Movie Review: Paralyzed with Fear (2019)

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Written, directed and produced by Glenn Berggoetz, Paralyzed with Fear is an indie horror film about a husband and wife who get into an auto accident which leaves the wife paralyzed from the neck down, and the husband dead. Her daughter Hannah (Haidyn Harvey) visits her mom one day in bed and tells her that there might be a way to bring her father back to life as her mother is agonizing at his passing. They try to do this, and something goes horribly wrong.

We had reviewed one of Berggoetz’ other films Evil Intent a while back, and much like Evil Intent, this film is filmed in a very low-budget SOV style. The special effects are nothing to write home about, but they make sense in the style this film is shot in. It also stars Kane Hodder who plays “Chemock” who is a fictional character who lived between 1433 and 1462 and allegedly had befriended Vlad the Impaler and was killed in battle. He had a thing for rape and chose this house to make his return to action. There are two teenage girls and a paralyzed mother living there, along with Jennifer, who takes care of the mom. Chemock makes some appearances to do a little scaring, and a little bit of groping from time to time and the women in the house have to try to survive.

What we liked:
– We absolutely love the old-school SOV style indie horror films, and this is right up our alley in that department. The production quality was bad but in a good way.
– Kane Hodder. A legend. Victor Crowley… Jason Voorhees. You don’t need us to tell you.
– Decent acting for such a low-budget effort.
– The overall concept wasn’t bad.

What we thought could have been better:
– The Chemock character. It would have been nice to see a costume or wardrobe of some kind. The final product looked just like modern-day Kane Hodder and he wasn’t very believable as someone from 1433.
– The execution of the story. While the concept wasn’t terrible, Chemock could have done a lot more.

Overall:
Paralyzed with Fear is a decent effort from Berggoetz. It falls in line with what we knew about his style of making a film. While we wish we could say that we enjoyed it for the right reasons, this film made us laugh more than frightened. Some of the things that Chemock does just seemed so out of place for his character, and the interactions with people in the house we just found hilarious at times. He was supposed to be some cruel warlord type character who killed all kinds of people alongside Vlad the Impaler, but the end result comes across a bit different. Overall, we still definitely enjoyed this, and recommend this one to any fan of low-budget, cheesy, indie horror and/or Kane Hodder. Check it out and help #SupportIndieHorror!

Paralyzed with Fear premieres soon on 7/20/19 at the Grossfest horror film festival in Pittsburgh. If you are in the area, definitely check it out and follow @GlennBerggoetz @Haidynharvey1, and on twitter for updates on the VOD release!