Strands of Simon Pegg's amiable persona are found in the film's more tolerable bits, but even this seasoned vet's unique voice is lost amid the glut of references to other work.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
[A] stunningly joke-free comedy-horror hybrid.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
There’s also little point and a garish quality that goes from pulp to junk fairly quickly, despite Pegg’s presence.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
The film’s whimsical specificity, random though it frequently seems, is the main thing it has going for it.
Fear falls short of fantastic yet it’s a decent effort that, like Pegg’s beard, proves to be something of a grower.
It's always trying to do something unusual. It has a great lead in Pegg. What it doesn't have is an ending or a clear reason what it wants to be.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
It is three parts The Mighty Boosh to two parts The Goon Show, which, when mixed with the quite astonishing lack of wit and finesse seen here, makes for pure cinematic strychnine.
The Dissolve by Tasha Robinson
Fantastic Fear leaps all over the place narratively and conceptually, servicing the comedy of every individual scene without considering or linking the others. Some of those individual scenes are marvelous, though.
Time Out London by Trevor Johnston
There’s not a single, solitary laugh to be had.
Crispian Mills's London-based horror-comedy is so spectacularly bungled that it leaves the viewer in a state of advanced petrification.