Review for Nothing Left To Fear

Nothing Left to Fear tells the story of the Bramford family who move to the small town of Stull so that father Dan can take over as the pastor. The current pastor Kingsman played by the always creepy Clancy Brown seems to be nice enough, taking care of local kid Noah who has taken a shine to Dan's daughter Rebecca.

Before you can say The Wicker Man, there are weird supernatural things going on which are all to do with protecting the town from a dark force. And it is the Bramford family who will help, though they probably won't want to.

Where do I start with this utterly cliched, horrendous film?
I got the film and based on the talent involved I expected a half-decent film, at the very least a watchable one. What I got was a waste of truly great talent (such as Anne Heche, Clancy Brown and even the likes of Guns N Roses' Slash providing the score) on a film that plowed its way through every scary movie cliche going. From The Ring to The Wicker Man with a dash of The Exorcist and A Nightmare on Elm Street for good measure, this film was anything but original.

The problem I have with this film is that by the time you realise what the plot is supposed to be you are already 70 minutes into the film with only another 26 minutes to pay all of this nonsense off. Which doesn't happen. Anyone who says this is original must never have seen The Wicker Man and I would go so far as to say that even the Nicholas Cage remake was better... or at least entertaining in a perverse 'so bad it's good' way. This film doesn't even have that.

However, the effects in the film are great and the whole spiritual demon creature thing is effective. Just sad that it is not being used in a better film. To me I feel like if the film was maybe another hour or so and at least fleshed out some of these characters it would have been better. If I'm honest as I was watching all I could think of is that episode of South Park where they sacrifice Britney Spears for the corn harvest. The ending of the film made me angry and not because of how it ended, but simply because nothing was given enough time to mean anything and if they make a sequel (and no doubt they will) they will probably include a snapshot 2-3 minute version of this film as a prologue and really in that 2-3 minutes you could probably explain everything that happens in this film. Because NOTHING HAPPENS!

The score by Slash and Nicholas O'Toole is wonderful and sounded almost like Slash's work on Aronofsky's The Wrestler. Sadly, it's again a case of it's a shame it is not on a better film that it might have been better... or at least had a soundtrack release.

The film comes with no extras. None. No commentary, interviews, deleted scenes, making ofs, even a trailer would be nice. Maybe the creators realised that no one would care enough to watch them or (based on the effort put into the film) they simply couldn't be bothered. This wouldn't have surprised me and if I'm honest if I had to listen to a commentary with the Director and Writer explaining what they were trying to achieve I would probably explode.

Nothing Left To Fear is a horrendous movie from almost every aspect. I can't imagine anyone watching this and being either frightened or (most importantly) enjoying it. The story is given no time, the cast is wasted as are the great effects and the wonderful score. This is a film that just simply exists and the title is wrong I do have something to fear: A Sequel!