Synopsis:
The town of Leffert’s Corners has been plagued by unearthly beings for decades, and now there is only a few people left, including the local priest and a woman traumatized by the death of her sister. But when John Martense turns up to claim his illicit family fortune, with bad guys in pursuit, the last stand had become a lot more complicated…. What everyone is not aware of are the humanoid creatures lurking underneath the holy grounds!
What We Thought:
This is the first time Lurking Fear will be available on Blu-ray. It has been digitally restored from the original 35mm negative, and has been remastered in 16×9 widescreen, with 5.1 surround sound. This is a big pitch point for this newest release of the film. I was only given a link to stream the movie online, and had to watch on my laptop, so I can’t comment much on how all that work looks. Although even streaming, the movie looked pretty good. Also, I won’t be able to comment on special features, or even tell you if there are any. I will be doing this review solely on the movie itself.
This movie is supposedly based on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear. There is really not much of this film that actually comes from said story, besides a few character names (JUST the names of characters, otherwise the characters are pretty different from their namesakes), location names, a few very basic elements of the plot, and a random little reference here and there. It doesn’t even have the same atmosphere, or illicit the same feelings as reading an H.P. Lovecraft story. Needless to say, as an adaptation, Lurking Fear falls on its face.
As a horror/ghoul siege film, it is pretty enjoyable however. The movie starts by dropping us right in the middle of a situation. I love this tactic, when done well, and here I felt it was executed pretty well. And it introduces us to one of our leads, Cathryn Farrell, who ends up seeing her sister pulled through a hole in the wall by a creature. Her sister’s death leaves her in charge of a baby, which I believe is never mentioned or seen again in this film.
We are introduced to the rest of various characters through the first part of the film. We meet the ex-con John Martense and then his father’s friend Knaggs (played by the great Vincent Schiavelli), who tells him his father hid some money for him, sending him off to Leffert’s Corners. We are then re-introduced to Cathryn, who is now a bad ass, despite having been demure, and afraid of the handgun she was given by her sister at the beginning of the film. Her and Dr. Haggis (played by long time horror favorite Jeffrey Combs) have some kind of plan going, but as with the movie itself, we are given vague snippets, that slowly build over time. They end up at a church where we are introduced to several other, lesser characters (aka cannon fodder), who are basically the final surviving citizens of the town. Finally we are introduced to the villains, lead by Bennet. Because, even though there are some weird ghoul/undead things under the ground, we need to have some human villains too. They first show up to interrogate, then kill Knaggs, just to make sure we know they are bad people.
Once the villains arrive at the church, things really get on their way. Characters start getting killed off. The creatures keep attacking. We are filled in on the parts of the story that had been vaguely hinted at. We finally get to fully see the creatures, which look excellent. Amazing make-up effects job there. Throughout the battle with these creatures, the characters all can’t seem to stop fighting amongst themselves. Also, while all this is going on, Bennett keeps obsessively trying to find the hidden money, which it turns out was actually stolen from his casino. It continues like this up to the climax of the film, during which we get the last of the answers we will receive, and we witness an awkward stand-off with the creatures under the church.
Overall, I enjoyed the film. Is it a good adaptation of Lovecraft’s story? No. Is it unique or groundbreaking? No. Does it answer all the questions a viewer may have? Most likely not. Is it an entertaining and interesting ghoul-siege film? For sure! The creatures are really cool looking, and all the effects look pretty good. The action scenes aren’t bad, despite a couple of the hand to hand fights looking painfully early 90’s. Most of the acting is at least decent or better, with some good performances especially by Jeffrey Combs and Vincent Schiavelli. I definitely recommend this to genre fans, especially people who like horror/siege films.
Notable Cast & Crew:
- Jeffrey Combs
- Jon Finch
- Vincent Schiavelli
- Charles Band
- C. Courtney Joyner
- Wayne Toth
- Paul Mantee
- Blake Adams
- Ashley Laurence
- Allison Mackie
- Oana Paunescu
- Vlad Paunescu
Recommended If You Like:
- Night Of The Living Dead
- Bleeders
- Dark Heritage
- Castle Freak
The Nerds Templar 