Movies
[Tribeca Review] ‘Fear, Inc.’ Forgets to Scare
I think we’ve hit peak twist when it comes to entertainment. “The Twilight Zone” set the bar, and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense took it to a completely new level. Now, after nearly two decades of red herring cinema, it has worn out its welcome. While Vincent Masciale’s Fear, Inc., which just had its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, offers nothing new in this regard, it’s at least entertaining.
Fear, Inc. is carried on the back of Lucas Neff, who plays Joe, a boisterous horror junkie who is desperately wanting to be scared, no, terrified. When a man (played by The Sandlot’s Patrick Renna) overhears his complaints, he offers the aid of a company called Fear, Inc. Joe, who can’t stand monotony anymore, calls the number of the business card, setting off a chain of events that echo classic horror cinema (from Friday the 13th to SAW).
Penned by Luke Barnett, the film is heavy inside baseball, but is glued together by fun characters and a series of horror-related gags. Neff is hysterical, and almost single-handedly makes the film watchable, while the rest of the cast elevate themselves to his energy.
The problem, however, is that Fear, Inc. is trying way too hard to outsmart the viewer, and ultimately ends up muddying up the impact with no actual tonal shift. The film could be likened to Behind the Mask in that, when it’s time to get serious, it never elevates itself. It’s focusing so hard on tricking the viewer that it forgets that its sole job is to be a horror film.
And as twisty as the plot may be, the pic is about as generic as it gets. Still, you could do much worse than Fear, Inc., which at least carries a fun spirit and heart of gold.
Ultimately, the irony here is that Fear, Inc. is about a horror fan wanting to feel something, anything, yet doesn’t offer this courtesy to its viewers.
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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