Fear X might be the most underappreciated movie in the history of modern cinema. Which is especially weird since it's one of the more consistent works from Nicolas Winding Refn, a well known director.

Watching a Refn movie is always a very intriguing and sometimes frustrating experience. His early crime dramas, like this one, provide an honest glimpse into the mind of the director, although very raw. Even though I would agree those movies lack the depth the ones later on his career have, they feel more natural, almost like a normal movie for normal people. It's like watching the making of a great director while he is discovering himself before his ego gets too inflated and/or he loses himself.

The first part of this film is exceptionally made. The amazing use of silence to increase the tension, the surrealistic imagery to increase the sense of fear, the senseless search for clues to illustrate the desperation. But then, in the second part, it starts to fall off. Turturro is a very good actor and delivers a great performance, but the rest of the cast is not on the same league, and it shows on the scenes where they have to step up and support Turturro. The dialogue is also very rough at some points (not a surprise coming from Refn).

Overall, this movie joins Cohen's dry and realistic narrative with Lynch's surrealism and delivers a very solid work of art. With a better supporting cast it could have been a real classic.

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