“Nothing Left to Fear” is the prime example of a horror movie that has nothing to offer, and tries to cover it up with fancy special effects and clunky metaphor. The problem is that even those gimmicks don’t work to conceal what is an amateur, tedious, and pointless remake of “The Wicker Man” where another group of people or persons become the sacrificial lambs to religious fanaticism. We know they’re the sacrificial lambs because when our characters The Bramfords arrive in their new town, they see a lamb being sacrificed. Get it? Foreshadowing! Symbolism!
The only thing “Nothing Left to Fear” has going for it are the presences of Jennifer Stone and Clancy Brown. And they’re both wasted in a movie where director Anthony Leonardi III really seemed to enjoy doling out lame special effects and pointless CGI for nothing more than rote hicksploitation. It feels like he was given the carte blanche at a budget for special effects, and spends about eighty percent of the movie giving us endless pointless jump scares and pixilated horror whenever he can. That and he really loves to set the camera on star Rebekah Brandes who plays Rebecca. Granted, she’s a very attractive and often buxom presence, but that becomes a mere afterthought when she fails to squeeze out even the most mundane line of dialogue convincingly. That’s a shame since the movie lives and breathes by her character’s experience in a small town in Kansas.
She’s the oldest daughter of a pastor who’s just uprooted his family to a small town to become the new pastor. But things seem weird when the town folks aren’t exactly welcoming, and she begins romancing an often dodgy hunk in town who is intent on seducing and romancing her. What for? Who knows? It’s never explained why she has to be targeted other than she’s very good looking. Really, the focus is pitted on Rebecca’s sister Mary (the aforementioned infinitely more talented, and more appealing Jennifer Stone), who becomes the prime target for the town’s devious plans. This involves possession, sacrifice (because the lambs, you see), and opening a portal of some kind.
Really, we’re told that the town is at the foot of a portal in to evil, and they’re tasked with sacrificing people to its demonic presence. Why? Who knows? All I’m curious is, if they’re anxious to keep the doorway closed, why do they open it and allow the entity to possess someone and wreak havoc on the world? Isn’t that kind of counter productive? The Bramfords have zero focus set on them, unless they’re sharing the screen with Brandes, so when they’re murdered, we never really care. We’re never given time to explore them, and understand them, thus they’re really just cannon fodder for the inevitable round of Pastor’s Busty Daughter vs. Sister from Dimension Evil. “Nothing Left to Fear” is a hundred minutes of nothing. It’s a mind numbing, and amateurishly directed horror outing that has really pretty special effects, and a really pretty main star. And nothing else.