Board a Roller Coaster and Cross Your Legs, It's Time to Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Fear
EntertainmentTwenty years ago today, Fear entered theaters and scared the living daylights out of parents and teens everywhere. Despite having the plot of a bad Lifetime movie, its solid performances and handsome production (the kind plenty of undeserving ‘90s movies were given) made Fear hard to laugh at. Even in 2016, it remains a chilling little movie—albeit one with questionable opinions about sex. (Specifically, that high school girls shouldn’t have it.)
Fear, as you probably know, tells the story of a 16-year-old “good girl” named Nicole (Reese Witherspoon) who falls for a bad boy with good pecs and a Boston accent that comes and goes named David (Mark Wahlberg), much to the alarm of her increasingly distant father, Steve (William Peterson), who thinks something’s up but can’t put his finger on it. After David figures out where to put his fingers, he and Nicole enjoy a few days of bliss, until he decides to kill her best friend. Their relationship eventually and understandably sours, so he decides to win her back by attempting to kill her entire family. Not the best plan, but psychopaths don’t always think things through.