Check out Archie Dait’s Nothing Left to Fear review after the break.
“honestly, doesn’t anyone view massive, creepy houses before moving in anymore?”
I’m always fascinated by horror films, and what drives me to watch them. It’s interesting that many people I know and I watch horrors to test our courage; to see if we will be scared it. I think it’s strange that we seek out these experiences. So I jumped at the opportunity to review Nothing Left to Fear by Anthony Leonardi III. My first impression of the film from its opening scene was pretty positive. I could forgive the first cliché of a happy young family getting lost in a strange town on the way to moving into their grand new house (honestly, doesn’t anyone view massive, creepy houses before moving in anymore?) because the film looked to have been well made.
It is unfortunate then that the film plummeted downhill from there. With the exception of James Tupper, I thought the cast were extremely wooden. I found it difficult to connect with the characters because although they were meant to appear like a close knit family, they came across as flat strangers shoved into the same predicament. I also found some of the decisions made by characters baffling at times, particularly in the climactic scenes, which without spoiling the film, left me thinking ‘why on earth would you do that in this situation?’ I think it was this lack of sense that some of the characters showed that left me feeling bewildered rather than fearful.
It wasn’t just the character’s decisions in the script that left me baffled; I was equally perplexed at some of the creative decisions made during the ‘scary’ scenes. Protagonist, Rebecca has a couple of nightmares in the first half of the film before the real horror sets in. These scenes had the potential to be shocking if they hadn’t gone on for so long. These scenes were extended beyond the realms of terror, and ended up being laughable. If the director had left these scenes as brief flashes of disturbing images they would have had a much greater impact.
All this is a bit of a shame because where the film really shone was in the montage sequences between Rebecca and Noah, played by Rebekah Brandes and Ethan Peck, particularly the first sequence where they spend time together soon after meeting for the first time. The framing, lighting and editing was absolutely gorgeous and really stood out for me. It goes to show that the creators are indeed talented when it comes to cinematography, but perhaps they got the genre wrong.
Overall thoughts:
I have to say though, as bad as the story elements were, I was still interested to see how it ended, so the film did manage to grip me. I couldn’t call the ending totally satisfying but it certainly wasn’t the worst bit of the film, which is a compliment as I have watched many a horror which crumbles with the poor choice of ending. If the characters were better thought out, and some of the scenes better cut, I think this film could have been a decent horror.