Popular reviews

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  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★½ 4

  Clearly one of the most intricately, subtly and
  effectively crafted soundscapes ever designed.

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  Review by Rocca ★★★★ 4

  Fear X has the reputation of being a complete bomb, and considered Refn's worst effort. I guess there's some merit to that considering that less than 700 people of Letterboxd have watched it. Regardless, I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as it's regarded to be.

  Fear X is not for mainstream audience, but none of Refn's work is. I've seen all of his films except Bleeder (cause I can't find it), and the last two installments of the Pusher trilogy. Overall, I think Fear X is the most accessible of the bunch. A slow mystery staring John Turturro that has shades of Lynchian and a touch of the Coen's work, although that might just be because of Turturro's…

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★

  "Who knows what you may find... if you keep looking."

  If it wasn't captured on tape did it really happen? 👁️

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 12

  Action!: Nicolas Winding's Mood and Pace Through The Neon, Gritty Streets

  For a film that bankrupted the filmmaker and his production company, this wasn’t that bad. In some way, it feels like the birth of the current Refn, with lots of lingering shots and moments of long pauses and silences between the characters. It's a very introspective murder mystery/psychological thriller about a mall cop obsessed with discovering who killed his pregnant wife. There’s a very Lynchean vibe (hazy and unsettling) that pervades the film too; I'm not sure if it was only me.

  The cinematography is really great; I really loved the use of space and those few dream sequences, like the camera running towards John from the darkness to…

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  Review by Josiah Morgan ★★★★★ 6

  I love how Refn utilizes dead space to gradually build a sense of fear showing everything in its most abstract sense before telling us outright what it is, leading us to ultimate ruination as we no longer bother to track the film once it ultimately begins to cave in on itself.

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  Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★ 3

  ”All that talk never prepared me for the reality.”

  Fear X is like Memento without the backwards editing; surprisingly the former came out two years after the latter and YET STILL, there is not as much imagination or creativity.

  To his credit, Nicolas Winding Refn cast good actors at least. Canadian-born Deborah Kara Unger ranks among one of the most underrated actresses of all time. Why she never received better scripts is beyond me. Refn also had the foresight to cast John Turturro as Harry, a man who is aiming to avenge his wife's death.

  There's some thoughtful cinematography. There are some hallway scenes that evoke Refn's later Only God Forgives and Neon Demon. But then, they really evoke Stanley…

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  Review by Evan “Raymond Gun-Virus” Pincus ★★★★★ 3

  Makes Only God Forgives look like Crank: High Voltage.

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  Review by matthewcutchen ★★★★ 6

  Fargo meets Lost Highway.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  *
  ( the “john turturro has a bad time in a hotel” universe
  )

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  Review by Matt ★★★ 5

  My Nicolas Winding Refn bingo card looked like this afterwards:

  - softly lit corridors and/or neons ✔️
  - great soundtrack or score ✔️
  - woebegone characters ✔️
  - questionable portrayal/treatment of women ✔️
  - everything is bleak ✔️
  - Ryan Gosling ❌
  - decades between lines of dialogue ✔️
  - an excellent taciturn lead performance ✔️
  - sporadic ultraviolence ❌
  - resolution ❌
  - did Refn give a fuck? ❌

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  Review by ♠ Benja ♠ ★★★★½

  NWR's first English language film is a subdued, almost contemplative psychological thriller that presents the danish director at his most straightforward in narrative but vague in thought, and steadily delivers more "X" than "Fear".

  With subtle red neon lighting contrasted with dark spaces and tonally flawless soundscape design, Refn crafts a meditation on obsession ingrained in unhealed wounds, and the dead zone that we inhabit when the pursuit/uncovering of the truth doesn't fulfill the need for a definitive answer.

  Turturro here delivers a masterful lowkey performance, a performance that could have been easily senseless, but with the right and adept subtleties, Turturro and his absent expression, tormented and barely hopeful gaze, creeps under your skin.

  I can't get enough of Refn, truly a master filmmaker in the making.

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  Review by Grooveman ★★★★½ 9

  Would make a great companion piece to Vallhalla Rising. Like Rising it's more of a mood film than narrative driven. This is his most Lynchian film by far.

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  Review by Josiah Morgan ★★★★★ 9

  Wow what the heck? It's the blueprint for all those indie crime films we've seen lately like Cold In July and Blue Ruin but also services as what a film like Memento would have been with a stronger emotional core, Refn channels the minimalist filmmaking of Dreyer alongside his own refined style all combining to create one of the most nuanced and unpredictable films I've seen.