Director: Anthony Leonardi III,
Starring: Anne Heche, James Tupper, Ethan Pack, Rebekah Brandes, Carter Cabassa, Wayne Pere, Jennifer Stone, Clancy Brown,
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Certificate: 15
NOTHLING LEFT TO FEAR boasts Slash, of Guns ‘N’ Roses fame, as one of its producers, but this seems to be the most exciting part about this fairly solid yet run of the mill horror. A pastor (Tupper) and his family move to a new town to relieve the current pastor (Brown) of his duties. The religious and waelcoming community isn’t all it appears to be though, and the family may very well be in great danger.
The story sounds very familiar, but at least it also removes a lot of the formulaic nonsense from its script, making it a much tighter affair. You would imagine the kids object to the move as well as bickering a lot, with a teenage rebel of a daughter and the like, but none of these tired clichés are used and it’s great to see a family with which you can truly connect and care about. Despite centering around a religious family, the film is actually very subtle with how it handles the themes of faith and belief. There’s no preaching from the parents, and screenwriter Jonathan W.C. Mills has obviously worked hard on creating a believable family with which to empathise.
The horror is handled less subtly. The first villager the family come across acts weird and aggressive to begin with, while lingering shots focus on the slaughter of sheep, and our protagonist Rebekah (Brandes) has dreams of disturbing faces that are too heavy on the CGI. The horror also escalates far too quickly, and although I’m bored with clueless victims being tormented for weeks before doing something about it, in NOTHING LEFT TO FEAR there’s no mid-point between getting to know the family and all hell breaking loose. This results in cast members being wasted, such as a very capable Anne Heche who ends up doing very little.
In some ways I can respect the suddenness of the events, as I would imagine that actual creepy groups of people are hardly going to wait around. Sad to report then, that this brave move harms the pacing of the entire film. The film also lacks any truly shocking moments. You know exactly when dream sequences are dream sequences, when scares will be resolved, and how the events are going to turn out. It’s also clear what the motives are from very early on, which may simply be from the labelling of the genre, but it still equates to a dull and unsurprising narrative.
Technically the film is very well put together. The music is haunting and sets the tone perfectly, with the bright cinematography from early on wonderfully juxtaposed against a dark second half. The performances are also very well handled, with a surprising range of emotions on show at times. For those looking for a decent enough horror, then NOTHING LEFT TO FEAR may very well tick the boxes, but it’s doubtful it will be a memorable experience.
[usr=2]NOTHING LEFT TO FEAR is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 17th February.
