TV broadcasted killer anthology shows over the years: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, etc. Today the anthology show lives on with series like Black Mirror and Love, Death & Robots. Yet, for every anthology show remembered, one gets forgotten: Circle of Fear, Out of the Unknown, Ghost Stories…
And Fear Itself, which aired on NBC in 2008. It was basically a network TV version of Masters of Horror and utilized a lot of the same talent.
Mick Garris created both series. While we can never fully trust a man with hair like his, Garris seems to appreciate fun horror and exhibits a passion for getting it onto TV. He is a modern-day Dan Curtis without good taste.
Fear Itself aired on Thursday nights in the 9 pm timeslot. The 2008 Summer Olympics put it on hiatus, and its final five episodes were never broadcast. This was due to low ratings, but the series probably would not have lasted long anyway.
Much like the Nightcrawlers episode of the 1980s Twilight Zone, Fear Itself brought a bit too much edge to a family channel. One imagines NBC got some calls that caused people in suits to review the core decency requirements of the FCC.
Fear Itself feels like a rebellious teenager deliberately pushing the envelope to see how much it can get away with and then looking around with wide-eyed bewilderment when it won a stupid prize for playing stupid games: cancellation.
But it still gave us 13 episodes to examine. We will spoil as needed…
Fear Itself Episode 1
The Sacrifice is the first episode. Breck Eisner (Sahara, The Crazies, The Last Witch Hunter) directed from a script by Garris and Del Howison. The story is about a group of criminals who take shelter in isolated fort inhabited by three sisters with a secret.
The Sacrifice seems to crib from Shyamalan’s The Village. The juxtaposition of modern criminals clashing with ladies who never left the 1800s works well. Never mind, it looks like the whole episode is filmed after hours at a small city’s Pioneer Village exhibit.
The episode is also noteworthy for including a young Jesse Plemons. It’s apparent he has come a long way in the acting department. He has not yet mastered his simmering lunatic aura that he presently uses so well.
Ultimately, the “secret” is nothing too extraordinary, yet the episode manages a poignant ending. It sets the series off on a decent foot.
Fear Itself Episodes 2-3
Spooked is the second episode.
Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) directs a script by Garris and Matt Venne. Eric Roberts stars as a private investigator whose past catches up with him.
Roberts appears to try to earn his paycheck. He navigates the screen with an easy, confident manner. Unfortunately, the story ends up murky. Cynthia Watros (Lost) hires him to spy on her cheating husband. From there, the story spirals into some sort of revenge plot/character study and loses its identity along the way.
Ronny Yu (Freddy Vs. Jason, Bride of Chucky) directs the third episode: Family Man. Daniel Knauf, who wrote the truncated Carnivale series for HBO, penned the script. Colin Ferguson (Eureka) and Clifton Collins Jr. (Mindhunters) star.
One regularly came across Ferguson and Collins Jr. in the 2000s. Then they faded away. Seeing them again in their prime is like opening a time capsule. Hollywood sifted through a lot of performers in the 2000s as they tried to figure out a new batch of stars to carry the day. Most of them fell by the wayside.
In Family Man, Ferguson and Collins Jr. play a loving father and a criminal, who swap bodies. Yes, it’s the good old body-swap plot. This one is not much different from any other take, but it does have an effective gut-punch ending.
Fear Itself Episodes 4-5
Episode four brings in the controversial talent: John Landis (director) and Victor Salva (writer). If you know, you know, and it brings a touch of slime to the proceedings.
In Sickness and in Health is the most basic entry and works best narratively. It stars Psych alum James Roday and Maggie Lawson.
The duo gets ready for their wedding. Maggie is handed a note that claims “the person you are about to marry is a serial killer.”
The twist is effective because it is simple enough to make you slap your forehead.
Eater is the title of episode five. It makes one realize Fear Itself was destined for cancellation. This entry is too extreme for network TV. A cannibal serial killer is arrested. Three members of the police force guard him overnight. It does not go well.
Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) stars. Horror novelist Richard Chizmar and Jonathon Schaech write. Schaech is also an actor who appeared in films like That Thing You Do! and Prom Night. The great Stuart Gordon directs.
Eater is as gross as it can be under network TV restrictions. It makes the viewer feel like taking a shower. Part of it is watching sweaty characters be loutish. Meanwhile, the ending is clumsy but hardcore. Gordon gives it all some style, as well.
Fear Itself Episodes 6-7
New Year’s Day is a zombie apocalypse story. Steve Niles wrote. Darren Lynn Bouseman (Saw II, III, IV) directed. Briana Evigan (From Dusk till Dawn: The Series) stars as a NY socialite who tries to make it from point A to point B in a zombie outbreak. Things are not what they seem, and all is revealed in the end.
This episode feels like it was written backwards. Niles probably had the twist in mind and wrote the story to fit it. It’s a neat idea, but it is difficult to deliver without cheating. It feels like every character behaves in a false way to preserve the central conceit.
American Psycho director Mary Harron helms the seventh episode: Community. It stars Brandon Routh (Superman Returns).
I zig where a lot of people zag on those two components. I don’t think American Psycho is that good, and I don’t think Brandon Routh is that bad. In fact, I thought Routh would make a good Mr. Fantastic, certainly better than Pedro Pascal.
But that is neither here nor there. Community is one of those couple-moves-into-odd-neighborhood stories, like Invitation to Hell but without any fantastical elements to make it fun. Really, the community is not that much more strict than, say, Singapore…
Fear Itself Episodes 8-10
The episode Skin & Bones is directed by good old Larry Fessenden and written by good old Drew McWeeney.
It stars creature actor-auteur Doug Jones (every monster in every movie in the last twenty years) in a role where we get to see his actual face. And he really goes for it, giving an unhinged performance of a man possessed by a Wendigo. It makes one realize that Jones has genuine acting talent behind his costumes.
The ninth episode takes us into the unaired portion of the series. It is titled Something with Bite. Ernest Dickerson (Demon Knight) directs and Max Landis writes. Max is son of the aforementioned John and has had his own troubles. Chronicle is pretty cool, though.
This episode sees Fear Itself attempt to branch into humor. It is about a veterinarian played by Wendell Pierce (The Wire) who gets bitten by a werewolf. It’s not funny, though. Yet, the werewolf design is great for a TV show. Greg Nictero and crew did the makeup effects on the series, so all of that stuff is solid.
The tenth episode is Chance. 1990s neo-noir director John Dahl (Red Rock West) calls the shots. It stars Ethen Embry (Scream 7) as a loser who runs afoul of his evil doppelganger in a get-rich-quick scheme that spirals out of control.
This episode has the potential for fun with Embry in dual roles, but it ends up vague and confused. No reason is given for the appearance of the doppelganger. An antique vase is part of the story, so one would guess it would be a case where it is a magic vase that causes the split, but nope. Apparently, Embry is crazy in a way that comes out of the blue with zero setup.
Fear Itself Episodes 11-13
Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn) directs episode eleven, The Spirit Box. It stars Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect) and Jessica Parker Kennedy. I had never seen Kennedy before, but she appeared in The Flash TV series and Black Sails, among other things. Kendrick is the bigger star today, but Kennedy is the more interesting part of the show.
The episode is about two teenagers who contact the spirit of a murdered classmate. It then becomes a whodunit. Joe Gangemi wrote the screenplay. He does not have a lot of credits. Red Oaks is his biggest. He did a solidly average job on this one. Solidly average may sound like a backhanded compliment, but in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
The penultimate episode is Echoes. Rupert Wainwright (Stigmata) directs. It stars Aaron Stanford (X2), who has our sympathy for working with Bryan Singer film. The story switches back and forth between the past and the present. It caused me to check out rather quickly. I endured this one more than watched it.
The last episode is The Circle. Eduardo Rodriquez (Fright Night 2: New Blood) directs. The previously mentioned Johnathon Schaech co-wrote and stars. The story seems to take some inspiration from the Alan Wake video game. Darkness lays siege to and infects people in a cabin. One of them is a writer. It is an above average tale to go out on but still nothing earthshattering.
By the by, the theme song for Fear Itself came from Serj Tankian of System of a Down.
Fear Itself
Since Fear Itself is a made-for-TV horror anthology show, this article is a kissing cousin of our made-for-TV horror movie series, which includes The Intruder Within, Midnight Offerings, Curse of the Black Widow, Satan’s Triangle, Killdozer, Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell , Invitation to Hell, Summer of Fear, Savages, Moon of the Wolf, The Initiation of Sarah, Crowhaven Farm, A Cold Night’s Death, Snowbeast, The Possessed, Chiller, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Full Eclipse, The Victim and When Michael Calls.
The title Fear Itself came from Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration speech March 4, 1933. America’s economy teetered, banks failed and an unemployed public stood on the verge of panic. Roosevelt told them to relax…
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
Ultimately, none of that has anything to do with the offerings of a horror anthology show from 2008. That sums up the series better than anything. We are not surprised, however. It’s a Mick Garris joint, after all. I mean, come on…look at that hair…
