Lurking Fear

This movie has buried treasure, gangsters, monsters under a town, is based off of an H.P. Lovecraft story, and stars Jeffery Combs (Re-Animator). Sounds fun right? Wrong. This movie has everything going for it but it fails miserably. The lack of execution is pretty blatant, from the editing, directing and acting, it all falls flat. Even the great Jeffery Combs could not rescue this pile of not so pleasant things. Our main character is probably the worst actor in the film but hey whatever. His character is just released from prison and is in search for his Dad's long lost buried treasure that just so happens to be buried in a town with a bunch of monsters hiding beneath the local cemetery. Eventually are Hero, a bunch of gangsters and some locals barricaded them selves in a church trying to survive from the monsters. This movie should of been Night of the living dead mix with evil dead, but instead we get a boring snooze fest. The reason why it fails is because its trying to be an action horror comedy, but fails at all three. At first glance the film seems interesting but it gets bogged down by its convoluted plot in the second act and you don't even care how this movie ends by the time you get to the third act. The only entertainment in this movie is Jeffery Combs. He is plain awesome. This movie is for Jeffery Combs completist only.

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Hunky Blake Adams plays John Martense, a young man just released from prison. He has no prospects, but good fortune could come his way. He seeks out an old associate of his father, an undertaker named Knaggs (Vincent Schiavelli), who lets him know that in the remote community of Leffert's Corner, there is a cemetery containing a corpse stuffed with money. Martense arrives in this village to find a select few individuals preparing to do battle with the monsters that have been feeding on the citizens for the past 20 years. He is soon joined by Bennett (Jon Finch), his late fathers' ruthless former partner who, quite naturally, also wants the money.

This one has to rate as a misfire. C. Courtney Joyner directs from his own screenplay of the H.P. Lovecraft short story, and it's highly uninspired. It's simply too hard to care about any of the characters here, or the tale being told. One wonders what might have been had Stuart Gordon, creator of some of the best Lovecraft adaptations out there, done this film as was originally planned. A shame, really, because "Lurking Fear" has some amusing and striking Old World type atmosphere (this was shot on location in Romania). But Joyner fails to create any suspense or much in the way of horror. The creatures are rather unimaginative looking. Some gore lovers might be mildly appreciative, though.

Ever reliable Jeffrey Combs is entertainingly eccentric as a local doctor, and it's fun to see "Hellraiser" female lead Ashley Laurence play a badass sort of character. The full name of the man played by the distinctively featured Schiavelli is Skelton Knaggs, a nod to another character actor from genre films of the 40s. (Look, also, for the name "Michael Terence Ripper" in a ledger.) Finch is okay, no more, as the human antagonist. Allison Mackie, Joyners' cousin, gets to have some fun as one of the baddies. Paul Mantee is very good as the local priest. The less said about Adams, the better.

Decent music by Jim Manzie and a short running time (just over 77 minutes) help to keep this from being particularly painful, but if one wants a Lovecraft fix, they can do so much better.

Four out of 10.

...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.

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...