What Really Frightens You? Has an Idea With a Lot of Potential
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What Really Frightens You?, unfortunately, takes too long to tell its story and wastes decent acting and effects, ending up a disappointingly confusing mess.
Written by James "Crypticpsych" Lasome
January 12, 2011
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Release: June 12, 2009 (New Jersey Film Festival)
Directed by: Richard W. Haines
Written by: Richard W. Haines
Starring:
Jennifer Sorika as Chloe Brooks
Postell Pringle as Drew Evans
Ian Tomaschik as Ghost Writer
Chris Keveney as Brett Andrews
A writer at Ghastly Horror magazine, working under the pseudonym Ghost Writer (Tomaschik), has a great idea for a story. He wants to head out into Times Square and ask people "What Really Frightens You?", then print their answers in his magazine. First, he meets up with Chloe (Sorika), a college student with a fear of ending up stuck in her underwear in public and attacked by sleazy men. Next, he finds Drew (Pringle), a lawyer who is terrified of going back to the inner-city life he's worked so hard to escape and overcome. Finally, he meets Brett (Keveney), a cubicle-dweller who never fully got over his childhood fear of the monster under his bed, still checking there on occasion as an adult. A few days later, the trio's stories published, and they move on with their lives. However, strange things begin to happen. They start hearing and seeing Ghost Writer, only for him to vanish whenever they look again. They start having lucid dreams and hallucinations relating to their greatest fears that grow more and more intense. Soon they realize they'll have to band together to get to the bottom of the mystery before their fears overcome them.
When I first looked at the cast and crew, I was pretty optimistic for What Really Frightens You? given it was directed by Richard W. Haines, director of cult classics like Class of Nuke 'Em High and Splatter University. True to form, I appreciate that the film interestingly has the film quality of a movie that you'd expect to be renting from your local mom and pop video store in the Eighties. There's also some surprisingly effective physical creature effects and great gore that were clearly put together with a lot of care and effort. The main character performances in general are also pretty good (Keveney's screams of terror being a notable exception). Tomaschik, for instance, has an effectively creepy screen presence with his "if-you-squint" Clive Barker look, and the three protagonists are all likeable and believable in their roles (Pringle and Sorika in particular).
Unfortunately, all of the positives in What Really Frightens You? are undermined by a surprisingly slow pace for a sub-80 minute movie, unnecessary and unlikable side characters, and a plot that is explained less and less as the movie goes on to the point where, in the end, the viewer has no idea how or why everything they've seen has happened. First, once our three main protagonists have been interviewed, it takes a surprisingly long time to get all the way through each one's personal warped visions. It's possible 
this would've worked better as a straight anthology, rather than a film where three people's storylines are occurring at the same time. Drew's story is the most intense of the three, Brett's is the goriest, and, unfortunately for such a good performance, Chloe's "fear" never really rises above being a cheap excuse to get her in her underwear and into a strip club. Each one might be okay if it was told straight through, something seen when the stories start to join together into one tale. As it is, having to jump back and forth hurts the overall product.
Part of the reason it takes so long to move each character along their path is also that each one's story has at least one unnecessary supporting character. Drew has an unlikable Casanova lawyer friend and a "dumb blonde" secretary girlfriend, Chloe has a coworker and a few male friends, and Brett has a coworker he isn't supposed to be dating. NONE of these matter in the overall story, and, with the possible exception of Brett's girlfriend (centerpiece of a nice effect), none are particularly well-acted roles either. They only serve to drag the film out when more tension could be being built instead.
Finally, and most disappointingly, What Really Frightens You? falls apart badly as it winds down. The closer we get to the end, the more the viewer wants to know
why this is all happening. Unfortunately, we're never really given an answer. We don't know who Ghost Writer is, why he's doing this or how he's causing it. By the end, I had grown tired of yelling "WHY" and "WHO ARE YOU" at the screen… just in time for a bizarre climax featuring an overlay effect so bad it's almost like it was taken from a different film entirely. I understand what happened in the movie, I just have no idea why.
What Really Frightens You? feels like it should be far better than it is. Its effects work and principal acting are quite good for a low-budget film… yet its overloaded and unexplained story seriously hinders the final product. I've seen that Richard W. Haines has better films in him, though, and still look forward to when that next one comes.
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