Fear (1990)

So much average

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Ally Sheedy plays a psychic, who assists the police with locating murderers and helping them to apprehended.In her spare time she writes books, flirts with firemen, and tells Stan Shaw all his memories.Then another psychic comes on the scene, but he's a serial killer, but gets Sheedy to feel the victims fears when they are being murdered. So now its up to her and the flirty fireman to catch him, but he's always one step ahead....For the most part, its a pretty tense movie, and the shadow man is a wondrous creation, but after a tantrum too many, Sheedy becomes a little tiresome, and her little outburst on the plane is deserved of a few choice words.But its a little rare movie. I found this on the horror channel late one night, as over here in the UK, its unavailable on DVD, unless you are willing to pay silly money for it.But overall the film does have a few tense moments, and the fear sharing scenes, are pretty unique, but usurped in Strange Days.The last act in the fair is wonderfully over the top, but just adds to the mix.But it's the best film ever where a woman's psychic ability can tell what her intended wants to eat...

this psychological suspense thriller was way better than i expected.it reminded me a lot of the 1976 movie,the Eyes of Laura Mars,starring Fay Dunnaway.not only is the subject matter very similar,but the style is also the same.instead of just being a normal by the numbers movie about serial killers,this one has the psychic ingredient added to the mix.it's not the first movie to do this.for example the aforementioned The Eyes of Laura Mars,but it does do it well.the suspense is nearly off the charts.the music by Henry Mancini has a lot to do with that.it's also not that predictable in terms of what is happening and how it ends.it isn't gory either.it's all about the suspense,or Fear,if you will.a nice refreshing change from the usual slice 'n dice,hack and slash gore-fests.not that there's anything wrong with that.by the way this is not the movie starring mark Walberg.it's with Alley Sheedy,who's pretty credible in a very serious role.for,me,Fear is a solid 8/10

The thriller genre isn't exactly short of films that feature a psychic tapping in to the mind of a serial killer, and to be honest; I find them rather boring, but Fear isn't too bad as it makes up for it's overused plot with some fairly original ideas. The lead character is not your usual thriller protagonist, due to the fact that Ally Sheedy is not stunningly beautiful. This gives the film something in the originality department...although it loses a lot in the 'eye candy' department, especially since the cinematography isn't all that nice to look at either. The plot focuses on Cayce Bridges; a psychic who helps the police look for serial murderers. When she is brought in to a new case, there is scepticism at first; but after she reveals some intimate details about the detectives, they start to believe her. She does her usual thing with giving them crime scene and evidence details, but the killer 'links' to her without her linking to him. It becomes obvious that Cayce isn't the only one with psychic powers - and pretty soon the killer won't let her go...The film never really tries to be brilliant, and so what we end up with is a merely decent thriller that is happy to play out along the same lines as similar films. This does, however, allow the film concentrate on its own strengths. Director Rockne O'Bannon does a good job of building the suspense, and the fact that the murderer is portrayed through a gritty, sleazy voice makes sure that the film is always creepy and foreboding. The acting is nothing special, Ally Sheedy going through the motions alongside a support cast without a standout performance. The cinematography is nothing special either, and Rockne O'Bannon doesn't really seem to care about the look and feel of the film as the locations don't add anything, and the film doesn't have much in the way of atmosphere when the killer isn't on screen. Overall, Fear isn't terrible in spite of the fact that most of it is lacklustre. There are too many films like this already, so this one was always going to have a hard time standing out. However, there are worse films out there and Fear is almost worth watching.

**SPOILERS** Interesting but uneven thriller that has to do with full-time writer and author and part-time psychic detective young Cayce Bridges, Ally Sheedy,tapping in on a serial killer on the looses in L.A that the local newspaper dubbed "The Shadowman", Pruitt Taylor Vince.At First getting strange visions at a TV talk show where she's pushing her latest book ,about her psychic powers,Cayce cuts the interview short and goes to the police to prevent the killer's latest atrocity. Cayce is snickered at by Det. Webber, Stan Shaw, but when she reveals things about him and his family that only he knows.Det.Webber and his partner Det. Wu, Keone Young, go to the house, that Cayce directs them to, not only finding out that she was right but that they got there too late to save the Shadowmans latest victim."Fear" goes one a step beyond the usual psychic detective movie when it turns out that the Shadowman is himself psychic and knows that Cayce is watching him. Besides killing his victims, which he likes to instill enormous fear into before he murders them, the Shadowman taunts Cayce to try and catch him knowing that she's able to watch him.This weird game of cat and mouse that the Shadowman plays with both Cayce and the police gets very personal when he shows Det. Webber that he not only knows where he lives but that he'll murder his entire family if he and the LAPD dare to apprehend him. Cayce for her part gets crank calls late at night from the Shadowman who by scaring her gives him a high almost as good as the one he gets from his terrifying and murdering his victims.Cayce tries to keep the Shadowman from knowing that she's watching him and when she unknowingly slips up, watching him when he's doing his laundry, he becomes very enraged. Changing from an in-control killer to an out of control psycho almost getting himself caught by he police, that Cayce tipped off on his whereabouts. As Cayce tries to leave L.A for New York City the Shadowman, now strangely hooked on her, murders her booking agent Jessica Mareau, Laura Hutton,and makes her psychically watch the whole grizzly scene threatening to kill one person an hour if she leaves. Cayce has no choice but to stay in L.A and be held hostage, like everyone else in the city, by him. The ending of the movie is it's weakest part when the Shadowman reveals himself to Cayce in a fun-house hall of mirrors,obviously copied from the 1947 Orson Wells movie " Lady from Shanghi", with the killer ending up acting more like a scared slobbering wimp then the brutal cunning and almost omnipresent psycho that he was up until then.