Shadow people begin to terrorize John Chambers and his family arrive at their new home in a small country town of Pennsylvania. Soon, he discovers the town’s horrific secret and makes one last attempt to save his abducted son before the shadow people permanently take him away to their world.

The urban legend of Shadow People is explored in the new horror-thriller Be Afraid. Written by Gerald Nott, directed by Drew Gabreski the film dances on the brink of real tension, occasionally achieving it at times, but is never entirely successful overall. 

Dr. John Chambers (Brian Krause) is the new doc in town. He and his wife Heather (Jaimi Paige) along with seven year old son Nathan(Michael Leone) have just moved into a farmhouse located on a plot of land in the middle of the Pennsylvania countryside. Things seem to be coming together despite the fact that his older son Ben (Jared Abrahamson) has been sent home from college again.

While walking his land, John discovers unhinged neighbor, Dean (Kevin Grevioux) looking for his missing daughter. Yes, Dean and his wife Christine (Michelle Hurd) have just lost their daughter to abduction. This goes dismissed until Dr. John begins to suffer sleep paralysis and having terrifying visions of shadow people looming over him in the night. Soon the good doctor’s own son is in danger of being kidnapped and it may have something to do with the shadow people and the secret hidden on his land that the whole town speaks about in hushed tones.

It is a shame to have to say that the film never fully achieves a level of mystery and paranoia that the subject lends itself to. The idea of being paralyzed while a shadowing figure leers at you, standing over you in bed is chilling. Mix that with the thought of losing your child and you could easily have rage-filled paranoia. Nott‘s script misses opportunities throughout that would have raised the level of anxiety to unbearable levels and, instead, goes for logical, yet predictable story beats.

Gabreski does a serviceable job directing with the material given. Again, though, therer were so many missed opportunities to really play up the feeling of “Did I just see that?” We instead get pretty base moments and a showdown per every horror film ever made that pretty much is what we would have expected.

The technical aspects of the film are all fair to good, nothing is used to remarkable effect. The same could be said for the acting overall with the notable exception of Michelle Hurd‘s Christine who has some genuine moments of anxiety and desperation.

Be Afraid is not a bad film. There is effort here that is notable, but the film plays things a little too safe, resulting in being entirely too predictable.