Fear (1996)

Fear is a 1996 American psychological thriller film directed by James Foley and written by Christopher Crowe. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, William Petersen, Alyssa Milano and Amy Brenneman. It revolves around a wealthy family whose seemingly perfect life is threatened when their teenage daughter begins dating an attractive and mysterious young man.

The film was largely derided by critics upon its release, but became a sleeper hit in the spring of 1996, grossing $20 million at the U.S. box office. It has since become a cult film, while at the same time launching teen idol status for its two young leads, who were romantically linked at the time of the movie's premiere.^[1] Wahlberg was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.^[2]

The film's own producer, Brian Grazer, described it as " Fatal Attraction for teens"...a loose recollection in which Wahlberg and Witherspoon have the Glenn Close and Michael Douglas roles, respectively, while Petersen is in Anne Archer's.

16-year-old Nicole Walker (Reese Witherspoon) lives in the suburbs of Seattle with her father Steven (William Petersen), his new wife Laura (Amy Brenneman), and Laura's son Toby (Christopher Gray). At a bar with her best friend Margo Masse (Alyssa Milano) and friend Gary Rohmer (Todd Caldecott), Nicole meets David McCall (Mark Wahlberg), and instantly falls for his good looks and charm. Nicole falls in love with David, but Steven dislikes him, and grows angry with him when he disregards Nicole's curfew and, eventually, has sex with her.

David soon becomes possessive and jealous of Nicole, culminating in attacking Gary when he sees them hugging, beating him up and giving Nicole a black eye. As a result, she breaks up with him, but they get back together when David manipulates her into believing her father assaulted him.

David invites Nicole to a party at his friend Logan's (Tracy Fraim) house. At first, she declines but then decides to drive to the party, where she witnesses Margo smoking crack and, apparently, having sex with David. The following day, she confronts him about his infidelity, and also confronts Margo, who insists that David raped her. David then threatens Margo to convince Nicole to take him back. After seeing Nicole with Gary, David follows and kills him.

Nicole goes with Laura and Toby to the mall, where David corners her in the women's restroom. Meanwhile, Steven finds his car vandalized with an insulting note left by David. Furious, Steven breaks into the house David shares with Logan and vandalizes it. In retaliation for Steven's vandalism, David decides to break into the Walkers' residence with his four friends: Logan, Hacker (Gary Riley), Knobby (Jed Rees), and Terry (Jason Kristofer).

After Margo informs the Walkers of Gary's death, David and his gang behead Kaiser, the family dog, then make multiple attempts to break inside. Steven and Laura barricade the doors, and Laura injures Hacker with a drill, and he is then taken to the hospital by Knobby. Using a flashlight, Nicole sends an SOS to the Walker's private security guard, Larry, who arrives to confront the situation, but is killed by Terry.

David, Logan, and Terry take Steven hostage, forcing Laura to surrender. Toby escapes through a window and gets to Laura's car phone. After Terry finds him in the garage, Toby fatally runs Terry over with the SUV. Logan forces himself onto Nicole; Margo intervenes, but is knocked unconscious. David shoots Logan dead for attempting to rape Nicole. After Toby retrieves Larry's keys and releases his parents, Steven rushes at David and the pair get into a furious brawl. David gets ready to execute Steven but Nicole impales David in the back with a peace pipe (a gift from David himself). Steven then throws David through the bedroom window to his death. Moments later, police and paramedics arrive.