In Fear

In Fear is a surprisingly effective little thriller about a young couple who get lost on their way to a music festival and cross paths with a sadistic stranger who terrorizes the couple over the course of a night. 

The young couple are Tom (played by Iain De Caestecker) and Lucy (played by Alice Englert). Tom is driving the two of them to join friends at a music festival. However, the night before he surprises her with reservations at a nice, secluded hotel. Thinking it's a sweet gesture, she agrees. The couple take off to the hotel, but the signs directing them there have them driving in circles. Tensions mount between the couple as they try to find their way out of the maze they have unwittingly driven into.

It becomes increasingly clear someone is messing with them. Their paths cross with Max, played chillingly well by Allen Leech, a stranger who quickly becomes apparent is the guy messing with them. The dynamic between between the three reminded me a lot of Philip Noyce's Dead Calm, trading the ocean for the Irish countryside. In that film, a married couple played by Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman sailing alone must contend with a psychotic stranger who crosses their paths, played by Billy Zane. In both cases, the film largely focuses only on three characters for the duration of the film.

I have to concede this is a tight little thriller. The characters are caught in an admittingly unlikely scenario, but within the constructs of it, the characters made decisions that made sense within the situation and didn't fall prey to "thriller logic" where people do stupid stuff with the strict purpose of advancing the plot. These two are stuck in a pretty dire situation and in desperation, everything they do made at least some sense to me. Thrillers either live or die by this for me. 

Apparently, the film was largely improvised with the two main actors unaware of the fates of their characters, which I must admit is an intriguing way to make a thriller. I think it helped the performances of all three actors, especially Englert and De Caestecker who become increasingly terrified as the film goes on. Allen Leech, who I've been a fan of for awhile now for his roles in lighter fare such as Cowboys & Angels and Downton Abbey makes for a genuinely frightening villain. It took me by surprise since he usually plays decent enough blokes. 

Overall, In Fear is a decent little thriller, with three solid performances to anchor the film. It preyed well on my insecurities about getting lost in the middle of nowhere, which may have helped. It had three strong performances from Alice Englert, Iain De Caestecker, and Allen Leech, which only helped make the film better.