​FEAR INC. (2016) - A FILM GUTTER REVIEW

Dir. Vincent Masciale, USA, 90 mins

The scare attraction is a pretty common thing these days – most tourist towns and cities will have something of the type, and there's an increasing number of rather more specialist trips and locations of the type that seek to offer you some real hardcore scares. Honestly, as strange as it might sound, I'm not a massive fan – maybe I've seen too many horror films over the years to want to inhabit one, or perhaps it's something to do with the particular stripe of horror film that I watch? Whatever the reason, I've been to a few and never quite got the kick out of it that some do.

I am going somewhere with this, because Fear Inc. explores this very idea of the extreme horror experience. The story follows 'charming' goofball Joe, his 'bland but rich' girlfriend Lindsey and their friends David and Ashleigh. When Joe and Lindsey visit a haunted house, horror buff Joe bemoans that it's just not scary enough, which prompts a random onlooker to offer them something a little more intense. He offers a card for Fear Inc, which Joe takes with interest.
 
Flash forward a few days (I think?) and the four friends are gathered together for a small party between them – plenty of booze and drugs to go around, even if the numbers might not be great – which Joe decides to spice up by calling Fear Inc. And it's from there that things start to go severely south...

The concept of a specialist horror experience company that goes too far is an interesting one, but Fear Inc. doesn't really deliver it as effectively as it could. Partly it's because of just how infuriating Joe is as a lead character – he'd fit much better into an animated comedy show in the useless Homer Simpson/Steve Smith/Peter Griffin mode than a personality you're actually supposed to care about or be invested in whether they live or die. That character is a serious dent in this movie – the rest of the individuals in the movie might not exactly be in-depth, but I can at least bear them being on screen. It gets pretty convoluted as it wears on, and numerous things don't really make sense if you pull at those various threads. There are a few solid moments, but much that isn't as exciting or dramatic as it might be, and the ending frustrated me immensely to be honest.
 
In all my years of reviewing, there have been two threads come through – I have a huge respect and admiration for originality, and it drives me to distraction to watch films squander potential. And this one falls into the second category – this could have been really current and really different, but all too often lapses into horror cliché. Throw in a weak cast of characters and some strange plot choices and Fear Inc. ultimately misses more than it hits throughout its ninety minute runtime.

RATING: 4.5/10. I've been cogitating on this one for a few days, and I feel as though the rating for this has maybe slipped a mark or a mark and a half the more I've thought on it. Fear Inc. is low-budget but actually has a decent core idea, yet it's the delivery that lets it down in the end. There are little flashes of inspiration, but it doesn't deliver on numerous fronts – and as a horror fan the depiction of Joe as the responsibility-free, slacker horror buff was pretty excruciating to watch. I'm happy to go almost down the middle – much less would be too harsh but it's just short of average for me.