Fear of Rain Blu-ray 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.
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Fear of Rain Blu-ray, News and Updates
• Fear of Rain Blu-ray – December 16, 2020
Lionsgate Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray Castille Landon’s thriller Fear of Rain (2020), starring Katherine Heigl, Madison Iseman, Harry Connick Jr., Israel Broussard, and Enuka Okuma. The release will be available …