I didn't know about "Fear is Coming" prior to finding it by sheer random luck. And being a big fan of Asian cinema, I did of course jump at the chance to sit down to watch it.
And one would think that a joint effort in the ghost genre between China and Thailand that the outcome would be nothing short of spectacular. Well, it would be in theory. "Fear is Coming" turned out to be, and I am being blunt here, a mediocre and very bland horror movie. It didn't differentiate itself from the numerous other ghost movies that China and Thailand have put out. So it wasn't particularly outstanding or memorable.
The story in "Fear is Coming" was generic, and didn't really offer anything that scary. But I suppose that maybe to the Asian viewers then things happening in this movie might be frightening enough. But for a seasoned veteran of the horror genre, then I found nothing scary about this movie.
Most of the characters in the movie weren't especially interesting, and actually turned out to be somewhat generic and one-dimensional. In fact, you get to know very little about most of the characters, which essentially meant that the characters could have just as easily been replaced by cardboard cut-outs.
"Fear is Coming" featured no one that I was familiar with prior to watching the movie. So it was sort of nice to have totally new faces on the screen. But it was a shame that some of the talents were as mundane as the characters they portrayed. But it should also be said that some of the acting talents were doing great jobs. And the child actresses were especially good in the movie.
And while there certainly was a red thread throughout the course of the movie, it was just something that was too generic and shallow. Most of the events in the movie were just too random and seemed forced and put in there for no particular reason.
However I must admit that it was somewhat of an ordeal to actually sit through the entire movie, because it was just trotting on in a very monotone pace, and very little of any greater interest took place throughout the course of the story.
The cinematography in the movie was quite good, and there were some great visuals here and there throughout the course of the movie. However, don't except to be blown away by a myriad of special effects that will be the envy of even Hollywood.
And what was up with all the snails? What is scary about snails?
The lack of scares and anything even remotely frightening, made for a very generic and bland horror movie. So this is hardly a worthy addition to the horror vault of any fan of the Asian horror cinema. "Fear is Coming" is a movie that doesn't really get under your skin, nor does it tickle you in any of the right places. So a single word is needed to describe director Zhang Yang's movie: mundane.
My rating of "Fear is Coming" is a less than mediocre 4 out of 10 stars.
