THE FEAR: HALLOWEEN NIGHT (1999) Review
While it sure can’t be considered a classic of the horror genre, 1995’s The Fear has at least managed to make a name for itself as “that movie you might vaguely remember renting and watching on VHS back in the 1990s.” Freshly rediscovered and restored for a new Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome, The Fear has just been given a new chance at life here on the horror scene, and with it has come a pretty unexpected discovery by yours truly. Just four years after the release of The Fear, creepy mannequin Morty returned in a sequel?!
Titled The Fear: Resurrection or The Fear: Halloween Night, depending on who you ask or which you prefer, the one and only sequel to The Fear was released in 1999, written by Kevin Richards and directed by Chris Angel (not the magician, but rather the man who went on to direct the third and fourth installments of the Wishmaster franchise). Since it’s the title that’s plastered across my cardboard snap DVD case, we’ll call this one The Fear: Halloween Night, and it once again centers around the creepy human-sized mannequin man they call Morty.
For those who probably have little to no recollection of the first movie, allow me to briefly recap. In The Fear, a group of friends head out to a cabin in the woods to explore their own personal fears — and, ya know, do all the things friends do out in cabins in the woods in these types of horror movies — and joining them on the deadly vacation is a living, breathing, sentient mannequin named Morty. The film ultimately loses itself in a mess of different storylines that make it hard to even understand what role Morty actually even plays in the whole ordeal, with the character often sidelined in favor of far less interesting things than, well, a living, breathing mannequin man. But The Fear: Halloween Night is something of a course correction, and a clear attempt to make Morty into as much of a “horror icon” as he could possibly be. “He’s gonna make Jason and Freddy scream,” the ballsy tagline promises.
Playing out like a remake that’s at least trying to make sense of Morty’s existence, The Fear: Halloween Night once again sees a group of friends heading out to a cabin in the woods to explore and overcome their deepest, darkest fears, with main character Mike organizing a Halloween costume party for those very purposes. He instructs his pals to dress up as accurate personifications of their worst fears, and of course, the mannequin named Morty is along for the ride. This time around, we’re informed that Morty may be possessed by the evil spirit of Mike’s murderous father, who killed his mother when he was a child. Naturally, it’s not long — well, it actually kind of is, and we’ll touch on that in just a second here — before Morty is coming to life and dispatching these hapless victims according to their fears.
While The Fear had (misguided but ambitious) intentions beyond being just another slasher movie in the woods, The Fear: Halloween Night is far more comfortable being precisely that, introducing a new version of Morty who’s much more of a hulking, menacing brute than his Bicentennial Man-looking original incarnation. While undoubtedly creepy, Morty’s look in The Fear suggests a potential benevolent side to the mannequin man, but here in The Fear: Halloween Night, Morty might as well be played by Kane Hodder underneath the rubber wood suit. He’s a much thicker cut of wood this time around, so to speak, a muscular monstrosity who’s fully allowed to be the slasher villain you knew he wanted to be back in 1995. Here in 1999, Morty offers one-liners and is able to take on different forms, making him something of a mix between the two horror icons the tagline had the balls to call out. He’s finally having a little fun, you could say, cutting loose and trying to lead his own franchise into a new decade.
Of course, this being a low-budget 1990s slasher movie that you’ve probably never heard of, The Fear: Halloween Night doesn’t have all that much going for it beyond Morty’s highly amusing antics. The film sets the stage for its Halloween party early on and then makes you wait a tad bit too long for the fun to really begin, with the stock characters unable to muster up much interest in the meantime. They mostly just walk around killing time while the writers find obnoxious ways to introduce us to their fears. But to the film’s credit, main character Mike’s storyline is not entirely a whiff. Played by Gordon Currie, Mike is struggling with the trauma of his father having killed his mother, consumed by the idea of becoming a killer himself. Mike is hoping to exorcise those fears with a little help from Morty and his friends, convinced that if he doesn’t he’ll end up just like his father. The Fear similarly wrestled with childhood trauma involving fathers, mothers and sons, but The Fear: Halloween Night is arguably a whole lot more compelling, not to mention coherent, on that front.
What The Fear: Halloween Night doesn’t have, however, is the first film’s Wes Craven cameo that sets the stage for the psychological-slasher adventure, but that’s okay because the 1999 sequel does have another horror icon known for another slasher franchise. The late Betsy Palmer, who of course played Mrs. Voorhees in the original Friday the 13th, returned to the horror genre in The Fear: Halloween Night for the first time since the Friday the 13th movies, flipping the script on her most iconic character and this time around playing a warm, loving grandmother. It sure is great to see Palmer back in the horror genre in this one, and it’s notable for being one of the very few horror projects the actress took part in throughout her career. Clearly, it’s a bit of stunt casting intended to remind you of the Friday the 13th franchise, but Palmer is a delight in a role that allows her to be sweet and innocent.
Of course, it’s Morty who is the star of the show here, and the best parts of The Fear: Halloween Night have a good deal of fun exploring his Native American mythology and playing with his unique abilities. The fun begins in earnest when everyone gets into their Halloween costumes, the outfits representing common fears such as water, claustrophobia and snakes, and less conventional fears like the inability to make decisions and, well, one character puts on no costume at all because he claims he’s afraid of nothing. There’s always one. Naturally, Morty dispenses one-liners while throwing the guy who’s afraid of heights out a window, drowning the girl who’s afraid of blood in her own blood, and even taking the time to put the character who’s afraid of making decisions into a very Saw-like trap wherein he has to cut his own hand off with an axe in order to survive. Speaking of axes, Morty at one point transforms his own hand into an axe, and in the film’s true showstopper of a scene, he’s able to transform into a massive tree that stops the characters from escaping in their car.
Morty’s Freddy-like supernatural abilities are a new addition for The Fear: Halloween Night, and it’s hard not to wish that they had been played with a bit more. One character in the film dresses up in an impressive DIY shark costume for the Halloween party, for example, but Morty’s attack scene unfortunately never plays up that element. You get the sense while watching the 1999 sequel that Morty had a real shot at being something of a genuine slasher icon if he had fallen into better hands and been given enough movies to allow for that kind of growth, but alas, Halloween Night ended up being the character’s only return to the screen. Just when he was starting to find his footing, and the creators were starting to figure out how to properly utilize the character, Morty was gone. His first film largely forgotten, and his second film hardly ever seen in the first place. A sad fate for a failed horror icon, one of many who tried to become the next Freddy/Jason but never managed to catch on with audiences.
The second film is an improvement and the third one could’ve been even better. But it’s likely we’ll never again see Morty on the screen, so there’s no use in even wondering. As mentioned, the director of Halloween Night went on to take over the reins of the Wishmaster franchise, and audiences embraced the Djinn and left Morty in the dust. You deserved better, big guy.
