In Fear

### Release

20 January 2013 (Sundance Film Festival), 15 November 2013 (UK), 7 March 2014 (US)

### Runtime

85 minutes

***In Fear*** is a 2013 British psychological thriller directed and written by Jeremy Lovering. It stars Iain De Caestecker and Alice Englert as a young couple who're terrorised by an unknown assailant.

The film premiered on 20 January 2013 at the Sundance Film Festival and was initially released on 15 November 2013 throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.

## Synopsis

"Tom and Lucy are both happy young adults eager to set out on their first weekend getaway as a couple. They set off for a planned stay at a remote hotel but quickly find themselves getting lost in a maze of backwoods roads." (IMDb)

"A young couple gets lost driving through a maze of country roads to a music festival, and soon their pleasant road trip turns into a nightmare." (Netflix)

## Plot

After dating for just two weeks, Tom (Iain De Caestecker) invites Lucy (Alice Englert) to go with him and some friends to a music festival in Ireland. The night before, Tom plans to take Lucy to the Kilairney House Hotel, which he booked online and is hidden away on a series of remote roads in the Irish countryside. Before making their way to the hotel, the couple stop at a pub and a confrontation occurs between Tom and some of the locals.

On the empty back road to the hotel, Tom and Lucy find themselves going in circles despite following the signs and their satnav stops working. They eventually realise that they keep returning to the same point no matter which route they take and are unable to find their way back to the main road. Strange things begin happening, including Lucy spotting a man in a white mask and someone attempting to grab her from the darkness.

While speeding down the road away from their attacker, Tom clips a man in the road. He and Lucy pick up the man, who says his name is Max (Allen Leech). Max claims to be under attack by the same people stalking the couple. However, he is eventually revealed to be the true culprit. Tom kicks Max out of the car following a harrowing confrontation and Max breaks Tom’s wrist in a subsequent fight.

Lucy and Tom take their torches and search the woods when their car runs out of petrol. In the darkness Tom is grabbed and disappears. Lucy returns to the car alone and finds a petrol can in the front seat. After refilling the tank and with the satnav now mysteriously working again, Lucy drives on and eventually finds the hotel, but discovers that it is abandoned. The car park is a graveyard of derelict cars, suggesting that she and Tom are not the first victims.

Max returns in a Land Rover and pursues Lucy. When Lucy is able to stop the car, she finds a tube running from the exhaust pipe into the boot. She opens the boot and discovers Tom bound inside, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning from the tube forced into his throat.

As day breaks, Lucy finds the way back to the main road, but as she drives over a lonely moor towards it she sees Max standing in road in the distance. Max stretches out his arms and smiles at her. Lucy slams her foot on the pedal and accelerates towards Max. The film cuts to black just before hitting him, suggesting the audience decide the end result.

## Cast

* Alice Englert as Lucy.
* Iain De Caestecker as Tom.
* Allen Leech as Max.

## Chapters

1. Main Title/A Special Treat
2. Search For Kilairney House
3. Foreboding
4. In Case of Fire
5. In a Panic
6. "Did You Do This To Me?"
7. Butchers and Hunters
8. The Pub Happening
9. "Drive As Fast As You Can"
10. Pursuit
11. A Cruel Fate
12. End Credits

## Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was written and composed by Roly Porter and Daniel Pemberton. There are a total of 14 tracks, with two additional end-credits songs, one of which features the vocal talents of Alice Englert herself. The track names are titled accordingly to the chapters of the film.

The soundtrack features a mix of artificial and natural instrument types, including scores with a grand piano assisted by computer-generated effects and electronic instruments. The soundtrack is often praised for its construction of bringing both beauty and fear in playing with the element of the unknown.

## Reception

Critical reception has been mostly positive and the film currently holds a rating of 83% (as of November 2016) on Rotten Tomatoes (based upon 52 reviews). Much of the film's praise centred around the camerawork, and The Hollywood Reporter commented that "Lovering's camera setup turns an already tight car into an increasingly claustrophobic setting." Empire gave a mixed review for *In Fear*, remarking that it had "atmosphere and enough proper scares to deliver on the promise of its title," but that it was "contrived and nothing new plot-wise" as well.

Other remarks have given praise for the film's soundtrack, composed by Roly Porter and Daniel Pemberton, for executing a sense of the beauty but fear of the unknown.

## Release dates

* 20 January 2013 (Sundance Film Festival)
* 15 November 2013 (UK & Ireland)
* 7 March and 11 March 2014 (US limited and DVD premiere releases).

## Filming locations

* Blackborough House; Blackborough Devon, England.
* Bodmin Moor and Bodmin, England.
* Cornwall, England.
* Rising Sun Inn, Alternun, England.

## Trivia

* Despite the story taking place in Ireland, the entire film was shot in the county of Cornwall, England.
* The story takes place in Ireland and is presumed to take place in the countryside of Northern Ireland, based on the speed limit signs missing their km/h.
* The film was added onto the American, Canadian, and European Netflix in October 2014 and was a title on the site until November 2016.
* The actors had no script let alone knew what was going to happen in the film. Allen Leech (Max) was given the plotline and helped steer the other characters throughout the film. All reactions were raw and initially real to the events that occur.
* There are approximately 80+ hours of raw, uncut scenes that never made it to the film.
* End scenes were finally filmed in November 2011, meaning that the filming took place during the colder months, despite the story set to have happened in Spring.

## Online profiles

**Twitter** - @InFearMovie

**FaceBook** - @InFearMovie