mackteague-43615 Let me pretext this by saying, if you want a horror movie with a story line, do not watch this film. There will be screaming ladies, zombies, vampires, Technicolor, black and white forests, creatures from another dimension and a whole lot of creepiness, but if you want a story, go away.This is more of an exploration of horror cinema, rather than a conventional horror film. Sure, there is a frame of a girl in an accident, recounting the fact that horror has helped her overcome her trauma, but apart from that, there is pure cinema. Suspiria rubs alongside Blow Out (the john Travolta remake of Blow Up), while we are sucked in with Night of the Hunter and Raat. In my opinion, this is a masterpiece in reference; to be able to keep a mainstream audience impressed by an art film is a hard job, nut the BBC seems to have done it. It is a wonderful exercise in tone and suspense, and a very good film. Would recommend for anyone who needs to turn on their lights.

Captain Nemo We've all seen these TV programs about cinema in which they review some recent movie and then go over the filmography of its director or its main actor by showing a few clips from previous movies.Well, "Fear Itself" is 90 minutes of just that: a selection of clips from horror movies of different sub-genres, with a narrator speaking about things like what fear is and what things we are afraid of. It doesn't sound too bad, does it? The thing is: quite frankly, she doesn't say anything interesting, the script is trite and her dull and monotonous way of speaking doesn't make things better. It feels like someone had the idea but then couldn't come up with a good text.The clips themselves are short and generally not from the climatic parts of the movies. There's nothing frightening there, and even less when all the scenes are shown completely out of context. In many cases you can't even guess what the movies are really about. But some look good and might make you want to watch the movie. Don't expect any jump scares or cliffhangers, the documentary doesn't spoil the scenes themselves, but it DOES show the ending of a couple of movies ("Brazil", "Gravity").In the end I got curious about a few of the movies and now I would like to watch them, so if I have to say something positive about this documentary, it is that. But don't expect anything else.

Chrid Mann This "film" is boring.Short clips of various movies are shown along with a monotonous Scottish-accented voice-over that is presumably intended to convey us into the psyche of the film-maker - or possibly into some kind of archetypal fear zone that exists in all of us...However, an interminable and almost arbitrary sequence of extracts from horror or thriller movies does not a frightening experience make! On the contrary the effect is rather the complete opposite. The narrator's insistence on fear and tension seems to rob each clip of every vestige of fear and tension! Perhaps that's the "sly" subtext of this movie, I don't know...

Jack Keane An exclusive-to-BBC-iPlayer (sort-of)-documentary, which is (sort of) about how and why horror movies scare us, 'Fear Itself' is a peculiar, esoteric, wonderful little treat of a film.In a manner reminiscent of Mark Cousin's epic and fantastic documentary series 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey', combined with Mark Gatiss' delightful documentary strand 'A History of Horror', director Charlie Lyne - with 'Fear Itself' - does away with conventional documentary structure (i.e. linear narrative, talking head interviews, objective in-depth analysis), and instead presents us with a stream-of-consciousness ramble from a fictional, unseen Narrator (played/voiced by the lyrically dulcet Scottish tones of Amy E. Watson), who hushedly guides us through a smorgasbord of clips from over 100 years of horror film-making.Over an eclectic tapestry of fearful scenes from films you'd expect (such as 'Ringu', 'Don't Look Now', 'Suspiria', and a Lynchian double-bill with 'Lost Highway' (via the Mystery Man) and 'Mulholland Drive' (via...NOT the creature behind Winkies Diner, weirdly)) and other films you wouldn't expect in the slightest (such as 'Gravity', 'Brazil', and 'Hollow Man'), the Narrator weaves a thesis on the nature of fear in cinema, and fear itself (naturally), via a fictional narrative of her character that just so happens to tie in with the films turning up on-screen while she speaks (like with 'Martyrs' and 'The Strangers').Watson's mesmerising voice, alongside the words she speaks, as well as the barrage of clips from films familiar and obscure, coupled with the extraordinary music and unnerving sound design, help make 'Fear Itself' an exceptionally hypnotic viewing experience, which transfixes you from beginning to end.Plus, it makes you appreciate the craft of not just horror film- making, but the sheer visceral power of the moving image itself, and the ways in which the best movies can effect you just through the way they look and sound.Even better, it introduces you to a whole host of old and new foreign films that you'll never have heard of before, but which you will definitely want to seek out once you see the images from them that 'Fear Itself' shares with you.A perfect film to watch in the run-up to Halloween.