Deep Fear – Movie Review [Fantastic Fest] (3/5)

DEEP FEAR is a new horror movie from France that takes place in the catacombs in 1991. The perfect kind of horror movie for anyone claustrophobic and with a The Descent vibe. Screened at Fantastic Fest. Read our full Deep Fear movie review here!

DEEP FEAR is a new French horror movie currently playing at film festivals worldwide. Including Fantastic Fest 2022, which is where we caught it. The story takes place in 1991 (though it begins with a brief scene from 1989) in Paris. At first, we get to meet several characters above the ground in 1991’s Paris.

However, soon thereafter, we’re heading down into the catacombs. From there, things go from interesting to bad to worse and then downright terrible.

Continue reading our Deep Fear movie review below.

A nice touch of The Descent

If there is one horror movie that can always make me feel desperately claustrophobic, it’s The Descent. A brilliant horror movie from 2005. Back when Neil Marshall was still focused on making great movies and not just making his new girlfriend into a star.

Yes, I am still bitter about just how disappointing The Reckoning was. Hopefully, he’ll get back on track eventually. Also, knowing that his ex-wife, Axelle Carolyn is now doing great with her career (in part by working with Mike Flanagan) does make me feel better.

Anyway, getting back to this new horror movie from France; While it does not play out in caves as was the case in The Descent it does take place underground.

Horror in the catacombs

Since we are in Paris, the location is (of course!) the catacombs. And yes, the claustrophobia is still intense with that location. Of course, horror movies taking place in the catacombs is nothing new.

Just off the top of my head, there were Catacombs (2007) which had Alecia “Pink” Moore in one of the starring roles, and the 2014 horror mystery As Above, So Below. The latter actually has an awesome poster!

Without giving away any spoilers, I think it’s fair to reveal that yes, they will be finding something down there in the catacombs. Hence the “deep fear”, the title refers to, will become an acutely active part of the plot. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

Also, I would like to say that the actors in this movie are really good. Especially Sofia Lesaffre as Sonia, who gets a much better role here than she had in the Netflix movie Earth and Blood.

In Deep Fear, Sonia (Sofia Lesaffre) has to battle a lot more than just claustrophobia and basic misogyny. There is also the issue of racism which is brutal here. A group of young French men (whom we meet early on) seems to wish they were born in Germany and living in the early 1940s.

Deep Fear at Fantastic Fest 2022

The director of Deep Fear is Grégory Beghin and this is his second feature film. His first movie was the comedy Losers Revolution from 2020 about a group of friends. That one was actually co-directed with Thomas Ancora, so Deep Fear is the solo feature film debut for Grégory Beghin.

The screenplay for Deep Fear was written by Nicolas Tackian. Previously, Nicolas Tackian has worked mostly with writing on TV series and TV movies. Maybe having worked with television has helped him keep the story tighter. For this new French horror movie, the runtime lands on a crisp 80 minutes.

The runtime is definitely a strength, even if I wouldn’t have minded a bit more backstory to certain plot twists. Then again, this is a classic horror movie in that sense, and part of the horror comes from not knowing everything. Also, I should mention that the final scene of Deep Fear is another strong element!

Deep Fear is playing at film festivals and currently screening at Fantastic Fest 2022.

Details

Director: Grégory Beghin
Writer: Nicolas Tackian
Stars: Sofia Lesaffre, Victor Meutelet, Joseph Olivennes, Kassim Meesters, Blaise Afonso, Olivier Bony, Léone François-Janssens, Philippe Résimont