FearFighter

USA 2012
produced by
John Johnson, Mikiah Umbertis for Darkstone Entertainment
directed by John Johnson
starring Matthew Ewald, Ryan Kaufman, Jarod Kearney, Kurt Skarstedt, James 'Ike' Eichling, Elle Clark, Addy Miller, John Johnson, Monique Dupree, Hannah Minx, Mariah Smith, Aaron Yonda, Matt Sloan, Chris Alimenti, Matthew Baber, Terri Martin Baltz, Barry Bedwell, Heath Blowwer, Talon Borrelli, Megan Braithwaite, Jacob Canon, Ben Church, Frederick Cowie, Shannon DeSalvo, Keith Lee Douglas, Beau Eichling, Sara Eshleman, Christopher Justin Sane Giles, Dot Gregory, Amy Hart, Melissa Heflin, Royce Hobson, Danny Hugus, Brian Kirwin, Elissa Lauer, Cameron Lee, Kidd Lightning, Amanda Jo Liscouski, Brandy Mason, Dar Megonigal, Bruno Munkus, Nicole O'Hearn, Genni Pratt, John R. Price II, Angela Pritchett, John Rhodes, Robert Rydland, Saint, Daniel Taraschke, Ted Taylor, Tori Lee Teller, Mikiah Umbertis, Hannah Wagner, Brian Wimer, Kyle Wright, Lana Young
written by John Johnson, music by Andy Deane, special effects by Bio Duck FX

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Slacker Mike (Ryan Kauffman) throws a party for his best friend David (Matthew Ewald), mainly so that clean-cut David can finally muster up enough courage to chat up Cindy (Mariah Smith) - but that horribly backfires because Cindy has always though he's a freak, and she humiliates David in front of everyone. That's not the worst thing by far though, the worst thing is that all the party guests and Mike's sister Debbie (Addy Miller) are sucked into a parallel dimension called Fearworld, a dimension where everybody has to face his or her worst fears ... and more often than not die as well.

Now Mike and David want to save their friends and especially Debbie of course, but who knows how?

Dar (James 'Ike' Eichling), that's who ... who is of course also the guy Mike stole the VHS tape that opened to gateway to Fearworld from. He tells them David is actually a Fearfighter, and one of the very few people who has the ability to kill the Fearmaster (Jarod Kearney) and thus free the others (provided they're still alive).

So David and Ryan and their uncourageous but strong-like-an-ox friend Max (Kurt Skarstedt) enter Fearworld, and on their way to the Fearmaster they are drawn into one horror scenario after the other, scenarios that include zombies, werewolves, vampires, possessed kids and whatnot, and which they have to master alone or with each other, always running the risk to be killed though. On their way through this world, David finds a new love in Heather (Elle Clark), which is cool, but the Fearmaster soon enough makes her his hostage, just like Debbie ... just because he likes to be cruel.

Will our heroes defeat the Fearmaster? Will they save the girls? Will they even survive everything that's thrown at them? And if so, will all of this solve anything or only throw them into the next fear-scenario?

Director John Johnson plays a cop who has been sucked into the Fearworld without the slightest idea what is boing on. In a nod to Ed Wood, this cop has been christened Kelton.

FearFighter is dubbed an "interactive horror movie game" - but let me reassure all the non-gamer readers of this site that this is not a video game in the usual sort of the way, more of a "choose your own story"-type of film. But what should win the traditional movie watchers over for this one is that whichever way you watch it, it feels like an actual (and compact) movie. Sure, it's a bit on the episodic side, but even that makes sense considering the basic premise. And on the other hand, despite the episodic structure, the movie has a proper buildup and is carried by strong characters. Now add to this a very light-footed narrative approach, plenty of nods to horror films from the past (especially the 80's low budget variety comes to mind), and of course a healthy portion of self irony, and you've got yourself a nice piece of genre entertainment!

If all of this has gotten you interested, you might want to check out the movie(-game) here:  http://www.flicksphere.com/store/fear-fighter-synopsis/

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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