Shocking Fear

...I went into this movie with an open mind, as I do with most Full Moon movies. I had recently purchased this movie from an online used-vidoe provider. It was in very good condition...I started watching it when I got it (maybe 3 months ago), and couldn't get into it. I was too busy trying to get my daughter to sleep...I feel asleep!

Anyway...Like most early Full Moon pictures, this did seem to have a budget behind it...nothing over the top, but a budget nonetheless. A good ensemble of actors: Jeffrey Combs of Re-Animator and Dr. Mordrid fame, Ashley Laurence of Hellraiser Fame and several others that has been either in a Full Moon picture, or various others. Blake Bailey (Creepy Bill from The Killer Eye) makes his screen debut with this picture. He is a very good, rugged looking actor...I couldn't believe he was in Killer Eye, only because I thought he was the best actor in that total mess of a movie.

As previously mentioned, I have not read the short Story by H.P. Lovecraft (though now I want to after seeing the movie), I thought this story was fresh and unique. This movie started off almost like it was already underway and the audience just walks in all a the same time...It builds with a very gory murder of a very bad actress, who is onan unknown mission to destroy something or someone...1 year later...Her sister, who witnessed her murder, and saved her baby is back to the little cemetary..Questions? what happened to the baby? So, she (Laurence) is back, after "training" for a year to destroy the creature that killed her sister. She kinda looks alot like Linda Hamiltons character in Terminator 2...Over the top Rambo Bitch!

I hate to give away plot like I have noticed most reviewers do... I want people to watch the movie...So I will throw out Key elements to the movie...and Let people decide from there....

1. Acted better than the last 20 Full Moon films one has seen 2. Jeffrey Combs in a comical (not in a bad way) role as a drunk doctor 3. Ashley Laurence's cleavage 4. (for the ladies): blake Bailey without his shirt on...He works out! 5. Criminals Killing people 6. Subhumanoid type monsters...killing people 7. decent plot with twists 8. explosions 9. blood 10. an opening for a sequel that has yet to come to pass

There is more but this is long enough 8 out of 10

4.

At least there weren't fake lasers, the group of bratty ill-prepared teenagers on a trip, excessive profanity. It did have some stereotypical "cool tough guy" acting by some of the actors (eg Catherine played by Ashley Laurence kept racking the slide of her pistol almost every time she drew it). Still she was hot.

Very loosely based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, this Full Moon cheapie deals with an ex-con going to the town of Leffert's Corner to dig up a corpse that his late father stuffed with money. Unfortunately for him, his father's old partners are on his trail. On top of that, Leffert's Corner has been dealing with attacks from underground creatures for years, and they live beneath the very cemetery the money is buried in.

Anyone going into this expecting a faithful Lovecraft adaptation certainly aren't going to find one here. Don't expect a good movie either. Right from the opening scene, we're immediately hit with some horrible acting, and it doesn't get much better from there. The lead (Blake Bailey), who also narrates on occasion, is particularly awful. The only actors who don't come off too poorly here are Allison Mackie as an eccentric femme fatale and Jeffrey Combs as the town doctor. Ashley Laurence (credited as Ashley Lauren for some reason), such a likable heroine in the "Hellraiser" films, is just annoying here as a bitchy Rambo wannabe.

There's a lot of really bad editing in this thing, and the attempts at action suffer for it. What little story there is doesn't come together in any satisfactory manner either. The ending is laughable, especially when you throw in Bailey's final voice-over. Full Moon has managed to churn out a few good movies, but this isn't one of them. I bought the VHS for 50 cents at a video store that was going out of business, so at least it was cheap.

When said viewer took a gander at LURKING FEAR, I couldn't believe I was watching Jon Finch(from my favorite version of MACBETH) and Jeffery Combs(REANIMATOR). LURKING FEAR is dull, contrived, stupid, and ultimately very pointless. Furthermore, the plot hardly resembles Lovecraft, and the electronic score is annoying.

As a horror fan, I was repelled. All of its attempts at humor made my stomach growl, and the horror scenes and effects were lame. If LURKING FEAR were just a bit smarter and had a more satisfying plotline, I could overlook that it is cheap. But, noone seems to mind how bad the film is. All the actors(including Ashley Lawrence from Hellraiser films)don't seem to care. Maybe the producers spent all their money on this cast, because they didn't seem to put more than five bucks into the production budget. Avoid this one, everyone. Its a real bomb.

In LURKING FEAR, a group of greedy crooks, and a ghoul-fighting duo (Ashley Laurence and Jeffrey Combs!) all wind up in the same cemetery for different reasons. When the ghouls begin to rise, the blood hits the fan.

Loosely based on the story by H. P. Lovecraft, this FULL MOON production is a crime drama / horror movie hybrid. The criminals are -mostly- reprehensible, and the monsters are well-realized and fairly unnerving.

Mr. Combs gets to play the drunken doctor, while Ms. Laurence plays her character as a sort of Sarah Connor in the graveyard. The action builds slowly up until the truly explosive denouement.

Another decent creeper from FULL MOON's heyday...