Having run out of ideas once and for all, Hollywood now plans to remake the 1996 Mark Wahlberg/Reese Witherspoon thriller Fear. Good luck trying to recapture that ’90s movie magic!
Remember Fear? The ’90s thriller featuring a scene where Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon share a romantic evening on a roller coaster? It’s back! Deadline reports a Fear remake is in the works with Straight Outta Compton co-writer Jonathan Herman penning the script. Details of the remake are slim, but the script will tell the story from “a female perspective.”
The original Fear starred Witherspoon as a suburban teen who falls for a good-looking bad boy played by Wahlberg. Witherspoon and Wahlberg’s relationship starts off innocently enough, but Witherspoon’s dad (William Petersen) is instantly suspicious of Wahlberg. It turns out his suspicions are justified, because Wahlberg’s character turns out to be a lunatic. Here’s an entertaining synopsis.
Mark Wahlberg stars in one of his first features as a hoodlum drug dealer from the wrong side of the trackswho falls in love with Nicole Walker, an upper-middle-class high school girl (Reese Witherspoon). In this psycho-drama (with the emphasis on psycho), Nicole happily loses her virginity to her first love, but, when she begins to doubt the relationship, his tenderness turns to violence, as he stalks and terrorizes her and her friends and family. The girl’s father never trusted him in the first place, but his reservations about his daughter’s first serious boyfriend are interpreted as Oedipal paranoia, until the boy and his drug-dealing, date-raping buddies besiege the overly fortified house in a twisted attempt to win back Nicole’s love. The Seattle setting juxtaposes a grunge rock underworld with an over-privileged suburban household, and includes a very sexual ride on a roller-coaster. And yes, former underwear model Wahlberg appears shirtless several times.
I don’t think anyone would call Fear a “good” movie, but it certainly had its moments, like a scene where Wahlberg’s character punches his own chest over and over again to frame Witherspoon’s dad for assault. There was also a scene that was featured in TV spots, where Wahlberg’s character screams into a peephole, his image distorted by a fish-eye lens. Please feel free to watch the trailer and enjoy how ‘90s it all looks.
Fear Trailer
Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time a Fear remake has come up. Back in 2012, there was an odd rumor of a Fear remake starring pop star Justin Bieber. Original Fear star Reese Witherspoon was asked about the Beiber remake, and offered this laid-back reply: “Fine. Great. That would be cool.” Needless to say, the Bieber starring Fear never happened.
For more Fear fun, here’s the vintage review from the late, great critics Siskel & Ebert. Siskel calls it “trashy” while Ebert says it was “surprisingly suspenseful.”
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