Be Afraid

A solid story, good acting and sufficiently spooky!

I enjoyed this movie, with a larger budget it could have been seriously good. The concept and story are pretty solid, interesting and engaging. The characters and actors involved were all very good and believable. I loved the whole idea with the tunnel which reminded me of Absentia which is a superb indie horror.

A family move into a new home and soon after begin seeing strange things. The young child sees a man in a hat in his bedroom and the dad starts having nightmares about creatures. The older son returns home from college and connects with one of the female locals who happens to be the sheriff's daughter.

The younger lad is drawn to a tunnel near the home, it has a memorizing affect on him.

There have been many unexplained disappearances in the town and the sheriffs estranged wife is the subject of ridicule for voicing concerns about strange beings at the corner of your eye.

It all reaches a climax after an initiation prank goes terribly wrong and it appears the sheriff knows more than he's letting on.

Much is sadly unexplained at the end of the movie but all in all I thought it was pretty good.

A medium-budget production.The topic of a little boy or of a little girl who sees "dead people" is quite overused but sometime it still works. This is not one of those times... As I wrote on the summary the movie is pretty much boring....So boring that I stopped to watch it before the end.Not enough action, few and poor special effect,common and predictable dialogues.Btw I guess that if seen by a child it can be a quite scary movie.

Saw 'Be Afraid', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.

Giving 'Be Afraid' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'Be Afraid' is a great film because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings.

'Be Afraid' started off quite well, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue.

Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere.

The setting is effectively spooky and the acting was better than average all round. There are spooky and suspenseful moments and it isn't dull. The direction doesn't feel phoned in.

However, the story was severely wanting. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough, some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point.

Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense, scares could have been more consistent and some weren't surprising enough.

Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a bit of cheese going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making.

Overall, better than expected but not great still. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Took too long getting to the point and then didn't bother to explain anything. Could have been really good. Had decent acting, etc just not enough meat to the plot. If it came on TV and you're looking to kill a couple hours, it's decent but I wouldn't pay to rent or stream it.