IN FEAR (2013) Blu-ray review

In Fear (2013) d. Jeremy Lovering (UK)

Despite its ridiculously generic title, this latest Brit export starts off as one of the more promising white-knuckle thrillers we’ve seen in a while. The set-up is simplicity itself: only a couple weeks into their relationship, a young couple decide to take a road trip to Ireland for a music festival and some camping. Unbeknownst to Lucy (Alice Englert), Tom (Iain De Caestecker) has designs for a romantic getaway at a secluded hotel, directions to said lodging cordially provided by following the establishment’s vehicle. But after being escorted to the hotel’s driveway, the truck departs, leaving our heroes to find their way via helpful handy signs with helpful handy arrows that only lead them deeper into the twisted back roads and helplessly in circles. As night falls and fuel levels slowly ebb, the two young would-be lovers desperately search for a way out. And then Lucy sees a white-masked figure in the dark....

GRAND PIANO (2013) movie review

Grand Piano (2013) d. Eugenio Mira (Spain)

Returning to the stage for the first time in five years, former wunderkind concert pianist Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) is wrestling with an understandable case of stage fright. But with his glam actress wife (Kerry Bishé) looking on from the opera box, he’s poised to make a grand success (recovering from his last disastrous public appearance, where he blew the crucial climax of the “Unplayable Sonata”) until he turns a page in his musical score mid-concert to find a red-pen-scribbled note: “Play one wrong note and you die.” Soon, the red dot of a laser-sighted rifle is dancing alongside his fingertips, while a menacing voice (John Cusack) via earpiece goads him toward perfection. But why?