Fear Itself – Series One (15)
Directed by: John Landis, Darren Bousman, Breck Eisner, Stuart Gordon, Mary Harron, and Ronny Yu
Starring: Margherita Donato, Valerie Womack, Marie Zydek
A television series broken down into 13 separate 60-minute films from premiere horror writers and directors.
Thirteen separate and individual stories of horror by different Writers and Directors is something that is (fairly) new and different for television. Whilst the separate story for a television series has been done before, The Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories, for it to be purely set in a horror genre is something new.
Each story has it’s own set of characters, situations, heroes and villains and for the most part, blood and gore! The series has attracted some great Writers and Directors from the genre including Breck Eisner, John Landis, Brad Anderson, Stuart Gordon, Darren Lynn Bousman, Mary Harron and Ronny Yu to mention a few.
Though the series is in thirteen separate parts, there are a few episodes above average and sadly a couple that are below par with the rest of series.
The plus side of the series is that you never get bored with a particular episode. They last just long enough for you to get the core storyline, thrills and gore and either a resolve or a cliff-hanger.
This is also one of the main drawbacks of the series. Whilst viewers will recognise certain guest stars from the likes of The X-Files and Supernatural, the show doesn’t seem to have any real flow. Yes you can view an episode every now and again and know you haven’t missed anything but on the other hand there isn’t really a story arc or re-occurring characters to make you want to watch again and again. Added to that, you also don’t really get the time to delve deep enough into the characters.
With shows like Supernatural and Grimm having similar themes, though not quite as gory, this show doesn’t seem to have that vital hook to keep the audience anticipating the next adventure so to speak.
Whilst the majority of the stories are well written and directed, there are times when the plot becomes a little clichéd, though that is understandable in the plots’ relative short running time. Perhaps if this show were to be increased in episode length by a further 20 minutes or so with a couple of characters re-occurring every now and again, this could easily become a contender for the adult horror television title.
Fear Itself is fun to watch every now and again but nothing to really entice you back week after week.
3 out of 5 Nerds
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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