Happy 4/20! Don't watch Evil Bong.
Point of Fear is a not too bad (but not too good) indie psychological horror film - and it really only qualifies as "psychological" because it's about a killer psychologist. It's not like anyone here is playing mind games or anything. Honestly, Point of Fear is pretty dumb at times, but at least it has the sense to never really try to be intelligent. Basically, it's a simple story about a big lug of a crazy doctor who kills people, and the poor 20-somethings who have the misfortune of being his victims. Easy enough.
Four friends head out for a relaxing weekend at a cabin in the woods. (Stop me if you've heard this one before.) It's actually slightly different that the standard set-up, as the woods are in the mountains - and one of the friends (Melissa) is afraid of heights! Enter "The Fear Doctor" as he's been dubbed in the local press. Dr. Jamison has recently relocated to the small town of Pleasant Point, and he's found a small measure of success using controversial methods to cure his patient's phobias. (For example, he lets a tarantula crawl on the arm of a guy who is afraid of spiders. So he can work at his pet store unencumbered by his arachnophobia. Revolutionary stuff!) But it's not just his methods that are dubious - very little is known about his background, other than the fact that he moved to Pleasant Point after the death of his wife and child. The sheriff in town (who bears a striking resemblance to Pawn Stars' Rick Harrison) doesn't hide his contempt for Jamison - and it turns out he has good cop sense. We quickly find out that Dr. Jamison is indeed crazy - he occasionally snaps and kills his patients. Or (in Melissa's case), if you happen to remind him of his deceased wife, he might just tie you up and slap you around a little. (Seriously, they don't explain why he does this to her. Just plain crazy is reason enough, I guess.) Melissa's friends try to save her, and maybe they do. And good times were had by all.
Point of Fear has a pretty generic story. It's the sort of film that doesn't try to do much outside of the "indie-horror-comfort-zone," but the times it does are pretty bad. For instance, I think it's supposed to be scary when Dr. Jamison insists on having people talk to his ventriloquist dummy, but's just awkward. Sometimes just sticking to a formula or genre convention is the way to go, and I think the filmmakers understand that.
The acting is all right for an indie. No one sticks out as particularly good or bad. Jason Benjamin is probably the most noteworthy as the psycho Jamison. He's not entirely the most convincing in his portrayal, but there is no doubt he's an imposing figure. He's a big, intimidating dude (and is shot as such), so in that respect he's a pretty good bad guy.
Horror-wise, there isn't too much to get worked up about. There isn't an awful lot of gore, and isn't really much tension to speak of. A couple of the kills just happen to random people that you haven't been introduced to, and most of the others are pretty obviously telegraphed. But I will say that director/writer/producer/lots of other stuff Brooks Benjamin does an admirable job keeping the tone pretty bleak/serious. I feel like a lot of these indies default to corny comedy, and that isn't the case here. There are a couple laughs to be had (the slacker Parker made me laugh a few times), but overall the film takes itself pretty seriously... and even though it isn't great, it sort of leads by example. Since Point of Fear takes itself seriously, you are encouraged to as well. It's probably the film's greatest asset.
One thing that is *far* from an asset is the music. Every time Jamison is about to kill someone, you get some pretty bad nu-metal tunes to accompany it. It just doesn't work. I think it's cool to have an unknown band or whatever to do the music for your film, but metal and kill scenes just don't work for me unless it's an intentionally humorous film. It always makes it seem like you want the killer to be "cool," when it should really be disturbing. The horror audience is small enough, you don't need to alienate that audience by having niche-metal in there too.
So overall? I wouldn't go out of your way to see Point of Fear, but I certainly feel better about it that a lot of the indies I've come across on Amazon Prime. Honestly, the fact that they just approach the whole thing seriously makes me respect it, even if I only half liked it.
I would kind of, sort of, I guess, recommend this film?
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