Dr Andover used to run the Fear Clinic, where he used a chamber he invented to cure people of their phobias by having them face their fears. A death at the clinic caused them to close down, but when the survivors of a mass shooting come to the clinic needing his help, the Fear Clinic is reopened.
I have a few issues off the bat.
1. One mass shooting caused the survivors to have a variety of phobias and psychological issues. Personally, I didn't like the move of connecting everyone via one event. They all had different lives and experiences prior to the shooting, right? I feel like this shortcut was done to save time...but I would have preferred a background scene with each of the patients as they were introduced to set up their phobias and personalities and why they went to the clinic. That could have given us a series of cool Horror/scare scenes early in the film. As a result, there is virtually no exploration at all on their individual phobias, they just mention them and forget them.
2. In keeping with that, I'm not a fan of the fact that the clinic is revealed to have had a problem causing it to shut down in the beginning of the film. It seems to me that the film could have been based on a revolutionary treatment for fear, gather everyone into the clinic, and THEN start showing that there are problems with the treatment. In fact, I feel that the opening scene should have been an awesome "fear nightmare" scene in the chamber, and it works, thus proving the theory and drawing new patients to the clinic. Starting the movie off with it already being a failed experiment and the clinic shut down was an odd move. There are story elements that could have easily been saved for a sequel.
As a result of these issues, I feel like the film was built on shaky ground.
I get why Corey Taylor from Slipknot/Stone Sour is in this. It opens the film to a much wider audience who are inclined to enjoy Horror films. But, I didn't like his character or performance. He has a co-worker that is annoying as well. Again, I feel like maybe the clinic could have been staffed by professionals, like a real clinic would be...not rude low-lifes. Better yet, get rid of the two extraneous staff characters so you can fully develop the patients.
It's kind of a shame. The Fear Chamber idea is pretty awesome. And my imagination told me that this would be kind of a take on Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors...but with Englund as a doctor outside of the "nightmares." But the movie took a completely different approach. Would a Dream Warriors inspired film have been unique? No...but who cares? It would have been properly focused on the phobias and given us a bunch of cool "nightmare" scenes.
