It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The film begins with our main character Michael at five years old witnessing his father killing his mother on Halloween and then committing suicide. Flash forward to present day (1999), and we see Michael and a group of his friends heading out a spooky house his grandmother owns to celebrate the holiday. Now if you've seen the original film "The Fear", you'd remember that the wooden life-sized dummy Morty used people's fears against them to kill. Well Morty is back and up to his old tricks. He takes the fears of the group and uses those fears to kill them off in "creative" ways.I like this sequel much more than the original because it isn't as dark and depressing and we actually see more of Morty stalking the group. I like the plot line of Michael's father being inside of the Morty dummy as well. And this movie takes the Halloween tagline and milks it for all it's worth. For example, the group decides to dress up in costumes that represent their fears. One of them is afraid of sharks, so he dresses up as a shark. Another is scared of blood, so she dresses in all red. Oh and Morty looks way creepier in this film then the first one. And he can talk!Overall, The Fear: Halloween Night is not a masterpiece but it is a better watch then the first film. It definitely has its slow parts through the fast half, but I like the Halloween theme to it and it is creative at times with regards to the character's deaths.6/10

"The Fear: Resurrection" isn't all that bad of a film, and is certainly full of love-it and hate-it moments.**SPOILERS**Going away for Halloween weekend, Mike Hawthorne, (Gordon Currie) and his friends Peg, (Stacy Grant) Chris, (Myc Agnew) Jennifer, (Emmanuelle Vaugier) Lisa Ann, (Kelly Benson) and Ned, (Brendon Beiser) arrive at his grandmother Mams, (Betsy Palmer) farm. When Mitch Maldive, (Phillip Rhys) and Trish, (Rachel Hayward) show up afterwards, he reveals to his friends that he wants them to participate in a ceremony that will eliminate their fears. This makes them all skeptical, and the doll used in the ceremony, Morty, is too much for Mike to deal with. When they start the game, they start to die mysteriously, and upon discovering the culprit, are forced to deal with their deepest fears to make it out alive.The Good News: There isn't a whole lot of good things here, and the few good moments there are here belong mostly to the dummy, Morty. He still looks downright creepy, as the wooden body looks harder with a more menacing tone to it. From the first time we see it, there's an uncanny look to him, where we know that it's going to wreck some considerable damage when it comes to life simply by it's appearance. A lot of suspense is wrung out of him, and is undoubtedly the best feature of the movie. The other part that was pretty nice to see was the final confrontation, as it's finally revealed who's been doing the killing and it's an all-out war to stop him. That allows for some brilliant set-pieces, such as the one person afraid of making a decision ending up being tied to a burning car with an ax and forced to escape before the car escapes. It's a marvelously ironic scene and it's handled in the most appropriate way. The chases are pretty fun to see, and it manages to play out the traditional slasher film style, enabling some really fun scenes. With a fiery climax that really sends it out on a high, these are the few good parts of the movie.The Bad News: With such few good things about it, there's some things really wrong with this one. One of the biggest is that it just simply goes nowhere for the first forty-five minutes, which is way too long a time to simply stand around and talk. That's what's mostly in the first half of the movie, simply nothing but talking. It's an incredibly excruciating time when nothing happens, and there's the constant threat of something happening but it's all for naught. That most of the time it's spent with people blathering on about their personal lives and not about what's important to the plot, there is indeed a large amount of time simply looking around waiting for the characters to do something interesting. The fact that Morty has been changed into a wise-cracking killer isn't all that good of a move, leaving him to be simply laughed at. He's physically imposing, but that the aura of mystery is removed, he's left a clichéd killer. That he doesn't really do all that much in the way of damage to the characters is also strange, as just about every kill is off-screen. That really lowers the film there, losing blood and gore from the film that's already slow and boring. It's a terrible offense and really doesn't bode well for the film. There's a couple other little factors at work against the film, but these here are the most damaging.The Final Verdict: While not at all a really bad film, it just suffers from being too slow before it gets going. It's still a half-way decent, but it's nowhere near the top, or even the middle ground of these kinds of movies, and is really only recommended to slasher purists or fans of the first one.Rated R: Graphic Language and some Violence

A young boy sees his mother getting killed and his father hanging himself. 20 years later he gets a bunch of friends together to perform an exorcism on himself so he won't turn out like his father. All the stock characters are in place: the nice couple; the "funny" guy; the tough (but sensitive) hood; the smart girl (she wears glasses--that's how we know); the nerd and two no-personality blondes. It all involves some stupid wooden statue that comes to life (don't ask) and kills people. I knew I was in trouble when, after a great opening scene, we jump to 20 years later--ALL bad horror movies do that!The dialogue is atrocious, the acting is bad (except for Betsy Palmer--why Betsy?) and the killings are stupid and/or unimaginative. My favorite scene is when two people are supposedly having sex and the statue knocks the guy off the bed to show he's fully dressed! A real bad, stupid incoherent horror film. Avoid at all costs.

Those of you who, like me, were disappointed with the original 1995 horror yarn, "The Fear" will find more to be disappointed with in this silly little sequel. It sort of follows a similar plot, but it is impossible to connect to the original, with the exception of the presence of Morty, the mannequin monster made of wood. Here is a brief overview.Twenty years after Mike Hawthorne (Gordon Currie, in a decent performance) witnesses his father brutally murder his mother and then take his own life, Mike is still suffering from the fear of that day. In hopes of ridding his fear, Mike takes his girlfriend and a bunch of friends up to his grandparents' home. His plan is for everyone to dress up in costumes that represent their fears, and then present the fears to the mannequin Morty. According to an Indian friend, this process is supposed to magically take away one's fear. What Mike doesn't know is that Morty is possessed with his father's spirit, and begins killing off the friends...or is it really Mike himself doing the killings? Who cares?A have a few troubles with this film. The first lies with Morty. I thought the original made Morty look rather convincing. This time, it is painfully obvious Morty is a man (actor Jon Fedele) in a fake looking suit. This can especially be seen in early scenes, where Morty is still supposed to be inanimate, but if you watch closely you can see him blinking. Another trouble is that most of the characters don't try hard enough. Some of them do, namely Betsy Palmer, of Friday the 13th fame, who was excellent in this film. But most of them don't make the effort or weren't given the chance. Finally, there are the killings. The opening scenes involving ax murders were very convincing. Actually, when I saw them I thought I was in for a good movie. When the second half of the movie arrives, and the killings really start, everything falls to pieces. Deaths are either uncreative, unseen, or foreseen (glimpses of the next scene as Currie has a blackout). One character dies in the end and no one, including the viewer, even notices. While more characterization was needed in the beginning half, it wasn't too bad. The second half was. I think new director Chris Angel got to this point and really didn't know how to shoot the violent scenes, so they turned out real sloppy and pedestrian. A silly ending doesn't help either. Thus, unless you really loved the original and enjoy plucking splinters out from under your skin, you should probably skip "The Fear 2: Halloween Night." Zanatos' score: 4 out of 10.