Dr.
John Chambers’ medical training would come in handy if a group of Leatherface
slashers were stalking his family. Unfortunately (in many respects), it is the
Hat Man and the Shadow People who are terrorizing his young son. He can see them
too, which never bodes well for characters in Drew Gabreski’s Be Afraid (trailer here), now available on
VOD.
Chambers
relocated his family to rural Pennsylvania, assuming it would be a relief from
the stress of his former emergency room gig. At first, it is just him, his
second wife Heather, and their son Nathan, but they are soon joined by Ben, his
son from his late first wife, who has just dropped/flunked/been kicked out of
college. The nocturnal bogeymen who were the subject of Rodney Ascher’s
terrifying documentary The Nightmare immediately
target Nathan, but Dr. Chambers isn’t sleeping so great either.
In
addition to the dream realm, these shadowy figures also seem to hold some sort
of dominion over a profoundly unsafe-looking tunnel in the woods. Being sinister
entities, they assume the guise of their previous victim to lure Nathan into
the ominous aperture. You would think the local authorities would seal that up,
but they don’t seem to be so hot, judging from Martin Collins, the squirrely
police chief.
Frankly,
Ascher’s Nightmare so thoroughly owns
the sleep paralysis phenomenon, any subsequent film featuring the Hat Man and
his cohorts (including prospective Nightmare
on Elm Street reboots) will suffer by comparison. In fact, Gerald Nott’s screenplay
cheats a little. Mostly, they are creatures of dreams but sometimes they also
seem to assume physical corporality.
On
the plus side, the characters and their relationships are unusually well defined
for a straight forward horror flick. This is especially true of Ben, nicely
played by Jared Abrahamson, who is not at all the resentful problem child cliché
he would probably be in a lazier film. In fact, his affection for Nathan and friendly
acceptance of Heather is rather appealing. Brian Krause (who was rock solid in
the shockingly good Plan 9 remake)
also has reassuring everyman vibe that suits Dr. Chambers. As a bonus, Kevin
Grevioux contributes a terrific horror movie voice as Dean Booth, the unstable,
grieving father of Nathan’s new playmate.
