Fear is a 1996 thriller film directed by James Foley, starring Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, and William Petersen. The film also features Amy Brenneman and Alyssa Milano.
Plot
Nicole (Witherspoon) is a fairly innocent teenager, but with a rebellious side particularly directed at her father, Steven Walker (Petersen). At a rave, she meets David McCall (Wahlberg) and is swept off her feet by his sweet, polite nature. Steve, seemingly overprotective, does not trust David from practically the moment he meets him. He also gets angry when Nicole violates her curfews to spend more time with David. The closer Nicole and David become, the more Steven objects. One day, David scares Nicole when he sees her hugging her friend Gary. He immediately assaults Gary and shoves Nicole to the ground when she tries to stop him. Nicole ends things with David leaving him crushed. The next day he talks to Nicole, apologizes and things are smoothed over for the couple.
Nicole clings to David and he uses that to his advantage since he knows from their conversations the tension between her and her father. He is more than happy to comfort her in every way. Steven is still suspicious so he does some checking into David's background and finds out that David is not who he appears to be. Steven confronts David on a street corner and orders him to stop seeing Nicole. David is still polite and says he has no intentions of hurting Nicole. Then he taunts Steven about wanting to keep his daughter a little girl forever and that he's scared David will take her away from him. Steven says he is only interested in protecting his family and drives off. Little does he know David doesn't take orders. He beats himself in the chest repeatedly until he is bruised and Nicole accuses Steven of assaulting David. She leaves in an angry rage with David who was waiting in the car outside.
The next day Steven's prize car is trashed, with a taunting note left by David. Steven goes to David's house and finds a shrine built for Nicole with pictures of David with Steven's family with Steven out of the picture, a bracelet Steven had given Nicole that said "Daddy's Girl" altered to read "David's Girl" and a pair of Nicole's underwear. Steven trashes David's house in a rage. David's obsession with Nicole eventually turns violent, including tattooing her name to his chest, killing Gary in a jealous rage, raping her best friend Margo at a party while she was under the influence of drugs and eventually breaking into Nicole's house, with the help of his equally violent friends, to get revenge on her family for keeping him and Nicole apart and for trashing their house.
David and his friends first behead the family dog "Kaiser" after David tricks the dog and then kill the Walker family's private security guard, confiscate his cuffs and gun and they force their way into the house. They cuff Steven and his wife Laura and tape their mouths shut but not before Laura uses a power drill to prevent one of the thugs from entering the house, who then runs off screaming in pain. Logan, another thug appears and begins beating Nicole and Margo while Toby is able to escape through another window, gets to Laura's car and uses the car phone to dial 911; since David's friend's cut the phone lines. Toby barely misses being shot by another thug who is then run over when Toby backs over him with the car.
David brings a tied up and gagged Steven into Nicole's room to "say goodbye" to his daughter. First he kills Logan for beating Nicole, because he warned his friends not to harm Nicole. Toby then re enters the house and manages to get the keys to the handcuffs and frees Laura. While David gently tells Nicole "It has to be this way" and asks her if she wants to go with him. She fakes affection for him and says yes. Meanwhile Laura frees Steven and he and David fight violently until Steven gets the upper hand after David drops his gun and throws him out the second story window to his death. The family embraces and the final frame shows police and EMT's arriving at the house as the credits roll.
Reception
Financed by Universal Pictures, the film was a commercial success at the US box office, and received mixed critical reviews.
The film was placed as #19 on Bravo TV's "30 Even Scarier Movie Moments"
Cast
- Mark Wahlberg as David McCall, who is obsessed with Nicole Walker.
- Reese Witherspoon as Nicole Walker, a sixteen-year-old girl who falls in love with David McCall.
- William Petersen as Steve Walker, father of Nicole and stepfather of Toby Walker.
- Amy Brenneman as Laura Walker, wife of Steve Walker and mother of Toby and stepmother of Nicole Walker.
- Alyssa Milano as Margo Masse, best friend of Nicole Walker and Gary.
- Gary Riley as the hacker.
- Christopher Gray as Toby Walker, stepbrother of Nicole Walker and stepson of Steve Walker and son of Laura Walker.
- Tracy Fraim as Logan, David McCall's friend, who also dated Margo Masse.
- Todd Caldecott as Gary, one of Nicole's best friends.
- Banner as Kaiser, the Walker's German Shepherd.
Soundtrack
- "Jessica" - The Allman Brothers
- "Green Mind" - Dink
- "Comedown" - Bush
- "Wild Horses" - The Sundays
- "Machine Head" - Bush
- "Something Always Wrong" - Toad the Wet Sprocket
- "Animal" - Prick
- "The Illist" - Mark Wahlberg
- "Irie Vibe" - One Love
External links
