Fear PHarm

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.

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 ostensibly just another Texas-chainsaw-massacre-themed slasher with a dash of jokes on top of a helping of gore.

Four friends are selected for a VIP corn maze and offered a cash prize if they can traverse it in under two hours. Naturally, they discover along the way that the horror characters they encounter are not "just" trying to scare them.

It turns out that the villains actually have a motivation beyond pure bloodlust which brings the movie's title full circle, and it is always a delight to see that at least some thought went into formulating a movie's concept. The ending scene is a wonderful exercise in black humor.

Though the film is decently shot, some directorial choices bring it down, unfortunately. Chief among these, in my opinion, is the prologue. It is not only unnecessary but actually counterproductive. It shows that the villains really are murderous, and thereby destroys any plausible deniability that could have been sustained in the first act of the film by its light-hearted tone and especially the funny "business meeting" introduction of the family. Had we found out that these guys really mean business only once they started hurting our group, it would have been that much more shocking.

Other unwise choices in my opinion were the repetitive panning shots over the corn maze that cheapened the movie's feel, the curious cut-aways during actual gore scenes (was this because of the MPAA?) and some implausible sequences, such as a character whose arm was just amputated reviewing his acting as if nothing was literally amiss.

Also, while there is a colorful band of villains, only some of them are really fleshed out. I had trouble distinguishing between a couple of them.

I think with a few different choices, a better fleshed-out characterization of each member of this family and a tad more creative gore scenes, this could have been a good horror movie. It just missed the mark.

This is about as good as random Amazon prime video horror movies will get. I give it a 3. Lemme explain:

It's an ensemble slasher movie you haven't seen and you crave them because you're a little psycho. +1 star

It's got a cast of stupid ppl you won't care much or at all about so you can watch them ALL die in peace. +1 star

It's got a giant corn maze and some spooky scarecrows, an underutilized combo in horror--sadly. +1 star

It's got some humor that lands and alot that doesn't but it's not bad enough where you would stop watching and rant about it online. +0.5 stars

The acting is Oblivion npc level but that's one of the highest tiers you can get on an Amazon prime random horror movie. +0 stars - Acceptable.

The cast might remind you of a similar "gang" from Philadelphia and that might make it a little more watchable so you could continue to watch them die. +0 stars

They don't die fast and enough and it's slow. -0.5 stars

There's a sequel for no reason, because who asked? Nobody is gonna watch that one. +0 stars.

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.