'Fear Itself: The Complete First Season'
(Brandon Routh, Eric Robert, et al / 4-Disc DVD / NR / 2009 / LGF)
Overview: Conceived along the lines of Showtime's "Masters Of Horror", NBC's "Fear Itself" is a dramatic anthology consisting of 13 separate hour-long films, each one a spine-tingling exercise in psychological and physiological terror.
DVD Verdict: Yeah! You remember MASTERS OF HORROR right!?! Don't 'ya!?! It was a Horror show that ran on Showtime for about two seasons before is was cancelled. Sometimes it seems like every Horror show gets cancelled before it can really build any steam. I guess audience members these days want reality shows, not psycho killers and monsters.
Eventually series creator Mick Garris decided to shift the series to the TV network NBC and renamed it "Fear Itself." Thank goodness too because it's a little different. Naturally, some changes were made to the series that couldn't have carried over from the late night adult themed MASTERS OF HORROR show. The first and most obvious one was the lack of gore. Some of the episodes do actually push the envelope in terms of blood shed. People are stabbed, chopped and hacked like any other Horror movie, they just don't show the action shot like you would in an unrated film.
Some of my favorite episodes are "The Sacrifice", "Eater", "Skin & Bones" and "New Year's Day." All of which are really creepy, bloody and well done for regular television. Some of the other episodes like "Community", "Spooked" and "Family Man" are all equally weird, if not a little off base compared to my first four choices. Then there are the real duds, like the strangely off the mark episode directed by John Landis "In Sickness And In Health." The episode "Something With Bite" starts off really horrible (in a bad way) and actually ends up with an interesting twist by the finish.
Over all this was a pretty good Horror series. It's not better than MASTERS OF HORROR but then again, it isn't the samething. This is FEAR ITSELF and nothing more. It's a little more risky with the blood and gore than your usual television show. Some of the episodes are amazing, others are just down right awful. Thats what happens with any anthology series. You gotta' take the bad with the good. [ST] This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and come with the Special Features of:
5 minute “Recipe for Fear” Featurettes about each episode
www.LGF.com