Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

A Fantastic Fear of Everything Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf June 12, 2017

“A Fantastic Fear of Everything” is an acquired taste, submitting such an itchy, darkly comic atmosphere that’s utterly guaranteed to energize those in step with its madness, while others will find the enterprise an overly mannered grind to get through. It’s polarizing work that carries immense creativity and sharp sense of humor, burrowing into the spinning mind of a destructively phobic man during an intense period of suspicion. Thankfully, star Simon Pegg is up for the challenge, bringing to the screen a truly scattered character who’s hilariously bound by his fears, articulated with all the spasms and pauses the actor is particularly skilled at delivering.

Jack (Simon Pegg) is a frazzled guy managing profound parental abandonment issues, with his daily routine one of pure terror with nearly everything he encounters. An author putting together a book on serial killers, the research has gone to Jack’s head, finding his life haunted by nightmarish imagery and constant awareness of his own mortality. Holing up inside his decrepit apartment, Jack is contacted by his agent, Clair (Clare Higgins), who informs the loner of interest in his work, demanding the agoraphobic one travel across town to a dinner meeting to discuss the details. While bravely determined to make the journey, Jack first has to deal with washing his clothes in a laundromat, a task that’s especially difficult for the man, who also has to sort out a burned face, a knife superglued to his hand, and particularly forward Vietnamese employees to successfully execute an evening of clean clothes and professional conversation.

“A Fantastic Fear of Everything” confronts an uncommon cinematic challenge with its limited resources, attacking the world of an obsessive man with only half of the picture set outside his apartment. Director Crispian Mills conjures the sinister realms of Tim Burton and Sam Raimi for his debut feature, turning a potentially suffocating atmosphere into a carnival of impulses and suspicions, tracking Jack’s struggles to deduce the evil he’s convinced is after him at all times (a terror brought on by his full immersion into the histories of brutal murderers). It’s a tricky tonal tightrope to walk, yet the ornate design of “A Fantastic Fear of Everything” really sells the grimly giddy antics, with the frame packed tight with details, while exquisite offerings of animation and specific lighting helps to dial down the tension, keeping the effort highly theatrical in an agreeable manner. While working with a troubling storyline of a prolonged nervous breakdown, Mills sustains a level of visual mischief that’s always amusing to study, introducing necessary oxygen to an otherwise stifling movie.

Also coming to the rescue is Pegg, whose sly gifts with silly business go a long way to keep “A Fantastic Fear of Everything” approachable, especially when the material steps into some darker psychological corners. It’s a tightly wound performance with a full-bodied commitment, maintaining Jack’s disheveled appearance and persistent face of fright. It’s also hilarious work, bringing Jack’s burning manner of thought to a speedy internal monologue, while physically responding to persistent threats in a broad manner that captures the irrationality of the role with ideal flexibility. Pegg’s the one keeping the film on task when the screenplay gets a little lost in the details, and he’s enormous fun to watch, especially when Jack escalates his fear to a point of no return.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation offers terrific sharpness for "A Fantastic Fear of Everything," at its best inspecting set ornamentation and make-up achievements. Jack's apartment alone provides a wealth of textures and oddball sights, offered with precise clarity to aid the viewing experience, and actors retain their various stages of disrepair, showcasing creased facial particulars. Distances are also open for inspection. Colors are bright and bold, offering sickly yellows for interior light sources, and a sustained wash of red for the finale. Delineation remains intact, preserving frame information with shadowy cinematography that favors a lot of dark spaces. Some banding is detected.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix also benefits from active filmmaking, finding Jack's strange world of nightmares and phobias superbly detailed on the track. Dialogue exchanges are crisp and tight, handling a wide range of hushed conversations and loud reactions, never slipping into distortive extremes. Accents are sharp, easy to follow. Scoring is supportive and clear, with precise instrumentation, and soundtrack selections are pleasingly loud, commanding scenes with depth and low-end thump. Surrounds are utilized throughout, providing room dimension and emphasizing echoed hypnotic narration, while sound effects move around the room with vigor. Atmospherics are effective, getting a sense of claustrophobia and open city streets.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary features actor Simon Pegg, writer/director Crispian Mills, and co-director Chris Hopewell.

• Deleted Scenes (16:45, HD) extend Jack's nightmares and an early lunch with his literary agent, and there are a few more apartment horrors to enjoy.

• "A Very British Banana" (14:04, HD) is the official making of for "A Fantastic Fear of Everything," using interviews with key cast and crew (including Pegg and Mills) to explore how the film came to be. While interviews are conducted on-set, limiting hindsight, the featurette manages to convey creative and narrative intent, examining select achievements in performance and stop-motion animation.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (1:57, HD) is included.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The second half of "A Fantastic Fear of Everything" takes the action to the dreaded laundromat, where Jack must confront his shattered childhood and deal with deceptively simple washing machine instructions. There's also something of a confirmation of the author's paranoia, leading to an exhausting conclusion with limited comedic value and the booming hair metal sound of Europe. However, there's really no clean way out of "A Fantastic Fear of Everything," which constructs such an intricate web of anxiety, it locks itself into a routine of nervous energy that's better left without a direct conclusion. A happy ending seems false, but there's enough inspired madness flowing around the feature that a little optimism can be forgiven.