Know Fear has an interesting premise of three people being needed to fight whatever dark being is before them. One to see the demon, one to hear the demon and one to speak the demon language. This leads to some neat instances of communication and description being required even in the face of fear. It’s just a shame this idea wasn’t built upon more. That’s the running issue with this movie–it has moments of good ideas, but it seems to be afraid of following through with any of them.

After a brief opening involving a trio trying to confront an unseen force (the encounter ends poorly for all involved), we jump ahead to see Wendy (Amy Carlson) and Donald (David Alan Basche) moving into the same house sometime later. They are visited by Jami (Mallory Bechtel) and Charlie (Jack DiFalco), who help unpack and offer some backstory. Eventually, Wendy finds of questionable origin. This leads to her being slowly taken over by something else. And soon Donald, Jami, Charlie, and grad student Nancy (Meeya Davis) are thrown into a fight for survival.

The acting itself wasn’t bad per se, just somewhat wooden. One standout was Mallory Bechtel as Jami, the would-be paranormal investigator. She played the role with the right amount of over-eagerness and naivete without coming off as eye-rolling and frustrating. Know Fear‘s script was decent enough, even if there are random gaps and loose plot threads. And the dialog, though forced in parts, felt natural. And none of the characters are overly stereotypical.

So far so standard. Where Know Fear really falls though, is the editing. Between the fast cuts and the random time jumps, the movie suffers. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to some of the editing. One moment someone gets hurt and the next scene is a few hours (?) later after they’ve already been to the hospital twice. It’s hard to gauge the time frame all of this takes place in as well. I have no idea if the movie takes place over a few days or a few months. Add to the fact that it’s never made clear if anyone knows the history of the house. In fact, a lot of stuff isn’t made clear. I’m still not sure if Jami is a family member or just a friend.

While the editing is a major sore spot for this film, the sound design does fare better. It’s consistent all throughout and the sound effects are top-notch. It’s such a shame Know Fear stumbles as hard as it does. There are some genuine creepy scenes and some interesting ideas on display, but thanks to less-than-ideal editing and odd pacing these strong parts never get a chance to be anything other than fleeting ideas. Is Know Fear the worst? No, not at all, but I was left to think about how it could be better and once the credits rolled I was ready to move on.

4 out of 10