A Fantastic Fear of Everything | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by |
Chris Hopewell Crispian Mills |
Produced by | Geraldine Patten |
Written by | Crispian Mills |
Starring |
Simon Pegg Clare Higgins Amara Karan Paul Freeman Alan Drake |
Music by | Michael Price |
Cinematography | Simon Chaudoir |
Edited by | Dan Roberts |
Production
company |
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Distributed by |
Universal Pictures Indomina Releasing |
Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $96,948 |
A Fantastic Fear of Everything is a 2012 British horror comedy film starring Simon Pegg, written and directed by Crispian Mills with Chris Hopewell as co-director. It is based on the novella Paranoia in the Launderette by Bruce Robinson, writer and director of Withnail and I. It has been described as a low-budget "semicomedy" about a children’s author-turned-crime-novelist who has become obsessed with murder and murdering. It was released on 8 June 2012 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and received a limited U.S. theatrical release on 7 February 2014. The BBFC classified the film a 15 certificate in the UK, while the MPAA rated the film R in America.
Principal photography began on 6 July 2011. Filmed at Shepperton Studios, the film was the first to be backed by Pinewood Studios' initiative to support low-budget British films. It was released by Universal Pictures in the UK and Indomina Releasing in the US.
Jack is a children's author whose happy marriage has been destroyed by his obsession with his unpublished first book, Harold the Hedgehog. He is working on a series of scripts titled Decades of Death, about Victorian era serial killers. He has become obsessed with serial killers and paranoid that people are watching him and trying to kill him, which isn't helped by the fact that a serial killer called the Hanoi Handshake Killer, who cuts off the fingers of his victims, has been active in his neighbourhood.
While trying to give money in a sock to carolers, Jack is startled by a phone call from his agent, Claire. She tells him that Harvey Humphries, the head of scripts at the BBC, is interested in Jack's scripts and arranges a meeting between the two in just a few hours. Jack convinces himself that Humphries is a serial killer but plans to attend the meeting anyway.
Jack tries to clean his clothes in the oven to be presentable for his meeting with Humphries, only to find that he has super-glued a carving knife to his hand. After trying to remove the knife, he discovers that his clothes are ruined. Jack realises that he has to go to the laundrette. Since he is terrified of the prospect, he calls Professor Friedkin, an old friend, and asks for help. After listening to Jack's traumatic memories of the launderette, Friedkin convinces Jack that he must confront his fears and go there.