Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

mackteague-43615 Let me pretext this by saying, if you want a horror movie with a story line, do not watch this film. There will be screaming ladies, zombies, vampires, Technicolor, black and white forests, creatures from another dimension and a whole lot of creepiness, but if you want a story, go away.This is more of an exploration of horror cinema, rather than a conventional horror film. Sure, there is a frame of a girl in an accident, recounting the fact that horror has helped her overcome her trauma, but apart from that, there is pure cinema. Suspiria rubs alongside Blow Out (the john Travolta remake of Blow Up), while we are sucked in with Night of the Hunter and Raat. In my opinion, this is a masterpiece in reference; to be able to keep a mainstream audience impressed by an art film is a hard job, nut the BBC seems to have done it. It is a wonderful exercise in tone and suspense, and a very good film. Would recommend for anyone who needs to turn on their lights.

Chrid Mann This "film" is boring.Short clips of various movies are shown along with a monotonous Scottish-accented voice-over that is presumably intended to convey us into the psyche of the film-maker - or possibly into some kind of archetypal fear zone that exists in all of us...However, an interminable and almost arbitrary sequence of extracts from horror or thriller movies does not a frightening experience make! On the contrary the effect is rather the complete opposite. The narrator's insistence on fear and tension seems to rob each clip of every vestige of fear and tension! Perhaps that's the "sly" subtext of this movie, I don't know...

Davin Armstrong This movie is an adaptation of clips from various horror movies spanning from old to some what new. As a horror buff you will feel a wave of nostalgia as you watch clips from many horrors.You soon find yourself in a situation where you want to see the clips with out the narrator droning on about fear. When i say droning, I mean droning it the actual sense. Her words losing meaning and even though at times she does bring up valid theories and concepts used in horror movies it fall shorts by the dull mono-tone voice.Would I recommend this to some one? No, unless you want to fall a sleep.

Jack Keane An exclusive-to-BBC-iPlayer (sort-of)-documentary, which is (sort of) about how and why horror movies scare us, 'Fear Itself' is a peculiar, esoteric, wonderful little treat of a film.In a manner reminiscent of Mark Cousin's epic and fantastic documentary series 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey', combined with Mark Gatiss' delightful documentary strand 'A History of Horror', director Charlie Lyne - with 'Fear Itself' - does away with conventional documentary structure (i.e. linear narrative, talking head interviews, objective in-depth analysis), and instead presents us with a stream-of-consciousness ramble from a fictional, unseen Narrator (played/voiced by the lyrically dulcet Scottish tones of Amy E. Watson), who hushedly guides us through a smorgasbord of clips from over 100 years of horror film-making.Over an eclectic tapestry of fearful scenes from films you'd expect (such as 'Ringu', 'Don't Look Now', 'Suspiria', and a Lynchian double-bill with 'Lost Highway' (via the Mystery Man) and 'Mulholland Drive' (via...NOT the creature behind Winkies Diner, weirdly)) and other films you wouldn't expect in the slightest (such as 'Gravity', 'Brazil', and 'Hollow Man'), the Narrator weaves a thesis on the nature of fear in cinema, and fear itself (naturally), via a fictional narrative of her character that just so happens to tie in with the films turning up on-screen while she speaks (like with 'Martyrs' and 'The Strangers').Watson's mesmerising voice, alongside the words she speaks, as well as the barrage of clips from films familiar and obscure, coupled with the extraordinary music and unnerving sound design, help make 'Fear Itself' an exceptionally hypnotic viewing experience, which transfixes you from beginning to end.Plus, it makes you appreciate the craft of not just horror film- making, but the sheer visceral power of the moving image itself, and the ways in which the best movies can effect you just through the way they look and sound.Even better, it introduces you to a whole host of old and new foreign films that you'll never have heard of before, but which you will definitely want to seek out once you see the images from them that 'Fear Itself' shares with you.A perfect film to watch in the run-up to Halloween.