Fear Clinic

I wanted so much to like this but I just couldn't get into it. The actors were great, the effects were pretty cool and setting was right on. But the storyline was a bit weird and hard to follow in some areas.

After an experimental phobia treatment is stopped, a group of people find their nightmares returning and seek the aid of their original doctor and his specialized machine, unaware of the dangers with starting it up again.

This was a decidedly disappointing and uneven effort. What really tends to hold this one back is the overall lack of feeling like this one was a true horror film, as it's only in the final minutes where this one goes for that kind of feeling and really loses a lot of steam on the rest here without this one really going for the horror. The first half here is simply boring about the group finding their fears coming back and trying to cope with the reluctance to start using up the machine again, which is compounded by this one simply going off on useless tangents about the staff and the patients' lives that aren't in the least bit horror-based and let it really lose steam as it gathers along trying to gain some momentum about the machine but it just falls apart due it's decided non-use that keeps this one from really doing anything. This is due mostly to this one taking place more as a drama about the power of fears potentially taking over a person rather than actually doing anything horrific to showcase that, leading to more scenes here featuring everyone going around talking about how to get them over their fears or him trying to get the nerve to use his machine again rather than letting loose and really showing it off, which makes this one feel quite slow-paced and drawn-out. Likewise, the finale is pretty over-done with the rather lame and tedious CGI that comes barreling out of nowhere to look so out-of-place in what's going on that there's a real sense of being dragged out of time with it when the creature shows up which is so painfully obvious here it takes a lot of the potential fear out of it, along with the lame pacing of the scenes draining a lot of suspense taking forever to get going and a disorienting effect of flickering lighting throughout these scenes that makes it nearly impossible to focus on anything. These here are enough to drag this one down enough that the few flaws here aren't really given all that much weight. About all that works for this here is that utterly delirious final half when the fears come out to haunt the facility and there's plenty of suspense in trying to get out, some great action with the creature chasing them through the hallways and corridors and offering up some utterly schizoid images that makes for a truly thrilling time here. It's just too little too late against the other flaws here.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, a strong sex scene and strong drug use.

Fear Clinic, loosely based on a series of shorts that appeared on the now defunct Fearnet, stars horror legend Robert Englund in his best role in years as a once celebrated doctor obsessed with curing humans of fear. But when an early, seemingly successful test group comprised of traumatized survivors of a mass shooting begins to not only regress but get worse, he begins to seriously doubt the validity and even safety of his methods.

However, this doesn't stop his test groups' faith in him. They all return to his clinic for further treatment, being locked up in a weird, sensory deprivation tank and forced to face their fears. But something evil, even supernatural, is lurking in the abyss he thrusts his patients into. It is fear itself, hence the title.

Feart Itself is fairly above average for low budget horror, but you really have to be patient with it. In fact, I have to say the filmmaker, the man behind the middling Laid to Rest movies, requests an unreasonable amount of patience from his viewers. It does not help that movie's production design is atrocious, all neon green lights and phony looking scientific equipment that reminds of the worst elements of 80's horror.

That's the bad part. The good part is that movie has a really good cast behind it. Robert Englund, in a role very different from his mad scientist portrayal in the original Fear Itself series, does a really good job as the benevolent but uncertain doctor. The female lead, Fiona Dourif (who was last seen costarring with her father Brad Dourif in Curse of Chucky) is an outstanding and unconventional horror heroine, more believably smart and capable than most of the female leads in these types of movies. Thomas Dekker also does a fantastic job portraying a troubled young man with a traumatic brain injury. Rounding out the cast are mostly adequate, if not entirely impressive, supporting players like Kevin Gage (Strangeland, Heat) as a crotchety maintenance man, Corey Taylor (that's right, the lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour in his first film, and he probably shouldn't quit his day job) as the hotheaded chief orderly, and several vaguely familiar actors as the other patients.

The cast, along with a really solid third act that includes a genuinely surprising twist and some cool creature FX from Robert Kurtzman, make this worth watching for horror fans, but just barely. The movie has major pacing problems, a weak first half, and can never overcome its low budget trappings but it shows glimmers of promise from almost everyone involved making this a more or less entertaining, watchable low budget horror movie.

For a low budget film, Fear Clinic respectably produces several good horrors, they even resemble high fantasy at times. However, aside from the fast introduction early on, the plot stutters with repetitive scenes and the actors' performances are too often flimsy. The concept and visual are decent enough, but the movie just feels that it loses momentum as it progresses and eventually doesn't conclude as strongly as it opens.

Story follows a doctor who has made a method to deal with fears. He would put people inside a chamber and let them experience virtual enactment of said phobia. Problem arises after several people begin to see strange things even when they are not connected to the machine. The first act is arguably the best part, since it delivers a good hook and fast enough for people to invest in.

Unfortunately, the plot suffers from awkward development. Scenes would feel jumbled and needlessly recurring, mostly because the editing is poor. After the initial build-up, the characters are interacting with the excitement of telemarketer or frantic over-the-top. It seems odd since there's barely any coherency between each scene, the characters' reactions appear to be unexpectedly random.

For what it's worth, it has a few good moments. When the visual is accommodating, the thrill is presented admirably. A couple of events look like they belong to sci-fi or fantasy film, or even another higher quality production. It's unfortunate that the film only produce these instances briefly.

Fear Clinic couples together decent concept and presentation, it's just not done consistent enough as it deteriorates anticlimactically.

I was pretty disappointed by this film. It wasn't as bad as it could have been since there are some big stinkers out there, but it also could have been a lot better. If you're expecting closure from the web series, look elsewhere. This movie ignores anything that happened before and reinvents the story for a new audience. That isn't entirely bad since it gives the story a chance to reinvent itself, but the problem here is that what we're given doesn't really live up to expectations.

Englund does a pretty good job here and part of me really enjoyed seeing a more sympathetic Anders, but the lack of a cold, calculating Anders willing to achieve results by putting lives in jeopardy was what made the web series so much fun. He wasn't necessarily a sadist, but this posed a good question as to what would happen when things went south and the man in charge is already willing to put people in danger to forge new ground. In a way he was one of the web series's monsters.

The ending wasn't awful, but by the time the film ended I was already ready for the closing credits. There are some great special effects here and everyone tries really, really hard, but this just didn't work out and I can't help but think that this would have fared better as a web series rather than a film.