Lurking Fear is a mediocre but still watchable adaptation of one of H. P. Lovecraft's more obscure stories. The film suffers from weak writing, less than compelling characters, and not especially threatening monsters, but benefits from some surprisingly strong performances, especially from the actors playing the human antagonists.Long story made short, an ex-convict learns of a stash of money hidden in a graveyard, left there by his father, a thief. When he comes to dig it up, he finds himself caught in a battle between the townsfolk and some unholy creatures that, unsurprisingly, he has a connection to.The pacing and writing in this film are poor. Most of the first half plays like a heist movie rather than a horror film, as a trio of gangsters crash the graveyard and try to take the ex-convict's loot. Furthermore, the creatures that stalk the graveyard aren't particularly menacing and easily fought off, leading one to wonder how they terrorized a town for twenty years. This isn't helped by the fact that the human protagonists, for the most part, come across as incompetent. Ashley Laurence's caustic action girl comes across as particularly obnoxious.However, the film is salvaged by a decent cast. Character actor Vincent Schiavelli has a small role as a shifty undertaker, while Paul Mantee does well as a priest in charge of the church and graveyard. The highlights of the film are Jon Finch and Allison Mackie as two of the gangsters. One wishes the film had cast them as anti-hero protagonists. It would have been much more interesting.

Loosely based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, this Full Moon picture film has John Martenese (Bailey) following a corpse buried in a graveyard. Buried with the corpse is a Gangster's (Finch) money that his now deceased Dad had stolen. Upon arrival, John comes across a band of people who is holed up in the graveyards church. They're after a group of monster creatures that live under ground in tunnels that run through the graveyard. John finds out that the creatures, who have been killing off people for years in the town, are actually descendants of his family. The Gangster and his henchmen show up after the money as well as the creatures begin to stir. The filmmakers unfortunately really messed up a nice premise. The elements of a great creature/monster horror film are there. Underground creatures, that are very scary and creepy looking roaming around on a dark storm infested night around a graveyard. The creeping monsters are the best thing going here and supply the few chills the movie has. Great horror actors like Jeffrey Combs, (as a nervous Doctor) and Ashley Laurence are wasted here as most of the screen time is spent with the gangsters holding the group hostage as they seek the money. The characters are written as obnoxious, stupid or annoying and are played that way by a cast trying hard with nothing to work with. Good production values, set up of story and cast goes down the drain as the movie mostly plays like a two bit crime drama instead of the thrilling horror show it could have been. It is watchable, but utterly forgettable.

I am big fan of horror films, I saw tons of them, some of them were good some were bad. One of my friends advised me to see this one pointing that it is H.P.Lovecraft based horror film.1. I know quite all the stories of the Master himself, but this had nothing to do with none of them. Maybe the plot reminded me of shadow over Innsmouth, where the boy finds out, that he is a part of this strange community and one day he is going to be like them. So please do not take it as HPL. If U want to see some HPL just take Dagon, that is real HPL influenced film.2.The acting was not for Oscar nomination, but what do You want for a low budget flick. Jeffrey Combs is excellent, but anyway also the others did a good job. I saw that this film was made in Romania, I recognized this Pintea guy from Vlad Nemoritorul (Dracula - The Impaler) film, playing the undertaker with the scratched face.3. The explosions - not every company has the money to do a great explosion. According to this, they did quite good job.4. The ghouls - Very well made. I have to say they looked very good and realistic. Nice work.5. The Gore - Not every film has to be as Lucio Fulci, but anyway here it was quite optimal. The only gore scene was that one with the heart. Or maybe I had a shorter version of the film so the gore scenes were cut out. Mine has 1:29.

~Spoiler~ When I first watched Lurking Fear, I agreed with the other Lovecraft purists and thought it was terrible. The second time around, I'm not looking at it as a H. P. Lovecraft story and just as a horror flick. It's still not that good. It had potential to be a fairly involving, claustrophobic flick. That's all ruined in the way too cheesy explosion and mud-wrestling near the end. I was able to take it seriously until that took place. Up until then, it's a good B movie with a few creative moments and some nice creature effects. Imagine an entire clan of Castle Freaks running around under the cemetery and that's what you've got here. The acting is a higher caliber than I'm used to seeing in Full Moon movies as well. There are a number of familiar horror faces in Lurking Fear. Hellraiser's Ashley Laurence, From Beyond's Jeffrey Combs, and even Vincent Schiavelli are all featured in this flick and add a lot to it. Now, if only the production values would have been a little higher and a few scenes had been cut, this could have been a worthwhile genre effort.