, the two main actors are solid, the camera work is strong and the use of sound is effective.

The problem with this film is that the characters continue to make one foolish decision after another. This movie could have used some screenplay rewrites. One of the mistakes I believe is to have two characters in the film instead of one.

In Duel you have one character being chased by a truck and you quickly identify with him. In this movie you never grow to care for either of the characters. You find their actions illogical and some of the plot devices (such as a GPS system that just happens to stop working when they get to the place where they are lost).

Here is where I think you have the main issue. Duel was filmed back in the seventies and so without any technological aids like a cell phone to fall back on you are able to maintain plausibility. But for In Fear we are never given a plausible reason why their GPS or cell phones are not working.

Finally, with Duel you had a great ending that foreshadowed how Spielberg would have his next film Jaws end. Here the ending is nothing worth staying around for.