''Fear Clinic'' is a 2014
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
by
Robert Green Hall, based upon the web series
of the same name. The movie, which was partially funded through
crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
, stars
Robert Englund as a psychiatrist that tries to cure phobias by using extreme methods. The film received its world premiere on 22 October 2014 at the
Screamfest Horror Film Festival
Screamfest Horror Film Festival is a horror film festival founded by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in August 2001. It runs over ten days during the month of October and is hosted at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Los Angeles, Ca ...
and was released on DVD in the United States on 10 February 2015.
Plot
Sara (
Fiona Dourif
Fiona Christianne Dourif (born October 30, 1981) is an American actress and producer. She is known for her role as Bart Curlish in BBC America's ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' and as the young Diane Jones in Dustin Lance Black's ''W ...
) is one of five people that developed
PTSD after surviving a bloody shooting attack in a small diner by a masked shooter, which had the unfortunate side effect of either worsening pre-existing
phobias or developing new ones. Like the others, she sought treatment from Dr. Andover (
Robert Englund), a brilliant scientist and doctor that developed a new way of treating fear-related ailments by way of his "Fear Chamber". Initially the treatments seemed to be a success, but years later the patients have all returned to the clinic due to their fears re-emerging worse than they had before. After urging from her best friend Megan (
Cleopatra Coleman), Sara returns to the clinic as well. Andover is reluctant to resume treatment because one of his previous patients, Paige (
Bonnie Morgan
Bonnie Patricia Morgan is a female contortionist and actress.
Early life
Morgan was born to actor Gary Morgan and grew up in a family of circus performers. She has a sister, Molly, who is also an actress. She is a professional body manipulato ...
), died as a result of her treatment in the Fear Chamber. He ends up giving in due to both the patients and his assistant Osborn (
Felisha Terrell
Felisha Terrell (born March 16, 1979) is an American film and television actress.
Background
Terrell grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She was born to a European American mother and African American father. Terrell obtained her degree from the Univer ...
) insistence that this is the only way to solve their problems. However he finds that his reluctance may have been well-founded as one of the patients, Caylee (Angelina Armani), vomits a black substance that gives Andover a strange vision once he touches the fluid. The vision shows a monstrous version of Paige that states that Andover's treatments opened a passage for a sinister being to come over and that all that it needs to finish its travels is for Andover to resume treatment and "open the door". Realizing that this is not Paige but the creature itself, he is shocked back to consciousness.
While settling in, a new patient by the name of Blake (
Thomas Dekker) arrives in the clinic. His mother reveals that he was also one of the victims of the shooting, but that he had only recently began to develop severe
night terrors
Night terror, also called sleep terror, is a sleep disorder causing feelings of panic or dread and typically occurring during the first hours of stage 3–4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and lasting for 1 to 10 minutes. It can last long ...
that she believes are related to the attack. Blake is unable to communicate with others due to a head wound that left him with a brain injury that has limited his mobility and made him need a wheelchair. Andover begins treatment on Blake, which they discover has the unintended side effect of healing his brain injury and giving him the ability to speak once more. This, along with his earlier vision of Paige, makes Andover believe that something sinister is at work and that Blake's miraculous healing only occurred so he could once more feel fear, which the creature needs to exist. Megan, who had previously checked herself in the clinic before and has now done it again to be with Sara, has a small cyst on her back and has Osborn cut into it. Osborn sees that the same black fluid that Caylee vomited earlier is leaking from Megan's wound. Andover begins to suspect that Blake is hiding something, as Blake is reluctant to discuss some elements of the shooting during a therapy session. This proves to be the case after Blake discovers a mask identical to the one worn by the shooter. A series of flashbacks reveals that Blake was not a victim of the shooting but the perpetrator himself and that his head wound was a botched suicide attempt. Wandering through the building, Sara discovers Andover's records where he states that the creature is actually a manifestation of fear and that his Fear Chamber was effectively starving it of what it needed to survive: more fear.
Andover is pulled into a strange cocoon-like structure on the wall, which enables the fear creature to take over his body. Meanwhile, Blake ended up succumbing to the influence of fear and becomes the shooter once more. He then proceeds to murder one of the clinic's employees while the fear creature incapacitates or kills several of the clinic's inhabitants through its influence. Sara encounters Blake, who chases her until she remembers a statement Andover made about Paige- that her time in the Fear Chamber incapacitated her but that she did not die until her eyes were closed. Sara realizes that although this killed Paige, it also deprived the fear creature of its food source. She manages to close Blake's eyes. She then does so to Caylee, Bauer (
Corey Taylor
Corey Todd Taylor (born December 8, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter and actor. He is the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Slipknot (band), Slipknot, in which he is designated #8, as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the ...
) and Osborn, but the creature attacks her before she can get to Megan. Dylan (
Brandon Beemer) kills himself, depriving the creature. Sara saves Megan's life and closes her eyes, after which Andover is freed from the influence of the fear creature- only for him to say that this is not over and that the creature will only return and try to open the door once more. Sara replies that the only thing left is to "change the locks", and the film ends with Andover stepping into the Fear Chamber to receive treatment while Sara oversees the process, reversing their positions.
Cast
*
Robert Englund as Dr. Andover
*
Thomas Dekker as Blake
*
Kevin Gage as Gage
*
Fiona Dourif
Fiona Christianne Dourif (born October 30, 1981) is an American actress and producer. She is known for her role as Bart Curlish in BBC America's ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' and as the young Diane Jones in Dustin Lance Black's ''W ...
as Sara
*
Cleopatra Coleman as Megan
*
Brandon Beemer as Dylan
*
Felisha Terrell
Felisha Terrell (born March 16, 1979) is an American film and television actress.
Background
Terrell grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She was born to a European American mother and African American father. Terrell obtained her degree from the Univer ...
as Osborn
*
Bonnie Morgan
Bonnie Patricia Morgan is a female contortionist and actress.
Early life
Morgan was born to actor Gary Morgan and grew up in a family of circus performers. She has a sister, Molly, who is also an actress. She is a professional body manipulato ...
as Paige
*Angelina Armani as Caylee
*
Corey Taylor
Corey Todd Taylor (born December 8, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter and actor. He is the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Slipknot (band), Slipknot, in which he is designated #8, as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the ...
as Bauer
*Ryder Gage as Kevin
Production
In 2011 Hall announced that he was interested in creating a feature-length version of the webseries. The movie would expand upon the basic story of the original series and bring back Englund,
Danielle Harris and
Lucas Till. The original ''Fear Clinic'' had in fact been intended as a feature-length film, entitled ''Fear Chamber'', but was turned into a shorter episodic format.
Hall raised part of the funding for this film by using the fundraising site
Indiegogo, and actress
Fiona Dourif
Fiona Christianne Dourif (born October 30, 1981) is an American actress and producer. She is known for her role as Bart Curlish in BBC America's ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' and as the young Diane Jones in Dustin Lance Black's ''W ...
and
Slipknot's Corey Taylor
Corey Todd Taylor (born December 8, 1973) is an American musician, songwriter and actor. He is the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Slipknot (band), Slipknot, in which he is designated #8, as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist for the ...
were confirmed to be performing in the film. Harris and
Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder (born April 8, 1955)According to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905–1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com is an Americ ...
, initially intended to reprise their roles, later withdrew from the project.
Filming began in
Medina, Ohio
Medina ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Medina County, Ohio, United States. The population was 26,094 at the 2020 Census. It lies about 33 miles (53 km) south of Cleveland and 23 miles (37 km) west of Akron within the Clevelan ...
during December 2013 at a former nursing home and a local
diner
A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...
.
Of the film's script, Hall commented that it would be darker and more surreal in tone than the web series. Shortly after ''Fear Clinic'' moved into post-production, the distribution rights were picked up by
Anchor Bay Entertainment and it released in October 2014. The
special effect
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
s were created by
Steve Johnson.
Reception
Critical reception was mixed. We Got This Covered panned the film as "underwhelming", writing "''Fear Clinic'' is an ambitious project stitched together by unsteady hands, as the threads holding everything together threaten to unravel come the film's end." In contrast,
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
praised the film, which they felt "
asn'tan amazing film, but
adenough interesting ideas going on with some pretty great practical effects that make it a slightly above average film."
References
External links
*
*
* {{Rotten Tomatoes, fear_clinic_2014
2014 films
2014 horror films
Films shot in Ohio
2010s English-language films