Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Fear of Rain Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 19, 2021

One of the kind of interesting things about what might be called this “Covid Age” is the rather brief window between some supposed “theatrical” releases and subsequent appearances on home video. I’m pretty sure it was only last week that I saw a Variety article about Fear of Rain’s ostensible “exhibition”, and, lo and behold, here it is already on Blu-ray. Now, in days of yore (in other words, pre-Covid Age), a release coming out on home video either without a “real” theatrical release or coming very soon thereafter typically augured a less than stellar effort, and so some may simply assume that Fear of Rain is a standard “straight to video” knockoff type of movie. In some ways, that may in fact be true, but the film has some rather interesting twists and turns along the way. The whole "DTV" aspect some may inherently feel about this enterprise just by its release strategy may be reinforced by the very opening scene, which documents the hoariest of hoary horror tropes, namely a panicked young woman running through the wilderness while some shadowy, menacing figure chases her. It's been seen countless times before (and no doubt will be seen countless times again), and about the only distinguishing factor in the scene is the spooky looking Spanish Moss hanging from the Florida trees. This opening sequence is a complete misdirect, however, as it turns out it's a hallucination being suffered by a schizophrenic teen improbably named Rain (Madison Iseman). When "reality" kicks in, she's in a hospital being restrained and injected with a sedative while her obviously fraught and concerned parents Michelle (Katherine Heigl) and John (Harry Connick, Jr.) look on in understandably abject worry.

Now, soon enough Fear of Rain is also trafficking in several other hoary tropes, including a riff on Rear Window, wherein Rain, suffering a more mental disability than Jimmy Stewart's broken legged character in the Hitchcock classic, becomes convinced that her neighbor, who also happens to be one of her high school teachers, a harridan named Dani McConnell (Eugenie Bondurant), is up to no good next door. If that villainy doesn't include murder (yet, anyway), it at least involves child abduction, though in time honored tradition, everyone (understandably given her, you know, schizophrenia) keeps telling Rain she's crazy. While Rain is shunned by her former friends at school, new kid Caleb (Israel Broussard) is completely supportive, though there's the little problem that Rain's father John insists he's imaginary.

You can already probably sense the contrivances being constructed without a great amount of subtlety, though probably commendably, Fear of Rain has its definite moments of angst despite its overly baroque plot elements. In that regard, I'm about to allude to if not outright reveal a certain conceit, so those with an aversion to potential spoiler material are urged to divert their eyes now. Any film that features a mentally ill character and which explicitly references an imaginary character is no doubt going to remind some folks of A Beautiful Mind, and the fact that the film is so overt in this regard that those with any sense about screenwriters' evident needs to "surprise" viewers will mean that what is being discussed right there on the surface is not in fact what's going on, and of course that turns out to be the case here as well. Most alert audience members are going to at least sense something is up with all this subterfuge, but at least for me personally, the supposed "twist" was really not very much of a surprise.

The film does feature some genuinely well done performances, even if Madison Iseman is consigned to either being hysterical or steely. Iseman bears a rather startling resemblance to Elisabeth Röhm, and some enterprising casting director should really consider teaming the actresses as either differently aged versions of the same character or at least siblings. In what may be intentionally underwritten roles, Heigl, Connick Jr. and Broussard all do good work as well. Bondurant is also fun as the sort of nightmare English teacher you'd never want to experience in school, and especially next door.

One potential stumbling block some with a personal or familial experience with mental illness may fault the film for is its happy ending. This is yet another way in which Fear of Rain completely meets instead of avoiding expectations, with a wrap up that seems to suggest that all you need to do is free a captive child and — poof! — your schizophrenia is magically cured.

Fear of Rain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fear of Rain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is another contemporary release where I just haven't been able to track down any authoritative technical data, but I'm assuming this was digitally captured and finished at a 2K DI. The results are certainly competent if never really mind blowing. The best parts of this presentation are the hallucinatory elements which can obviously work toward the detriment of fine detail with regard to things like skewed framings, fisheye lenses and pushed contrast, but which lend the film a kind of visceral intensity. When dealing in supposed "reality", the presentation offers consistent detail levels for the most part, though the big wrap up is shrouded in darkness and even outside material doesn't offer a ton of shadow definition. Just a few of the low light moments can look slightly noisy at times. A kind of sporadically used conceit whereby some of Rain's inner thoughts (and/or writings) appear in script across the screen and then kind of waft away like clouds in the wind are interesting, but might strike some as seeming overly pretentious.

Fear of Rain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fear of Rain has a nicely layered sound design which offers some nightmare sonics in Rain's most addled moments. Hallucinatory sounds can rush in from the side and rear channels and then disburse again, and the result is often quite evocative. "Normal" moments provide at least background clamor in some of the high school scenes. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentations. Optional English, English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available.

Fear of Rain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Collective Fear: A Conversation (1080p; 32:51) is an above average piece with quite a few good interviews kinda sorta moderated by Harry Connick, Jr. in a Zoom-like atmosphere that I assume was necessitated by the varies of Covid-19.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:37)

Fear of Rain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Have you seen Fear of Rain before? Yep, probably. That said, the film toys with its premise in a relatively decent fashion, and both the aesthetic of depicting the roiling inner world of a schizophrenic as well as the general acumen of the performances may lift this film, however slightly, above standard "DTV" fare. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.