Fear X (2003)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 33
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 14
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 2,088
My Rating
Movie Info
A man searching for the truth about his wife's killer learns more than he wanted to know about her own private story in this powerful drama. Harry Cain (John Turturro) works as a security guard at a large shopping mall in Wisconsin. Harry's life takes a sudden and disturbing left turn when his wife, Kate (Deborah Kara Unger), is shot to death in the mall's parking facility. Devastated by his wife's passing, Harry begins combing over every scrap of evidence he can find in hopes of tracking down
Apr 4, 2003 Wide
Mar 8, 2005
Moviehouse Entertainment
Cast
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John Turturro
Harry -
Deborah Kara Unger
Kate -
-
William Allen Young
Agent Lawrence -
-
Mark Houghton
Diner Cop -
Jacqueline Ramel
Claire -
James Remar
Peter
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Fear X Trailer & Photos
All Critics (36) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (14) | DVD (5)
A pretentious, unsatisfying and ultra-slow-moving thriller.
Top CriticFortunately, Turturro's subtle turn keeps our emotional connection solid even when the story skates on thin ice.
The story, in the end, is less than satisfying and, unfortunately, doesn't match the movie's eerie style.
With an elliptical style and open-ended interpretations, it is definitely not for those who like their mysteries spelled out and tied up neatly.
Grimly austere barely begins to describe the atmosphere of dread that seeps through Fear X like a toxic mist.
It's half a movie, but a half that hums.
The director captures a sense of hazy, harrowing obsession that's amplified by his immaculate camera set-ups and pans.
Slick thriller.
A Middle American psychological crime thriller agreat portion of which plays out none too rationally inside its protagonist's head.
A Middle American psychological crime thriller agreat portion of which plays out none too rationally inside its protagonist's head.
What happens afterwards, in Refn and the late Hubert Selby, Jr.'s can't-resist-obscurity-and-ambiguity screenplay will disappoint most filmgoers.
Frustratingly opaque by design, Fear X offers viewers insufficient fear and excessive "X."
Imagine an hour of birds flying backwards and rooms with red curtains, and there's the rest of your movie.
It's a fundamentally Scandinavian movie, a hyperintense meditation on death and destiny set amid a bleak wintry landscape and played out by the emotionally devastated.
As the film builds, director Refn skillfully allows Harry to get both closer and farther away form his goal, like an optical illusion.
Turturro's clammy, lumpen Cain is a profoundly disagreeable guide down the rabbit hole of hallucinatory paranoia.
This X doesn't mark the spot.
Fear X, like an impressionistic painting, is evocative in original ways.
Audience Reviews for Fear X
Super Reviewer
[font=Century Gothic]The thing that separates superior psychological dramas like "Keane" and "Red Road" from a mediocrity like "Fear X" is a certain fearlessness, not only from the director but also from the lead actor.(John Turturro is good but he is not that good.) This movie would also have been better if the FBI had approached Harry at a point when he was starting to put his life in order. While aiming for a certain dreamlike aesthetic ala David Lynch for some odd reason, the movie falls flat on its face. And after failing to follow through on one promising idea, it disappears into another movie completely which not even the usually reliable James Remar and Deborah Kara Unger can do anything about. Only at the very end does the movie come close to succeeding.[/font]
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Fear X - Im Angesicht der Angst (DE)
- Inside Job (FR)
