Director: Jeremy Lovering
Talent: Iain De Caestecker, Alice Englert, Allen Leech
Release Date: 15th November 2013
Jeremy Lovering’s first feature is a low-budget horror film with a simple concept. On the winding backroads of the Irish countryside, holidaying new couple Tom and Lucy (Iain De Caestecker and Alice Englert) struggle to find the secluded hotel they’ve booked into for the night. Things become more and more sinister following the revelation that, at a pit-stop in a local pub, they each have had separate, off-camera altercations with some hostile locals, who may or may not be now toying with them. Lovering allows everything to move at a slow, considered pace, hovering somewhere between tense and, unfortunately, boring, while much of the film’s affect rests on the creditable performances of its lead actors. Sadly, the figurative shark is then shown far too early, sending the film into a mercifully short tail-spin for its final third. In Fear is certainly tense, and occasionally shocking, but horror might be pushing it when your shark is the bloke from Downton Abbey.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
