Fear Pharm – 2020

Fear Pharm is a crossover between a classic slasher and a hillbilly flick like Wrong Turn. That is to say that the victims don’t find the place where they are being hunted by accident. They are very well aware of where they are. Sort of. They know the place they have traveled to as a place where huge mazes are being made in the corn fields and that the employees there are meant to scare them as they find their way through.

But… They are being invited to play the VIP mazes. Apparently, they are the ten thousand visitors for the season and they are offered to go through the special package. If they finish under two hours they’ll win  $5000 and if they somehow manage to complete the maze ahead of them in one hour they’ll win $10000. Too good a chance to say no to? Yes of course. They agree and also seem to get a little help from the owner of the place – Herchell. There are several paths ahead and he gives them the advice to not take the middle one. That is the longest path and will be the hardest to finish within the time limit.

Split up

He also advises them to split up as it only requires that one of them reach the goal line in time. So, that’s just what they do. They split up and take one of the four remaining paths each. We, the audience are fully aware that this is a trap of course. We can shout at them from the comfort of our sofa that they shouldn’t listen and get the hell out of there as fast last they can. But it wouldn’t b much of a movie if they declined the offer – right?

The time seems to be running out fast because it’s dark in no time. That’s a little set back I think. It doesn’t make it feel very realistic. But I guess it’s a way to get along with the movie and to start the killing as soon as possible. But there is a twist, which I’m not so sure is a good one. They don’t intend to kill their victims. They want them alive for, shall we say, some more work of alteration. I honestly think that it would have been better to just go with the easier option av let the deranged family who own the attraction kill the victims in gruesome ways. But at the same time, I have to commend the movie for trying to do something a little bit different.

Chainsaw Fetishism

The characters that are there to frighten and to capture or kill them are really cool! They are mostly very terrifying. Some of them were very cool masks and they are gigantic as well. As you can see on the cover art there’s a chainsaw involved. I guess Fear Pharm is inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in that perspective. If you have some kind of chain saw fetishism this could be the movie for you.

I think it’s a pretty effective scary movie at times but there are also parts that are silly and are meant to be silly as far as I can comprehend. I think it would be better to leave the humor out of it and focus on the large bad boy swinging chainsaws and other stuff. There was really no need to go into science with Fear Pharm. As I said before, it’s fun with something new, but you should also know when to get for the simpler and more effective solution.

The ending begs for a sequel and there is a Fear Pharm 2 out there as well. I’ll get around to it someday and share my thoughts about it. Until then, don’t get lost in the corn maze!