Le Fear (2010)

I get a lot of independent movies in the mail to review.  Most of them are made by filmmakers that think they are clever and have done something amazing.  Sadly most of those filmmakers couldn’t be more wrong.  Then I get something like Le Fear, which really is something different and creative and it makes wading thru the mediocre stuff worth it. 

Le Fear isn’t a horror movie, but is a movie about a director named Carlos making a horror movie.  The premise and the joke is that Carlos really isn’t that great of a director and in spite of actually getting some money he still can’t make a good movie.  Though it is obvious that he doesn’t realize it.  He hires a quirky and unprofessional group to work on the movie, which is a disaster from day one.  Most of the duration of Le Fear is we the audience watching the cast and crew working on the movie.  This doesn’t sound interesting, but it really is. 

One of my big complaints about low budget filmmakers is that they don’t spend the time writing a decent script that they actually have the resources to shoot.  It doesn’t take a budget to have a solid story with great characters.  This movie is incredibly well written and in spite of the fact that it is one scene after another of the characters just talking to each other it is entertaining.  This is partly due to the excellent story and script that allows each strange character to exist within the world that the movie takes place in.  But that is only part of the formula.  Director/writer Jason Croot also found great actors to take the characters as written on the page and bring them to life.  This cast knows what they are doing and deliver their lines perfectly.  And I’m not just talking about not tripping over the dialogue.  There is a lot of humor that requires them to have dead on timing with each other and they do.  I didn’t expect this movie to be as funny as it ended up being. 

Just in case you were wondering the technical bits of the movie are decent.  This is shot on digital and looks pretty good.  Who ever shot this knows how to frame a shot and the lighting was spot on.  What I found really interesting was how well they created the scenes in the movie within the movie.  I can’t imagine that it is easy for professionals to purposely light scenes incorrectly and make mistakes like this.  Oh and I suppose that the special effects should be mentioned.  They are absolutely cheesy with a Halloween costume for the werewolf and some plastic fangs for the vampire.  Which of course is exactly what Le Fear calls for.  So yeah it was perfect.

In the end director Jason Croot brings us a really good movie about someone making a really terrible movie.  That is a really nifty bit of filmmaking.  If you get the chance to check out Le Fear do so. 

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer