Fear is a rather on-the-nose title for a horror movie, but that isn’t stopping its HBO Max climb. The title actually fits very well. If it had been called something interesting, its name might offer a false expectation of its quality. It’s generic, on-the-nose, forgettable, and ultimately pointless, just like the attached film. Audiences had similar feelings when Fear dropped into theaters last year. It’s a mess, but HBO offered it a second chance.
Fear Inspires a Different Kind of Horror As It Climbs HBO
HBO Max has a stunning selection of horror films. All the Friday the 13th sequels sit squarely on the service. James Cameron’s Aliens is only available to stream for free on HBO. They’ve got Paranormal Activity, Carrie, Cronos, Sinister, Scanners, The Witch, Under the Skin, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, and more. With those options a few keystrokes away, why would you choose to watch a movie called Fear? The easy answer is the observable bump any streaming offering receives after a theatrical release. If Fear had dropped directly onto HBO Max, no one would have ever seen it. That isn’t to say that anyone saw it in theaters, but its questionable theatrical run guaranteed it some name recognition on the small screen. That run was questionable because the film’s budget isn’t public knowledge. It made $2.1 million, but that could be a victory or a disaster.
Fear follows a handful of friends as they experience their deepest personal terrors. Director, co-writer, and producer Deon Taylor shot the film in 17 days during the pandemic. COVID deserves a “story by” credit on Fear, but it’ll have to settle for providing the tone. The film’s justification for shoving several actors through budget music videos vaguely themed around scary concepts is an airborne plague. The cast includes rapper T.I., 106 & Park host Terrence J, and Vine star King Bach. They’re all passable performers, but the script asks less than nothing of them. Taylor’s direction bears most of the blame. He’s probably best known for Meet the Blacks, a poorly received parody of The Purge. Most of his movies are vaguely in the horror genre, though some are closer to thrills than chills. Fear is utterly unremarkable, suggesting that its place as HBO’s top horror offering will be temporary.
Fear feels like a movie that belongs in the bargain bin of various retail stores. It should come in a pack with a dozen other low-budget attempts at the same genre. It would be one of the better offerings in any average example of that marketing strategy, but it would still be hard to remember more than an hour after the credits rolled. Fear could also be called “Boredom.”
