As
former Art Bell listeners are surely aware, Stull, Kansas has quite the
reputation. Supposedly, you will find the staircase to Hell there. Other
strange phenomenon have been attributed to the dusty burg, but a new film set
in 666-ville completely squanders its weird mythos. Instead, the scariest this about this
paint-by-numbers horror show is the fact it bills itself as the first film from
Slasher Films, Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist Slash’s production company, because
that implies there will be more. On the
eve of its DVD release, Anthony Leonardi III’s Nothing Left to Fear (trailer here) opens this
Friday in New York.
It
looks like the America we know, but in this alternate reality Al Gore never
invented the internet. How else could
the city fathers keep luring innocent families to town so they can be
sacrificed? Hey, somebody’s blood has to re-seal the gate to Hell. Naturally, the ringleader of the infernal
cabal is the village pastor. He is
convinced this is simply the town’s cross to bear, like the idiot uncle who
must endured at holiday meals. The
latest suckers are the Pastor Dan Branford and his family. He thinks he has been recruited to succeed
the retiring Pastor Kingsman, but he would be wrong.
As
soon as the move in, their teenage daughter Rebecca starts having nightmarish
visions. Soon thereafter, her younger
sister comes down with a demonic case of nausea after biting a prehistoric canine
tooth hidden in a housewarming cake. It
all seems rather strange, but Rebecca does not have much time to think about
it. She already has a date set up with Noah, Stull’s undisputed brooding
champion.
Frankly,
Fear is so tired and predictable, it
leaves viewers plenty of time to ponder the head-scratching inappropriateness
of its Rooseveltian title. It is also kind of mind-boggling to see Anne Heche
play the mom and a preacher’s wife in a horror movie. Former Wizards
of Waverly Place star Jennifer Stone also looks out of place for multiple
reasons as the increasingly Gollum-ish Mary.
Even Clancy Brown, who is ordinarily genre gold, looks like he is
mailing it in during a government shut-down as Pastor Kingsman.
Once
again a Christian clergyman acts as a creepy tool of evil. Remember when The Exorcist featured a Catholic priest sacrificing himself to save
an innocent. It was only the second
biggest film of 1974, eventually grossing over 230 million dollars after
several re-releases. Left to Fear certainly won’t be
repeating its mistakes. Yet, what is perhaps most baffling is the lack of
reported Stull legends. It seems there
has been a lot of talk about the cemetery, a hanging tree, a “devil’s road,”
and young boy burned to death by his father, but you will not find any of that
here. Left to Fear does not even have a staircase worthy of a heavy metal
album cover.
