''In Fear'' is a 2013 British

psychological horror Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subge ...

film directed and written by Jeremy Lovering. The movie premiered on 20 January 2013 at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

. It stars

Iain De Caestecker Iain De Caestecker ( ; born 29 December 1987) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying Leopold Fitz/The Doctor in the television series '' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. He is also known for his roles in Coronation Street as Adam Barlow ...

and

Alice Englert Alice Allegra Englert (born 15 June 1994) is an Australian actress, director, writer, singer, and songwriter. She is best known for her roles as Rosa in the film ''Ginger & Rosa'' (2012) and Lena Duchannes in the film '' Beautiful Creatures'' ( ...

as a young couple terrorised by an unknown assailant.

Plot

After dating for just two weeks, Tom (

) invites Lucy (

) to go with him and some friends to a festival. The night before, Tom plans to take Lucy to the Kilairney House Hotel, which he booked online and is hidden away on a series of remote roads in the Irish countryside. Before making their way to the hotel, the couple stop at a pub and a confrontation occurs between Tom and some of the locals. On the empty back road to the hotel, Tom and Lucy find themselves going in circles despite following the signs and their

satnav A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pre ...

stops working. They eventually realise that they keep returning to the same point no matter which route they take and are unable to find their way back to the main road. Strange things begin happening, including Lucy spotting a man in a white mask and someone attempting to grab her from the darkness. While speeding down the road away from their attacker, Tom clips a man in the road. He and Lucy pick up the man, who says his name is Max (

Allen Leech Allen Leech (born 18 May 1981) is an Irish actor best known for his role as Tom Branson on the historical drama series ''Downton Abbey'' and as Paul Prenter in the 2018 biopic ''Bohemian Rhapsody''. He made his professional acting debut with a ...

). Max claims to be under attack by the same people stalking the couple. However, he is eventually revealed to be the true culprit. Tom kicks Max out of the car following a harrowing confrontation and Max breaks Tom’s wrist in a subsequent fight. Lucy and Tom take their torches to hide in the woods from him when their car runs out of petrol. In the darkness Tom is grabbed and disappears. Lucy returns to the car alone and finds a petrol can in the front seat. After refilling the tank and with the satnav now mysteriously working again, Lucy drives on and eventually finds the hotel, but discovers that it is abandoned. The car park is a graveyard of derelict cars, suggesting that she and Tom are not the first victims. Max returns in a

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rove ...

and pursues Lucy. When Lucy is able to stop the car, she finds a tube running from the exhaust pipe into the boot. She opens the boot and discovers Tom bound inside, dead from

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simpl ...

poisoning from the tube forced into his throat. As day breaks, Lucy finds the way back to the main road, but as she drives over a lonely moor towards it she sees Max standing in road in the distance. Max stretches out his arms and smiles at her. Lucy slams her foot on the pedal and accelerates towards Max.

Cast

as Tom *

as Lucy *

as Max

Production

Although set in the Irish countryside, ''In Fear'' was filmed on and around

Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor ( kw, Goon Brenn) is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a sl ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

and at Blackborough House in Devon. Actors

and Iain De Caestacker were not told what would happen to their characters during filming, other than the basic setup of the story. Many of their shocked reactions were genuine and not acted. The film was also shot in sequence to better achieve this.

Soundtrack

performs the song ''Conversation With Death'' that plays over the end credits.

Reception

Critical reception has been mostly positive. , the film holds an 84% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 58 reviews with an average rating of 6.73 out of 10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Compact and effective, In Fear offers discerning horror fans a smart and disturbing plunge into the depths of cinematic anxiety." It has a score of 66 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, based on 14 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews". Much of the film's praise centered around the camerawork, and ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'' commented that "Lovering's camera setups turn an already tight car into an increasingly claustrophobic setting". ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' gave a mixed review for ''In Fear'', remarking that it had "atmosphere and enough proper scares to deliver on the promise of its title" but that it was also "contrived and nothing new plot-wise".

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, in_fear_2013, In Fear 2013 films 2013 horror films 2013 horror thriller films 2010s psychological horror films 2013 psychological thriller films Big Talk Productions films British horror thriller films British psychological thriller films Films about couples Films set in Ireland Films set in the 21st century Films shot in Cornwall Films shot in Devon Films scored by Daniel Pemberton 2010s English-language films 2010s British films