Fear PHarm

The beauty of the slasher subgenre is that they don't always have to be good movies to be great movies. Performances can be hokey, FX can be cheap and silly, the plot can be ridiculous, and it all still adds up to a great viewing experience. Well-executed slashers and the ones that wildly miss the mark can be just as entertaining as the other.

With an "intense" Texas Chainsaw style poster, where does Fear Pharm land? The poster is and isn't a mislead. The movie IS about a strange family that is hunting and abducting teens for their own twisted reason. The movie isn't nearly as intense as the best Texas Chainsaw movies, and it does try to be a bit lighter and intentionally add some comic elements. Nowhere near the pitch-black comedy of Tobe Hooper's original or the OTT style of its sequel though. For me the humour didn't land. This is mostly since it makes the cardinal slasher sin of all the main group of teens being obnoxious. They also make several "meta" horror movies references in their early interactions ("Are we done with the expositional dialogue?") which makes sense in a Scream movie or Cabin In The Woods because it's part of the larger story. Here it is because one of the teens is an actor for some reason. A role that serves no further function in the plot. It's difficult to have fun with characters when they are so unlikable.

There's a similar problem when it comes to the villainous family. With the Sawyers from Texas Chainsaw or the Firefly clan from House of 1000 Corpses, the audience could delight in how wonderfully depraved these people are. Apart from their costumes there is nothing particularly interesting about the Fear Pharm family, and at times I found myself wishing I was having as much fun watching as the actors clearly were playing their roles.

Fear Pharm does get down to business quickly, opening with the traditional slasher tropes of gore and nudity and there's a fun but very brief sequence (the only highlight for me) involving a cheerleader being chased through a corn field by two clowns in an ice-cream truck with a harpoon gun! I wish the rest of the movie was as insane as the end of that sentence. And that's the problem. Fear Pharm is not an extremely well-executed slasher, nor is it bonkers and wild enough to still be a really good time. Sadly, my worst fear was realised with this one. That I'm watching a movie from my most beloved sub-genre that I can't recommend.

• DREW

@WatchItWombat.

It was fun and the premise was fantastic. I've seen a ton of horror films and I've never seen this idea. Was the budget low? Probably. But the fact they did something different is aspiring. Also, never did I once wince at the acting, it was way better than 99.9% of your low budget independent horror films. By far, in my opinion.

Not gonna lie, this movie has literally nothing new to offer to the horror genre. Bad acting, sort of an interesting concept that was pretty much wasted, gore is okay. To be honest, it was just boring. I didn't like the characters or the writing. Call it B-movie Horror if you want, I just call it uninspired.

This movie is a mixed back. Right off the bat you'll realize its chief flaws are the horrible acting, anwful characters, and the even worse dialogue. However if you can get past that (and yes I know it isn't easy), there is actually the making of a semi-decent slasher.

For starters the basic premise is great: teens lost in a corn maze getting hunted down one by one. Honestly I'm surprised more horror movies haven't used this setting. The movie also does a decent enough job of eliminating cellphones without having to rely on the cliche of "no service" and it also comes up with a plausible pitch for why the group splits up. Yes they are still dumb for splitting up but at least there is some logic instead of splitting the group up for the sake of the trope. The villains in the various costumes look great, especially the guys dressed like a creepy scarecrow. And the big reveal for why the villains are doing what they are doing and why they specifically targeted these particular teens is at least unique (I won't spoil it). Is it silly? Of course. Does it raise a lot of questions to the viewer that really makes less and less sense the more you think about it? You bet. But at least it's original and the ridiculousness lends a bit of campiness that makes slashers charming.

If only the characters weren't so gawdawful with the most absolutely cringe lines. At times it can be a little cheeky/so bad it's good, at other times it's just a downright turn off. For some reason this movie really has to hammer home all men are dumb/sexist/toxic to the point one of the villains literally says something to this effect while having to remind the audience over and over that she's so smart and accomplished. Just why? She's already killing people, do we really need a random lecture that she hates men and went to college? And our heroine/final girl is just as bad, trying to come off as some loner tough girl who just always acts like she has a stick up her bum. I really can't tell if she's supposed to be sarcastic or "edgy"but she comes off very rude and acts like everything and everyone is a waste of her time, even tho it's her idea to go to the corn maze in the first place. Her and the villain chick are like two sides of the same horribly-written-characters coin, which makes it really hard to root for her survival. And don't take me the wrong way, the male characters are also written pretty terribly, but they at least have redeeming final moments. The annoying brother who starred in some video and now thinks he's a famous actor At least has a hilarious death in the so bad it's good kind of way. Meanwhile the jock starts off super annoying and can't act, but at least he proves to be loyal and gets an undeserved lecture before his very painful death. Buddy legit died of cringe. Let's poor one out fellas.

Fear Pharm (2020) is a movie that I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a group of teenagers who are coaxed into attending a local Fear Farm in town. It is a unique haunted attraction to make it feel more realistic. It ends up being more real than the teenagers could have imagined.

This movie is directed by Dante Yore (616 Wilford Lane) and stars Tiana Tuttle (Still), John Littlefield (Hulk), Aimee Stolte (Megalodon) and Emily Sweet (Castle Freak).

This has a lot of scenes I thought were well done, enough to recommend seeing it once. The movie is definitely uneven. It felt like the villains were better cast than the victims. The dialogue is a bit inconsistent with some good comedy mixed in. There's time you can't tell if it's bad acting or poorly written dialogue. The horror elements are well done and contain solid gore. There's a skinning scene I thought was well executed and a sequence that had a good use of arrows. Some very entertaining stuff.

Overall, this movie has it flaws but enough worthwhile horror elements that make it a must see for fans of the genre. I would score this a 6/10 and strongly recommend it.