Be Afraid

source: Be Afraid

I kept getting irritated that the parents kept letting the kid out of their site to wander into the woods even after finding him each time in trouble IN THE WOODS!!! OMG! In one scene the mom chases down someone talking to her son to confront her, but then brushed her off when she tried to tell her what was going on! Pretty good main character, but the rest were just annoying!

I should have read the reviews before wasting an hour and half that I will never ever get back. It's a small town with a string of missing children and unusual circumstances witnessed by it's residents yet the movie indicates that most town folk are clueless. The theme of the movie is promising; however, the supporting story lines lead the viewer to multiple dead ends and does everything but support the movie plot. The movie addresses the "who" and the "how" but completely ignores the "what" and "why." If I were in watching this in a theater, then I would have walked out midway and demanded my money back or movie credit.

The whole vibe of this movie made me think "This is what Silent Hill would look like if Lifetime made this film." Being a horror film based of sleep paralysis, it did give me somewhat of the chills, but going back to Silent Hill, the ending was similar to that of the first film in that series, just less horror-esque.

This movies description intrigued me so I thought I would give it a go. I am not going to say I was entirely disappointed as the film had some good points; however, it has a lot of bad points as well. The film does not seem to know what lore it is trying to craft its movie around, some of the acting is pretty bad and the plot has some rather stupid twists in that they just seem to infer stuff rather than actually just coming out and saying stuff. I did enjoy some of the visuals and most of the actors in this one were decent. They should have just crafted their own monsters though instead of using that of the Shadow People because they just did not seem to do enough research and they just added stuff to them that really does not fit what they are and what they do. The story begins with a man raving that something is after his daughter and then she proceeds to disappear. Flash a bit later and a new doctor in town is trying to settle in. His older son comes to live with the doctor and his wife and son. The older son is from a different marriage apparently. Well the younger boy sees things and the father sees things and there is some sort of cover up that really makes no sense going on while these strange creatures that lurk out of most people's field of vision seem to take children away! The Shadow People here just don't work. I have always been interested in this phenomenon that does happen to people. The whole thinking they see stuff when they awaken. They get some of it right, but the whole taking children thing is not something associated with them as this is generally associated with the completely fictitious Slenderman. Then there is a scene where the older son is in a tunnel trying to prove himself where the creatures drag two other guys off and kill them in gruesome fashion which doesn't really fit either the Shadow People or Slenderman. Just kind of a jumbled mess as they do not seem to know what type of movie they are making. So, any chance of this being a good horror movie pretty much died with all the inconsistencies within. Not sure why they did Shadow People when they clearly wanted to do something totally different as the creatures were living in some sort of cave. They had a good idea, but should have made them more of a physical presence that would have went along with the two guys in the cave getting killed. The revelation of the boys being taken just did not work as it was all kind of implied and you are left wondering why would these creatures who can't be killed make a deal with anyone. Interesting but just fails with too many questions and such.

Saw 'Be Afraid', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it. Giving 'Be Afraid' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'Be Afraid' is a great film because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings. 'Be Afraid' started off quite well, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue. Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere. The setting is effectively spooky and the acting was better than average all round. There are spooky and suspenseful moments and it isn't dull. The direction doesn't feel phoned in. However, the story was severely wanting. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough, some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point. Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense, scares could have been more consistent and some weren't surprising enough. Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a bit of cheese going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. Overall, better than expected but not great still. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Be Afraid is nothing special. It's about as generic as horror movies get. Cheesy dialogue, poorly shot jump cur filled "action" scenes, and unlikable/annoying characters galore. The "scares" in this movie are almost exclusively jump scares or monster briefly appearing in background/reflection. The scenes that do have the monsters in them are usually blurry and shaky, making the most s hard to make out. The music in the film was forgettable, nothing special there. Normally I would rate this kind of movie a 3/10, but this movie did get one thing right. Throughout the film there are some shots of the scenery. Most of these are actually really good looking. Especially the scenes in the woods, the rich colors make the scenery really stand out and give the film a really pretty setting. That aside the film was bland and forgettable. That is all.

I really wanted to like this movie and wanted to be scared, but it was just blah. Most of the acting was OK, but you really don't root for the characters or want them to survive. Not at all scary, just a few jump scares. By the end of the movie, I was just bored. I didn't really care if they found the kid or not. I was actually hoping they were all going to be killed, it didn't really matter. I tried really hard to like it, but I just didn't. Don't waste your time, there are a lot better horror movies out there.

The complaints of the negative reviewers on this page are warranted. The movie sets up a lot of good character arcs and plot lines and then just leaves them completely hung out to dry. It's really odd that no attempt is given to explain the origin of the creatures or the town's predicament. However, the movie still scared the crap out of me. I suffered from sleep paralysis for years, however, and anything that even somewhat accurately depicts the condition tends to get under my skin. I feel like the movie underachieved in regards to realizing a potentially terrific story, exploring the importance and difficulty of family and the role of being a father. Still, the first 4/5 of the movie gave me legitimate willies. The end annoyed me, but I don't want to say too much about that and spoil it. When all is said and done, there were definitely big problems with the movie, but I have to rate it high, personally, because I spent a huge portion of the film with fear-electricity running all over my skin. If you've ever suffered from sleep paralysis, this film might trigger some serious apprehension. It did for me.

Nothing you haven't seen done better in a dozen other horror movies. and then it just...ends. The actors do pretty good. Brian Kraus has definitely improved over his time on Charmed. I checked the spoiler box, but I honestly don't understand the plot enough to spoil or not spoil it. From what I gathered, it was about ghosts or demons that abduct children. It's really all over the place. It was not scary at all. Oh, yes, the monsters come from the closet. Because of course! Overall, the only thing I can complement is the acting. They did their best with what they had.