51
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Testosterone-driven entertainment with a moral, sleekly directed by James Foley.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleIt's a maddening, satisfying, junky, enjoyable picture.
- 75San Francisco ExaminerSan Francisco ExaminerForceful and well-acted. Fear truly lives up to its title.
- 70Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumFoley has a fine sense of shading in depicting a slightly dysfunctional family. The problem with this subgenre is the way it has to demonize and dehumanize its villains in order to produce the desired effect, which brutalizes the spectator along with the story and characters. If you can accept this limitation, this is a very efficient piece of machinery.
- 70Washington PostHal HinsonWashington PostHal HinsonFear is pretty much a cheap-thrills fix; the ideas, such as they are, function as window dressing. Still, cheap though these thrills may be, they are genuinely thrilling.
- 60EmpireEmpireFear, a sort of pubescent Fatal Attraction, is derivative and often risible, in the competent hands of Foley it's also highly enjoyable.
- 60VarietyEmanuel LevyVarietyEmanuel LevyThe thriller telegraphs most of its suspense payoffs, and the audience is almost always ahead of the game. What's most disappointing is that the characters begin as well-etched individuals, but are gradually turned into mere plot functions.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliA kinetic, visually dazzling thriller that's actually a notch above many of its predecessors - albeit only a small notch.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenA nasty little thriller that starts out on a somewhat higher plane but eventually trades in its level head for conventional scare tactics and violence.
- 20Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDespite a few scattered moments of visceral excitement, the only thing truly frightening about the oh-so-ominously titled Fear is how so many talented people came to be involved in so inane a project.