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As a Prelude to Fear is one of the two new horrors from Steph Du Melo and MeloMediaFilms, and when I new horrors I mean new BRITISH horrors. Yes people, we have a newcomer to the UK horror scene- something that we carefully track here at Nerdly (that is why we sponsor both Grimfest and Romford Horror Festival) and they seem to be coming out the gate with not one but two films – both of which we will be reviewing this week and both of which look at the genre from very different perspectives.
Eve Taylor (Lara Lemon), the film’s protagonist is a cellist who gets abducted and locked in a basement type dungeon. Police Detective Barnbrooke (Francis Magee) suspects that this is the work of ‘The Pied Piper’ serial killer that has haunted the area for years. Barnbrooke also knows that for the past fourteen years he hasn’t been able to catch this man and there are three other missing girls that haven’t been found yet. The truth here is that if he doesn’t get the killer this time, Eve will end up just like all the other victims. Knowing who the man is is easy. But collecting evidence before he kills is the real danger.
As a Prelude to Fear begins strongly, showcasing a women drowning at the seabed while being chained; the scene develops utterly gruesome but captures the viewers attention instantly and surely brings some anticipation to the table. As the movie progresses one begins to hope for a gripping prologue that isn’t the pinnacle of horror. However, the abduction and torment of women is rather an amusing trope so one would need to get extremely creative for Steph Du Melo’s movie to be truly unique. Merely providing lessons to aspiring female performers under the guise of aiding them to improve their skills and using that as a cover for abducting and imprisoning them… Now this is a tale straight out of Italian Giallo.
And that’s how As a Prelude to Fear has been interspersed with a police investigation into the disappearance of Eve’s boyfriend and the mayhem that is inflicted upon Eve and the other characters who are held hostage by the movie’s psychiatrist, a Giallo-style psycho, While capturing the entire Giallo-style drama and mystery. But we do have here, as opposed to many different hypotheses, just one – the “Pied Piper” incarnation who has remained to be the central figure accused in the initial scenario. There is also that “torture porn” element that Du Melo’s film captures so spectacularly. Or rather it is portraying the “torture” in which women are forced to gloriously enact a role, but if they fail, they are talently punished. And that punishment is primarily absent on-screen, as we witness Eve’s nostagia from a distance of what she witnesses. The entire thing, the capture, the forcing to perform music is everything, as someone who has seen his share of nightmare flicks, such a culmination is achingly familiar. In all fairness, it fits in perfectly with the rest of what one has come to expect in the Phantom of the Opera.
It is interesting, to note while the perspective of the viewer to the entire thing, Du Melo’s film has 3 unlike canvas frames, and with the style in, As a Prelude to Fear is equally one of two halves.
Unlike the rest of the movie, the scenes where we follow Eve’s character seem remarkably different, Perhaps it was an artistic decision, or maybe it was just an issue of equipment used, or maybe some of the shots were done by the second unit. THOSE scenes resemble some really sophisticated and well made science fiction cinematic masterpiece, while some of the scenes, especially the ones with Eve and her boyfriend, look like they were shot in a poorly budgeted movie. This is quite strange, and as you may probably guess, astonishingly evident. It is so distinct that at times, it almost becomes a nuisance. Not to mention the fact that some of the acting is quite poor, some performances by the cast are so wooden that it seems as if they are literally reading the script instead of emotionally engaging with the scene or character.
Aside from these points, As a Prelude to Fear is a fascinating first (or second) venture by Steph Du Melo, who is both a co-writer and director. The film definitely appears to be much more refined compared to the other British genre bangers we’ve watched earlier – even though there’s one big obvious error in the conclusion which I think is glaring. Still, after watching As A Prelude to Fear, I am eager to find out what Du Melo has next!
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