FEAR is a virtual reprise of the '70s Faye Dunaway movie THE EYES OF LAURA MARS, about a psychic who has a connection to various serial killers. This concept has been repackaged and reworked to fit in with then-booming psycho-thriller genre, so this time around we get a young psychic woman who engages in a battle of wits with an equally psychic serial killer.
Said starlet is played by none other than Ally Sheedy (WAR GAMES), pretty effective here as the old-before-her-years woman gifted with a talent she never asked for. I particularly liked the way the film avoids the usual clichéd scenes of the psychic character railing against their power and struggling to come to terms with it. This time around, she knows it's her gift and she gets on with it.
Sadly, the film is less effective than it should be, thanks to a play-it-safe script and direction from Rockne S. O'Bannon (a guy who cut his teeth as script editor on the similarly lacklustre THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE). I mean, it's not bad, but it's not as good as LAURA MARS and given the concept it should be a heck of a lot better. We get good performances from Sheedy and the likes of Stan Shaw in support, although Pruitt Taylor Vince is underutilised and hardly menacing. The murky blue "psychic" vision shots also date this one to the year in which it was made.
Said starlet is played by none other than Ally Sheedy (WAR GAMES), pretty effective here as the old-before-her-years woman gifted with a talent she never asked for. I particularly liked the way the film avoids the usual clichéd scenes of the psychic character railing against their power and struggling to come to terms with it. This time around, she knows it's her gift and she gets on with it.
Sadly, the film is less effective than it should be, thanks to a play-it-safe script and direction from Rockne S. O'Bannon (a guy who cut his teeth as script editor on the similarly lacklustre THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE). I mean, it's not bad, but it's not as good as LAURA MARS and given the concept it should be a heck of a lot better. We get good performances from Sheedy and the likes of Stan Shaw in support, although Pruitt Taylor Vince is underutilised and hardly menacing. The murky blue "psychic" vision shots also date this one to the year in which it was made.