Fear Reviews

As FEAR opens, Californian couple Don and Sharon Haden (Cliff DeYoung and Kay Lenz) and their two bickering teenagers are on their way to a remote mountain cabin. At a roadside rest area, they meet a group of escaped convicts who take them hostage in the family's own van. All of them head for the cabin, and along the way one of the convicts, Jack (Robert Factor), slaughters four innocent bystanders and one of his prisonmates (Frank Stallone). The group reaches the cabin, and the other escapees, realizing that Jack is a psycho, agree to play along to survive. A snoopy cop arrives and is killed; during this diversion the family members untie themselves and flee into the woods, where they begin to defend themselves. Sincere performances by Kay Lenz and Cliff DeYoung, and credible portrayals in difficult roles from Robert Factor, Charles Meshack and Eddit Banker, the last as an old prison pro, keep FEAR afloat. The most interesting (if potentially offensive and stereotypical) story element is that of two Vietnam vets, Jack and Don, drawing on their wartime guerrilla skills to defeat each other. But this twist gets only minimal screen time, while director and story originator Robert Ferretti lingers instead over the rigors of prison life, which have been portrayed better on many other occasions.