With a friend coming back from Australia,I decided to look round for a movie that she would enjoy.Due to her being a Simon Pegg fan,I was happy to find that one of his lesser-known movies had turned up at a local DVD shop,which led to me getting ready to discover how fantastic this fear could be.The plot:Unable to sell his children's book, author Jack decides to move on to writing a book on Victorian serial killers (not much of a change there!) Delving into research,Jack starts to become obsessed by the history of the killers,and starts to become paranoid.Locking himself in his flat,Jack gets a call from his publisher,telling him that he must come out,due to their being a big shot producer who wants to adapt Jack's book. Failing to clean up,Jack accidentally super-glues a knife to his hand.Putting a big coat on to hide the knife,Jack steps out into the outside world,where he soon runs into a modern wannabe serial killer.View on the film:Changing chords from Brit Pop band Kula Shaker to the big screen, Crispian "son of Hayley" Mills and fellow co-director Chris Hopewell turn the pages in Jack's book with an ultra-stylised chic.Backed by pounding Hip-Hop songs and a creepy score from Michael Price,the directors and cinematographer Simon Chaudoir lock Jack in his flat with a vice-like grip,as lightning fast whip-pans and scatter shot zoom- ins uncover the terror that Jack fears has joined him in his flat.Opening with a matte painting, Mills & Hopewell show a bravely in taking the chilling mood into unexpectedly quirky routes,by bringing Jack's stories to life in hand-drawn and raw stop-motion animation.Whilst the ending disappointingly leaves Jack's debut novel to end on a whimper,the screenplay by Crispian Mills thankfully spends the rest of the title pulling the blood red Comedy Horror nerves from Jack's paranoia.Opening up Jack's troubled life,Mills unveil all of the anxiety fuelling Jack's horror fears,which leads to bitter slap- stick laughs,as Jack faces his fears on the outside. Twitching across the screen,Simon Pegg gives a great performance as Jack,thanks to Pegg pushing Jack's eyes to bursting and shivering with terror over the smallest thing,as Jack faces his fantastic fear of everything.

Simon Pegg must be an awfully emotional fellow. Between his work in A Fantastic Fear of Everything and Hector and the Search for Happiness, it's practically a surprise this year's Disney/Pixar juggernaut Inside Out wasn't released starring Pegg as all five dominant emotions (I'd watch that movie). His foray into fear, however, is offbeat and unsettling enough to make most Disney-calibre audiences baulk. In fact, it's not entirely clear which audience A Fantastic Fear of Everything is geared towards, offering an oddball blend of Gothic horror, black comedy, surrealist, Roald Dahl-esq animated interludes, and the occasional broad slapstick just to remain extra unpredictable. If my bleary, incredulous eyes didn't deceive me, at one point the film hits the pause button and simply becomes a music video featuring Simon Pegg gangsta rapping.If that sounds a bit muddled, it's because it is. The premise, which has Pegg's children's author researching Gothic murder stories for a television series, becoming increasingly agoraphobic and paranoid in the process, starts off great. Pegg is infinitely charismatic and quirky, and able to wrench enough comedic mileage out of fearfully interacting with basic household items or cringing at every creak in the hallway (ably punctuated by Michael Price's booming Gothic score, which, bizarrely, lifts its main theme from the 1998 Roland Emmerich Godzilla of all things…) to make for a thoroughly enjoyable first act. The vibe is one of an early Charlie Chaplin short: essentially a one-man show, with every possible prop or scenario lending itself to slapstick silliness, and Pegg plays it to the hilt. So far, so good.Unfortunately, this private horror-show is only sustainable for so long before Pegg's expository voice-over begins to grate on the nerves somewhat, the premise feeling increasingly strained. Once Pegg tentatively ventures out of his house, debut writer/director Crispian Mills flounders somewhat, tangibly unsure as to how best to proceed. The second act skews somewhere between Freudian psychodrama (cue Paul Freeman of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame, having tremendous fun as Pegg's garrulous German therapist) and undercooked murder mystery, mostly staged, bizarrely enough, in a laundromat. And while Mills conjures up enough Gothic atmosphere and twists and turns to prevent the film from ever becoming boring, it's seldom that engaging either, and some of Mills' unorthodox creative choices are downright questionable (a recurring joke involving Pegg doing a cringeworthy impression of his Vietnamese neighbours comes uneasily to mind). By the time things definitively careen off the rails in an unhinged climax followed by a saccharine denouement that can't help but ring false (possibly intentionally), puzzling has become the adjective du-jour, and viewers are more than likely to begin mirroring Pegg's contorted expressions of terrified incredulity and disbelief.If nothing else, Mills can't be faulted for lacking in ambition in his debut feature film, and Pegg's hugely enjoyable presence guarantees the film never descends into a total disaster. Nonetheless, A Fantastic Fear of Everything is a confounding beast – too silly to play well to Poe junkies, and too dark and surreal to satisfy most comedic tastes. Ultimately, the film is best consumed in the vein of one of Pegg's horror vignettes: with the lights on, one eyebrow perpetually raised, and a stiff drink handy to guarantee safe passage back to the 'real world'.-6/10

At first I found it cringe worthy but yet intriguing, then I started to laugh out loud when I stared to sympathize and relate to the issues at hand, then I got confused, then I laughed some more, and then I was happily surprised...Not bad reaction for one film, I think the scenery was great and the character very likable, the narration was great.At some points it was a little to much but that is to be expected, i think I could have been toned down slightly at some points, where it seemed to want to tick some sort of "we need this in the film to make it palatable" tick-box.

After reading so many of these reviews having mixed feeling on this film I felt it was appropriate I determine the judgement by an actual viewing.This is not your usual Simon Pegg film, as many reviewers have pointed out, since it's not his film. He does add a certain style of comedy to the film sure but he's not the director and that needs to be thrown out of peoples mind before viewing this. Jack is a paranoid writer who's research into the greatest serial killers in history only makes his fear get the better of him. The film does an excellent job of portraying Jack's point of view through the skewed camera angles, the dramatic lighting and dynamic cinematography. The first act really utilizes the camera to show our protagonists twisted view of the world. While most people are saying these things are irrational and random I feel it's perfectly justified since the point of view is of a utterly paranoid view who hasn't had a good rest. It's a job well done.It's a great tale of a man overcoming his fears, Man vs himself. My only real complaint is the ending felt a bit too clichéd. It's a cute story with a fresh premise and I would recommend this to anyone who wants a laughs with a not too deep story.