A teenage girl starts dating a mysterious older man who goes
​absolutely, homicidally insane when she breaks it off.

HORROR

Fear (1996)

Directed by James Foley

Written by Christopher Crowe

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, William Petersen, Alyssa Milano, Amy Brenneman, Christopher Gray

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Connor Eyzaguirre

July 28, 2022

8/10

Stalker movies always freak me out because they're so real. These are real situations that some people have had to deal with. There's something so much more horrifying about a normal person's obsession than there is about some monster with a machete. It could happen. It has happened. Fear certainly felt like it came from a real place. The dialogue, the situations, the characters, all of it felt realistic and terrifying. Also, to anyone who says this isn't a horror movie can fuck right off. Drama/Thriller, my ass, IMDb. The great thing about horror is how broad the genre can be. There are many different levels, and what might be scary to one person might be meaningless to another.

Nicole Walker (Witherspoon) is a 16-year-old girl who meets the mysterious and older David McCall (Wahlberg) at a party. At first, he's sweet, sensitive, and loved by her whole family. Then, out of nowhere, he kicks the shit out of her best friend Gary for hugging her. Despite this glaring red flag, Nicole gets back with David, but her father (Petersen) sees through the bullshit and tries to break them up. As the film progresses, and Nicole finally dumps his psychotic ass, we learn that David is completely obsessed with Nicole and more than willing to kill for her. The ending is pure home invasion horror as David and his gang of crackheads try to break into the Walker house, kill everyone, and kidnap Nicole. The whole damn movie is tense as hell thanks to Wahlberg's committed performance. He never went quite that dark again.

Fear is every father's worst nightmare. It's also 90s as hell, with a soundtrack featuring Bush, Alice in Chains, and more. It even takes place in Seattle, or at least around it. There's just something visceral about this film that kept me on edge the whole time.