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Reviews for March 7th, 2014

300: Rise of an Empire

Directed by Noam Murro




     

*****Full review coming soon*****


Number of times I checked my watch: 6
Released by Warner Bros.
Opens nationwide.

Awful Nice

Directed by Todd Sklar




     

*****Full review coming soon*****


Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Released by Screen Media Films.
Opens at Quad Cinema.

The Face of Love

Directed by Arie Posin




     

*****Full review coming soon*****


Number of times I checked my watch: 3
Released by IFC Films.
Opens at IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.

Haunt

Directed by Mac Carter




     

*****Full review coming soon*****


Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Released by IFC Midnight.
Opens at IFC Center.

Honey

Directed by Valeria Golino




     

*****Full review coming soon*****


Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Released by Emerging Pictures.
Opens at Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

In Fear

Directed by Jeremy Lovering




      Tom (Iain De Caestecker) and Lucy (Alice Englert), a young couple who just started dating, hit the road to travel to a music festival. They plan to stay at an isolated countryside hotel overnight. After spending some time at a pub, they embark on their rout, but little do they know that something or someone has been terrorizing them as they get lost and travel through back roads in the middle of the night. What or who is terrorizing them? Why are they being terrorized?

      Aside from being scary, any truly great horror film should be grounded in realism, maintain suspense and leave something for the imagination. Alfred Hitchcock understood those basic elements and put them to use quite effectively. The same can be said for director Jeremy Lovering who takes a minimalist plot and squeezes as much horror and suspense out of it as possible while maintaining a sense of realism. Lucy impulsively agrees to travel with Tom even though they've only known each other for a few weeks, but things like that can happen in real life. Many drivers also can get lost on the road just like the protagonists do. What makes In Fear rise above the average modern horror film is that it doesn't resort to cheap devices like "found footage" or reliance on gore. Instead, Lovering relies on your imagination, a far more powerful tool, as a means of generating fear and tension. You know just as much as Tom and Lucy do, so when they're scared, you're scared. When they're confused, you're confused. Constantly not knowing what or who is terrorizing them is huge part of the film's many strengths because it leave a lot of room for interpretation and speculation, i.e. that something supernatural might be going on. No spoilers will be revealed here, though.

      When Roger Ebert once stated that horror doesn't need big stars because the horror itself is the star, he was right. If In Fear were to star Channing Tatum and Jennifer Lawrence it wouldn't be as effective as a horror film because you'd instantly recognize them as stars thereby diminishing the realism. Alice Englert might be somewhat recognizable from Beautiful Creatures, but fortunately she's not a huge star. Nonetheless, she and Iaian De Caestecker both give performances that seem natural----Englert definitely knows how to scream and look scared quite convincingly without going over-the-top. In Fear also boasts impressive production design that makes the most out of its creepy natural settings in the Irish back roads sans excessive reliance on CGI or shaky cam. Although it's available On-Demand and could work on the small screen, it's best to watch this on a big screen in a theater to intensify its many scares.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Released by Anchor Bay Films.
Opens at Quad Cinema.

Sparks

Directed by Todd Burrows and Christopher Folino




     

*****Full review coming soon*****


Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Released by Sideshow Productions.
Opens at select theaters.

Special ID

Directed by Clarence Fok Yiu-leung




     

*****Full review coming soon*****


Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Released by Well Go USA.
Opens at Village East Cinema.


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