Nothing Left to Fear (2013)

(In French, On Cable TV, July 2021) There are times when I seriously think that stupidity is a defining feature of the horror genre, either in the characters doing silly things, in the filmmakers for thinking that such shortcuts are acceptable, or in us audiences for accepting that swill. Nothing Left to Fear is not that terrible from an execution point of view — it’s carefully shot, features some nice effects for such a low-budgeted film and occasionally stumbles into a sense of small-town dread that suggests much better later on. But as with many horror films that can’t manage to present a coherent whole, the film ends up feeling like two or three scripts hastily stapled together, and not much can be done to patch incoherencies at the shooting or editing stage. Much of the film’s first act is Midwestern folk horror, as the family of a pastor clearly more used to urban settings moves to a small Kansas town so that he can take over the parish. There are plenty of unsettling portents of doom for them to ignore, as is their privilege as stupid horror characters. As the minutes crawl by, we eventually learn that the small town of Stull, Kansas, is really a portal to hell and that human sacrifice is needed to keep it shut. But then there’s this affliction that hits one of the characters, in which they turn monochrome and get a big scary CGI mouth and that’s roughly the point where you get that the filmmakers have so little faith in their own material that folk horror isn’t enough, hellish portals aren’t enough, there’s got to be this CGI creature to make it look really spooky even though we’re supposed to close the hellish portal before it starts spewing horrors like that one. Ah well — the film laboriously gets to its pre-ordained (ahem) conclusion with much of a fuss, raising more questions than is recommended about why this horror film had to exist at all. As mentioned previously, only some competence in the execution saves this from being a complete dud, and perhaps Anne Heche’s presence as well. Otherwise — not much to see here, and whatever is here doesn’t make much sense. Better reviewers than I have already noted that “Nothing Left to Fear” is its own worst critical one-liner.