Lurking 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.

I am always up for a "bad" horror flick. It is generally entertaining, what with pointing out inconsistencies and laughing at the bad monster effects. However, I was not laughing when I saw "Lurking Fear." This was easily the worst "bad" horror movie I've ever seen! The inconsistencies were atrocious, the effects particularly poorly done, and the foley... don't even get me started! As far as Full Moon movies go, this one is a particularly bad example. I have only one "lurking" question remaining... What happened to the baby?

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 loose adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name is nowhere as good as Stuart Gordon's "Re-Animator" or "From Beyond". Although those adaptations also played fast and loose with their source materials (for my money, the only film to really feel like a Lovecraft story is the 2005 faux silent film "The Call of Cthulhu"), but this adaptation fails at even being entertaining. The story involves rival groups of criminals looking to dig up a corpse in a graveyard that's hiding a big stash of stolen money. However, this same night a group of townspeople are planning to dispose of an ancient evil living beneath this very same graveyard. The film boasts a stronger than usual cast for a Full Moon Features production, with Jon Finch ("Macbeth" "Frenzy"), Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator" "The Frighteners", Paul Mantee ("Robinson Crusoe on Mars" "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"), Vincent Schiavelli ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" "Ghost"), and "Hellraiser" star Ashley Laurence, but they are wasted with poorly developed characters, though Schiavelli is a lot of fun in his one-scene appearance at the start of the film. When I rewatched the restored blu ray print of the film, I was struck by the better than expected photography by regular Full Moon cinematographer Adolfo Bartoli ("Trancers" 3-5, "Oblivion" 1-2, "Puppet Master" 3-5, etc.). However, writer/director C. Courtney Joyner ("Doctor Mordrid" "Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge") fails to create much atmosphere and it's unclear if the film wanted to be a serious horror film or wanted to be tongue-in-cheek. It ends up being neither and fails as a whole. FUN FACT! It "The Lurking Fear" was originally to be made by producer Charles Band's earlier company Empire Pictures and directed by Stuart Gordon, which I'm sure would have been a MUCH better film.

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.