[Fantastic Fest 2022 Review] DEEP FEAR

Spoilers ahead

As an avid horror fan, I love stories of the Paris catacombs. Tales about spirits and creatures do not feel far-fetched in a place housing thousands of skeletal remains. As Above, So Below remains my favorite film because it blends the supernatural with the historical figure Nicolas Flamel. DEEP FEAR, directed by Grégory Beghin and written by Nicolas Tackian, playing at Fantastic Fest, follows a similar blueprint to my number one. Thanks to its opening, DEEP FEAR builds dread as you wait to see what’s around the corner, but in the end, it is just a Nazi and his dog.

Taking place in 1991, Sonia (Sofia Lesaffre) has two dear friends visiting her, Max (Kassim Meesters) and Henry (Victor Meutelet), before Henry goes into military service. Wanting to do something memorable, Sonia seeks assistance from a new friend, Ramy (Joseph Olivennes), who takes them on a trip into the Paris catacombs. As they go deeper, their trip grows less entertaining, and they wind up in a battle for survival.

Some Moments Feel Pointless Or Rushed Through

The night before they go, Sonia has a nightmare: skinheads break into her home and attack them. Sonia shrugs it off and, after some fun in the catacombs, they run into those same skinheads. While I believe bad dreams sometimes warn us about a trip or person, nothing else comes of that. So either she has precognitive abilities that are useless and unexplored in the rest of the film, or it is a cheap scare tactic for the viewer with no other value.

The other mystery they rush through is the missing cataphile from the opening. The group meets other cataphiles, and Henry talks with Lamia (Lêone Francois-Janssens), who is searching for the young man, her brother. Easy to see Henry crushing on Lamia, but that relationship fizzles out quickly. Though entertaining, DEEP FEAR dips into too many pointless moments that go nowhere.

A Tale of A Spindly Nazi And His Emaciated Dog

While I appreciate the route DEEP FEAR chooses, it feels even more unbelievable than spirits attacking. I know that sounds odd, but the ‘if’ factor is at play here. If there was a spirit, the challenge is killing something already dead. That is terrifying. Here, it is an old Nazi that has stayed below since WWII and his dog. Both look malnourished; the dog looks like a damn twig. Yet a group of three men and a woman struggled to fight them. A punt to the head would decapitate that dog. Perhaps there is nothing worse than a Nazi who does not know they lost the war, but this old cataract-looking Nazi should not be able to punch this group’s tickets like this.

DEEP FEAR’s build-up is top-notch as you try to figure out the danger and when it is coming. But when you see their foes, you go, “That’s it…a gaunt Nazi and a knockoff Resident Evil dog sans the T-virus.” There is not enough in DEEP FEAR for me to suspend disbelief when that Nazi looks like he has not seen sunlit in decades, and I know he is not Door Dashing his meals. Some viewers may enjoy this, but, for me, a horror film is only as good as its monsters, and DEEP FEAR does not deliver. It is a bad film, but the wasted potential is frustrating.