If you like police procedurals intertwined with the hunt for a kidnapped girl, As a Prelude to Fear is your movie.
When a young girl called Eve gets kidnapped and imprisoned in a dungeon-like basement, the police believe it is the work of the notorious Pied Piper.
As a Prelude to Fear, IMDB
As a Prelude to Fear starts off with a quote about justice from Benjamin Franklin and a marker stating the story was based on real events. As a true crime girlie, I was immediately intrigued. Eve is accompanied by her boyfriend to a cello practice session in hopes of furthering her music career. Once alone, she is lured to an abandoned building where she is drugged and placed in a room, forced to play a specific song correctly — others kidnapped alongside her have already faced dire consequences for missing notes. Eve’s boyfriend and the local police search for her while discovering links to an unsolved case years prior with many eerie similarities.
Being a police procedural — that is, a film with many instances of detective jargon and crime-solving — you might think this is a rather slow movie. In actuality, the crime drama moments are split up and mixed in with Eve’s time trying to escape her captor. A masked man with a voice synthesizer is the only clue we have, making As a Prelude to Fear all the more mysterious. Could it be the infamous Pied Piper, or is it someone new?
On the horror side of it, it’s easy to see how scary Eve’s situation is. She is trapped by a madman who on one hand begs her to play cello for him, and on the other, tries to poison her for small infractions. The women kidnapped before her have suffered worse fates like brutal stabbings and limbs chopped off. In As a Prelude to Fear, the blood is there, however it is not overly gory. There is just enough blood to be tasteful but still gets the point across.
While I won’t give any spoilers, I was surprised at the many twists and turns presented in As a Prelude to Fear. One point had me guessing I knew the kidnapper’s identity, and the next, I wasn’t so sure. I think this movie does a great job at giving insight into investigations such as this. Not only is there a time element in saving someone’s life, but there are so many outside factors that can pull an investigation towards one direction rather than another one.
As a Prelude to Fear effortlessly blends horror aspects with dramatic tension, ending in a cacophony of emotion by the end of its 96 minutes. With characters we can depend on, ones we aren’t so sure about, and ones we can empathize with, this film allows its viewers to cry those tears of frustration and desperation, as well as cheer for the small triumphs in the case. A slow burn through and through, As a Prelude to Fear delivers rumbling thrills with a touch of realistic gore.
As a Prelude to Fear is available to stream on BritFlicks.
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