The Fear (1966)

• Year: 1966
• Released: 09 Oct 1967
• Country: Greece
• Adwords: 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144935/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_fear
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Greek
• MPA Rating: N/A
• Genre: Crime, Drama
• Runtime: 102 min
• Writer: Kostas Manoussakis
• Director: Kostas Manoussakis
• Cast: Elli Fotiou, Anestis Vlahos, Spyros Fokas
• Keywords: rape, deaf-mute, murder,

7.6/10

The Fear Storyline

West of Thebes, Lake Copais, in Boeotia, Greece. As sweet wine and vile passions numb his deep-seated emotional pain, Dimitros Kanalis, a despotic landowner and failed paterfamilias, returns home after yet another night of debauchery. After all, some things never change. In the meantime, Dimitros is preparing for the wheat harvest and the upcoming visit of his daughter Anna, a sophisticated lady from his second marriage. However, the rugged farmer is unaware that insatiable carnal desires and pent-up sexual frustration have clouded the mind of his social outcast son, Anestis. Suddenly, timid Chrysa, Dimitros’ foster daughter and religious deaf-mute, goes missing. Now, a monster is on the loose. But fear is a ferocious, untameable beast gnawing at sinners day and night. Where is Chrysa? Does anyone know what has happened to the poor girl?—Nick Riganas

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The Fear Movie Reviews

Ponderous, Overwrought Greek Tragedy

This ponderous Greek melodrama relates the misfortunes of a Greek farm family whose basic unhappiness is unendurably intensified by the misdeeds of the sexually frustrated son. Anestis, who is in his mid-20s and is neurotically driven to voyeurism and then to the grotesque rape of the family’s deaf-mute maidservant, whom he afterwards murders. Apart from the unhappily wed parents there is a pretty young sister who is confronted with the tragedy when she returns from boarding school. The contrast between the brother, who is a borderline sociopath, and the very normal sister forms a prolonged tension in the movie’s second half, where her marriage, the only happy point of the film, is ultimately juxtaposed with the after effects of the murder. The movie is carefully structured to be hard-hitting but is mostly overwrought melodrama.

Superbly powerful performance by Anestis Vlahos….

Anestis, the son of Demitrios, is a psychologically and emotionally crippled young man, harshly treated by his tyrannical father and bitter stepmother. Demetrios rules his family and his big wheat farm with an iron hand even though he himself reserves the right to go get drunk and take up with whores whenever it suits him. Anestis is a bit slow and socially undeveloped, the butt of the other young men in the village who taunt him for never having known a woman sexually though he is nearly 30. No one has ever been kind to him in his whole life…he has never known love or approval. Driven by his needs and unsatisfied lust aroused by his frequent voyeurism, he traps a saintly, beautiful deaf-mute hired girl who was milking the goats in the barn. Unable to control himself, he rapes her as she is deaf to his pleas. About to be discovered, he tries to calm her down but she is hysterical, so in panic he shakes her against a wall and unintentionally crushes her skull, killing her. Her fear is now his and his guilt and remorse destroy what little sense is left in him…. The stepmother soon finds the body he hid under some hay and knows that he murdered her…in contempt and hatred for him she and his father help him to dispose of the body in the nearby lake, believing that the townspeople will lynch the whole family if it’s ever found out. Ridden with horror at his crime, Anestis is forced to dance at his stepsister’s wedding but his eyes are full of guilt and fear of discovery. He constantly breaks into sweats and in a state of near nervous collapse. The superb acting by Anestis Vlahos is unforgettable, the portrayal of a weak and twisted man who never even thought of committing such an heinous crime is so powerful you will actually feel sympathy for the unfortunate man who became both rapist and murderer. The beautiful black and white cinematography is stark and brooding, underscoring the tragedy and the fear.

Superior craftsmanship in the service of a cliched story

On a technical level, “Fovos” aka “Fear” must be one of the best serious Greek films of the 1960s: a stark psychodrama, possibly influenced by Ingmar Bergman, artistically directed, with lots of unusual and expressive camera angles, building to a feverish crescendo. On a story level, it’s the umpteenth variation on the animalistic-and-sexually-frustrated-to-the-point-of-psychosis-farm-boy theme. First-rate cast, with an unrecognizable Mairi Hronopoulou playing (very convincingly!) the mother of an actress only 8 years younger than her. **1/2 out of 4.