‘As a Prelude to Fear’ Review
Stars: Francis Magee, Lara Lemon, Lucy Drive, Jamie Langlands, Melissa Hollett, Tom Clear, Owen Llwelyn, Roger Wyatt, Peter Rayfield, Amelia Armande, Ron McMillan, Nicola Boreham | Written by Steph Du Melo, Jacob Coen, Roger Wyatt | Directed by Steph Du Melo
As a Prelude to Fear is one of two new horrors from Steph Du Melo and MeloMediaFilms and when I say new horrors I mean new BRITISH horrors. Yes folks, we have a newcomer to the UK horror scene, something we keep a close eye on here at Nerdly (that’s why we sponsor both Grimmfest and the Romford Horror Festival), coming out the gate with not one but two films – both of which we’ll be reviewing this week and both of which tackle very different aspects of the genre.
The film tells the story of a young cellist called Eve Taylor (Lara Lemon) who gets kidnapped and imprisoned in a dungeon-like basement, Police Detective Barnbrooke (Francis Magee) believes it is the work of the notorious psychopath the media has named “The Pied Piper”. But having failed to stop him in over fourteen years and with three other girls missing-presumed dead, Police Detective Barnbrooke knows all too well that if he can’t pin down his only suspect this time, that Eve will find the same fate as the other Pied Piper Victims. Knowing the identity of the Pied Piper is one thing, but proving it in time is a different deadlier story.
As a Prelude to Fear starts off really strong, a captive woman is strung up with chains and the seabed and left to bleed out – it’s the kind of opening that grans your attention and gives you hope for what is to come. Hope that we get a decent, tense horror film as strong as the prologue. Of course, the capture and torture of women is a long-standing trope in the genre so it would take something truly great to make Steph Du Melo’s film stand out. And there it is – a musician offering his services to teach young women how to better their performances hiding the true intention of kidnap and imprisonment… Feels like a plot that an Italian Giallo filmmaker may have used back in the day.
And that’s how As a Prelude to Fear plays out, intermingling a police investigation, the investigation of Eve’s boyfriend into his missing partner and what’s happening to Eve and the other captives, for yes there is more than one woman held by this film’s psycho, in the kind of murder-mystery style that Giallo fans will be more than accustomed to. Only here we don’t get multiple suspects, rather one – the original man suspected of being the “Pied Piper” in the original case. Du Melo’s film also has that “torture porn” element to it – only the torture here is forcing women to play perfectly and punishing them when they don’t. And that punishment is pretty much all off-screen as we witness Eve’s horror at what she sees and hears. The entire thing, the capture, being forced to play music – as someone who’s seen a lot of horror films over the years – actually all feels very familiar. In fact, it’s very much of the Phantom of the Opera mould…
Interestingly, while Du Melo’s film has three distinct plot threads, As a Prelude to Fear is also stylistically a film of two halves. The scenes in which we follow Eve look totally different from the rest of the film, I’m not sure whether it was a choice or purely down to the equipment used (perhaps some of the scenes were shot by the second unit?). THOSE scenes look like a big-budget genre film, whereas some scenes – in particular, those featuring Eve’s boyfriend – look like they’re from a much low-budgeted film. It’s odd and, as you can probably tell, completely noticeable. So much so that, at times, it becomes something of a distraction. As does the sometimes stilted delivery of the script, which, from some members of the cast literally feels like they’re reading straight from the page rather than getting into the emotional spirit of proceedings (or into character).
Other than that, As a Prelude to Fear is a pretty impressive first (or is it second?) outing for co-writer and director Steph Du Melo. The film certainly looks a lot more polished than other British genre fare we’ve seen in the past – even with that one huge glaring mistake in the denouement that didn’t escape me. Even so, based on As a Prelude to Fear I’m more than interested to see what comes next from Du Melo!
