Getting the characters of Fear the Night to their destination is easy because movies have convinced everyone that brides-to-be and their loved ones are all itching to have bachelorette parties in the middle of nowhere. As if the zero cellphone reception, the run-down amenities, and general remoteness weren’t enticing enough, this hapless bridal party has some unnecessary male attention to deal with. These men, of course, aren’t garden-variety dopes; they’re something else entirely, and only Maggie Q‘s character notices.
When Tess and Beth (respectively played by Q and Kat Foster) are first introduced, they’re having a minor but incredibly passive-aggressive argument between sisters. Things soon escalate with Beth coming across as the most unnecessarily hostile of the two. For instance, she indirectly accuses Tess of looking for liquor — Tess is a veteran who has an alcohol use disorder — and she randomly orders Tess not to swear around her daughter. Who, by the way, is nowhere to be seen in the movie. There’s clearly some history between Tess and Beth, but unfortunately director/writer Neil LaBute drops the ball once the action fires up.
At their parents’ isolated farmhouse somewhere in the California hills, Tess and Beth, along with a few friends, are honoring their sister Rose (Highdee Kuan) before she ties the knot. Tess notices the farm’s male caretakers are acting mighty shifty, yet in all fairness, she is distrustful of all men. The way she picks a fight with three random guys earlier at a convenience store bites Tess in the ass later, although not in quite the way expected. The movie eventually intensifies Tess and Beth’s quarreling, so once the home invasion finally begins, the audience is relieved. There’s still tension, but now it’s not of the family-dispute variety.
Taking a page out of You’re Next, Maggie Q’s character naturally becomes this hen party’s only chance of survival as several masked intruders storm the farmhouse with arrows, demands, and threats. Weirdly, though, Fear the Night doesn’t have a lot of action scenes; most of the time, the women are strategizing and hand-wringing rather than reacting like cornered animals. There is more infighting than actual fighting. It’s realistic, but boring. Nevertheless, more instances of Q taking on the bad guys could have added excitement as well as made viewers more forgiving.
All throughout Fear the Night, the question of whether or not this is a disguised satire might come up. Knowing LaBute’s history as a filmmaker, it’s not out of the question to think the clichés and derivative developments, the cursory characterization, and the stereotypical gender dynamics all are part of something far less earnest. It wouldn’t be the first time that LaBute used extremes to make a point about society and sexism. Then again, that just might be wishful thinking.
As frustrating and disappointing as Fear the Night is, the worst part is knowing it could have been better with some fine-tuning here and there. Maggie Q and Kat Foster don’t play simple characters; there’s a lot more to their story, however, like most things in this home-invasion thriller, their development is lacking.
Tales from the Paulside 
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