Be Afraid (2017) Reviews

• Opinion possibly colored by own experiences, I found it pretty frightening

  jeffsuwak2017-09-04

  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.

• Something good about this one

  fairlesssam2017-07-10

  I enjoyed this movie, with a larger budget it could have been seriously good. The concept and story are pretty solid, interesting and engaging. The characters and actors involved were all very good and believable. I loved the whole idea with the tunnel which reminded me of Absentia which is a superb indie horror. A family move into a new home and soon after begin seeing strange things. The young child sees a man in a hat in his bedroom and the dad starts having nightmares about creatures. The older son returns home from college and connects with one of the female locals who happens to be the sheriff's daughter. The younger lad is drawn to a tunnel near the home, it has a memorizing affect on him. There have been many unexplained disappearances in the town and the sheriffs estranged wife is the subject of ridicule for voicing concerns about strange beings at the corner of your eye. It all reaches a climax after an initiation prank goes terribly wrong and it appears the sheriff knows more than he's letting on. Much is sadly unexplained at the end of the movie but all in all I thought it was pretty good.

• Standard farmhouse horror

  xhidden992018-07-04

  Pregnant mom with the baby crazies. History of miscarriages. Useless clueless husband almost clinically retarded. Other kids who are wise and disbelieved. The town and local cops are in on it. Zillow unaware the house is a possessed pit to hell.

• Senseless Supernatural Mess

  claudio_carvalho2017-06-28

  Dr. John Chambers (Brian Krause) moves to the countryside of Pennsylvania with his pregnant wife Heather Chambers (Jaimi Paige) and their seven-year old son Nathan. Two weeks later, his teenage son Ben Chambers (Jared Abrahamson) comes to his house since he was expelled from college. John begins to have astral travels and daydreams with shadow people and realizes that he is experiencing sleep paralysis. When Nathan sees also the people, he concludes that there is a dark secret in the place. "Be Afraid" is a senseless supernatural messy film, with a promising but totally wasted storyline. There is no explanations and the one dimension characters are not developed from the beginning and the viewer, for example, never knows why Ben was expelled from the college. Or why the sheriff hides the danger of the shadow people. And even their motives abducting children. In the end, watching "Be Afraid" is a waste of time with fake reviews promoting this flick in IMDb. My vote is two. Title (Brazil): Not Available

• Glossy production but disjointed plot

  ausbt2017-07-17

  saw this on Netflix. I think what lets this movie down is the effort to link a number of monster/scary themes in one movie. If you are familiar with "sleep paralysis" phenomenon, alien abduction etc. you'll recognize that theme. However if you've seen Dark Skies and Nightmares, you'll know why this particular plot doesn't really work. The actors are doing their best with it plot/script wise and give great performances all round. The direction is classy but the story is very thin and I found myself about two thirds the way thru losing interest. Some of the elements might motivate a series - its kinda like a bad pilot in a way, though then again perhaps we've spared another endless series ;-) It's worth watching for the overall production value but if you haven't seen Dark Skies and Nightmare, watch those first. Aus.