La peur qui rode

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.

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...

This movie was typical of a Full Moon Productions movie with average acting at best and a script that could have been better written. However the special effects were good especially the monsters and the cinematography was good as well.

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.

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?