Fear Pharm Double Pack (Blu-ray Review)
RATED: UR/Region: O/widescreen/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1
AVAILABLE FROM Indican Pictures
Fear PHarm (2020)
DIRECTED BY: Dante Yore
STARRING: Tiana Tuttle, Mario Rocha, Emily Sweet
Fear PHarm – GMO: Genetically Modified Originality (Not Included)
Ah, Fear PHarm (2020). The movie that bravely asked, “What if a haunted attraction… but make it corn?” And then answered that question with 90 minutes of aggressively adequate horror.
The premise is pure modern indie energy: a group of influencers (already a red flag) get invited to preview a trendy, extreme Halloween attraction at a rural farm. Because nothing says “this will end well” like driving into the middle of nowhere to livestream your own bad decisions.
The film tries very hard to be edgy and relevant. Social media satire? Check. Creepy rural family with secrets? Check. A title that thinks it’s extremely clever because it spelled “farm” with a PH? Painfully check.
To its credit, Fear PHarm isn’t completely useless. The production value is solid for an indie horror flick. The farm setting has some atmosphere — cornfields at night will always do at least 40% of the work for you. There are a few genuinely decent gore moments that feel like someone on the effects team said, “Okay, if we’re doing this, let’s at least make it messy.”
But the characters? Oof. Watching influencers panic is satisfying in theory, but the script gives them personalities roughly equivalent to unseasoned tofu. You’re not rooting for them so much as waiting to see how creatively they’ll be removed from the narrative. The dialogue often feels like it was reverse-engineered from a hashtag.
And the pacing… let’s just say there are stretches where you’ll have enough time to check your own social media and confirm that yes, you are in fact watching a movie about people who should have stayed home.
Still, it’s not a total crop failure. When the film leans into its slasher roots instead of trying to make commentary about “society,” it’s mildly entertaining. The villains have a certain grindhouse-lite vibe, and there’s a scrappy sincerity to the whole production. It feels like a movie made by people who genuinely love horror — even if they’re still figuring out how to make it stand out.
In the end, Fear PHarm is the cinematic equivalent of a haunted hayride: you know exactly what’s coming, the scares are mostly predictable, but you’ll probably get a few decent jolts along the way.
Just don’t expect a harvest of originality. This crop was grown from very familiar seeds.
Fear PHarm 2 (2021)
DIRECTED BY: Dante Yore
STARRING: John Littlefield, Nadine Stenovitch, Tiana Tuttle
Fear PHarm 2 – The Corn Also Rises (Unfortunately)
Because nothing says “unfinished business” like returning to the exact same cornfield where your life choices already went to die, Fear PHarm 2 doubles down on everything the first movie did… and then adds more yelling.
Picking up after the events of the original, this sequel wastes absolutely no time reminding you that trauma is temporary but franchise potential is forever. Survivors? Back. Creepy farm family? Still creepy. Social media satire? Somehow even louder. Growth? Let’s not get carried away.
To its credit, Fear PHarm 2 does move a little faster than the first film. The body count ramps up quicker, the gore is turned up a notch, and there’s a clear understanding that subtlety was never on the menu. When it gets nasty, it commits — and some of the practical effects are genuinely gnarly in that low-budget, “we spent the entire props budget on fake blood” kind of way.
But oh, the dialogue.
If the first movie felt like it was written by someone who skimmed Instagram once, this one feels like it was written during a heated argument about followers and brand deals. The attempts at cultural commentary land with all the grace of a scarecrow in a windstorm. It wants to say something about fame, exploitation, and online validation — and instead mostly says, “Wouldn’t it be wild if this cornfield was symbolic?”
The performances range from serviceable to “did they just finish reading the line off a cue card?” And yet, there’s a strange, scrappy determination to the whole thing. You can feel the filmmakers trying. They’re not phoning it in — they’re sprinting directly at chaos with admirable confidence.
Visually, it’s solid for an indie horror sequel. The farm setting still does a lot of heavy lifting. Corn remains undefeated as a horror aesthetic. At night, it’s creepy. During the day, it’s slightly less creepy but still full of bad decisions.
Is Fear PHarm 2 necessary? No. Is it better than it absolutely had to be? Slightly. It leans harder into its slasher instincts, embraces the absurdity, and at least understands that if you’re making a sequel to a movie called Fear PHarm, you might as well go full fertilizer.
In the end, it’s louder, bloodier, and just self-aware enough to avoid total crop failure.
But if there’s a Fear PHarm 3, I expect the corn to start negotiating for top billing.
