Critic Reviews
51
Metascore
Mixed or Average
positive
6(38%)
mixed
7(44%)
negative
3(19%)
Showing 16 Critic Reviews
88
Testosterone-driven entertainment with a moral, sleekly directed by James Foley.
75
It's a maddening, satisfying, junky, enjoyable picture.
75
Forceful and well-acted. Fear truly lives up to its title.
75
Wahlberg is the centerpiece of Fear, director James Foley's surprisingly taut new thriller that's equal parts "Cape Fear," "Endless Love" and "The Wild One." [12 Apr 1996]
70
Foley 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.
70
Fear 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.
60
Fear, a sort of pubescent Fatal Attraction, is derivative and often risible, in the competent hands of Foley it's also highly enjoyable.
60
The 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.
60
Fear, thanks mostly to Foley's stylish direction and a couple of strong performances, is a much better movie than "Whispers," but those familiar with the formula will get no major surprises. [12 Apr 1996]
50
A kinetic, visually dazzling thriller that's actually a notch above many of its predecessors - albeit only a small notch.
