Fear on TV
Written
on 16/6/08
One of the things I personally enjoyed about Showtime’s “Master of Horror” series, which ran for two seasons, was it provided one of horror’s top men to have a week to create essentially a short film. They provided us with some really cool films, Argento’s “Jenifer”, Miike’s “Imprint”, and Dante’s “Homecoming” pop into my head right now, but at least they provided us horror fans with something cool: a horror anthology series with your favorite directors directing.
The series was extremely popular and more so on DVD. For “Masters of Horror” third season, NBC picked up the rights to the show and recalled it “Fear Itself”, now being directed by any horror vet. One current concern was how the show was going to handle the transition from a no-holds barred cable show to a FCC backed network. First of all gore and nudity is the first to be nixed. Gore and nudity aren’t anything to really get upset over their absence, but KNB Effects did provide the directors some amazing work and helped with their imagination.
“Fear Itself” episode 1.1, entitled “The Sacrifice” begins the series and is written by show’s creator Mick Garris. Now Garris has a long horror resume but I rarely like anything he does and his “Masters of Horror” episodes were some of the weaker points to each season. Same can be said here.
“The Sacrifice” (I’m assuming you’ve seen it by now-spoilers) starts off slow and clunky. Dialogue is self-aware and the character of Lemon is quite annoying. Apparently, their friend is hurt badly by some accident and they’re rushing out of the wilderness to find help. Naturally, their car breaks down and in the distance is a walled-up community (think of a secluded Amish community). Only three beautiful women live there and one by one, are four leads go down by something that growls a lot until the final 10 minutes when it’s revealed to be a vampire.
With a show like this, an anthology series, rule of thumb is that you want to start of with a decent episode, not you’re strongest nor you’re weakest, and hopefully, it gathers interest into the show. I’m somewhat interested, naturally, but this episode is quite pedestrian. It offers little fear, light on story, and as mentioned, little blood. The vampire is also just an average take on Nosferatu; the whole angle of these girls as unwilling slaves who slowly feed their father to the vamp in order to protect the world is quite lame. The vamp is quickly disposed off and the final twist is eye-rolling.
“The Sacrifice” is just an average vampire tale. The show will need in the next few episodes too quickly show us some good horror tales, otherwise, the show won’t last. Here’s hoping too, because it’s really nice having horror back on network TV.
The series was extremely popular and more so on DVD. For “Masters of Horror” third season, NBC picked up the rights to the show and recalled it “Fear Itself”, now being directed by any horror vet. One current concern was how the show was going to handle the transition from a no-holds barred cable show to a FCC backed network. First of all gore and nudity is the first to be nixed. Gore and nudity aren’t anything to really get upset over their absence, but KNB Effects did provide the directors some amazing work and helped with their imagination.
“Fear Itself” episode 1.1, entitled “The Sacrifice” begins the series and is written by show’s creator Mick Garris. Now Garris has a long horror resume but I rarely like anything he does and his “Masters of Horror” episodes were some of the weaker points to each season. Same can be said here.
“The Sacrifice” (I’m assuming you’ve seen it by now-spoilers) starts off slow and clunky. Dialogue is self-aware and the character of Lemon is quite annoying. Apparently, their friend is hurt badly by some accident and they’re rushing out of the wilderness to find help. Naturally, their car breaks down and in the distance is a walled-up community (think of a secluded Amish community). Only three beautiful women live there and one by one, are four leads go down by something that growls a lot until the final 10 minutes when it’s revealed to be a vampire.
With a show like this, an anthology series, rule of thumb is that you want to start of with a decent episode, not you’re strongest nor you’re weakest, and hopefully, it gathers interest into the show. I’m somewhat interested, naturally, but this episode is quite pedestrian. It offers little fear, light on story, and as mentioned, little blood. The vampire is also just an average take on Nosferatu; the whole angle of these girls as unwilling slaves who slowly feed their father to the vamp in order to protect the world is quite lame. The vamp is quickly disposed off and the final twist is eye-rolling.
“The Sacrifice” is just an average vampire tale. The show will need in the next few episodes too quickly show us some good horror tales, otherwise, the show won’t last. Here’s hoping too, because it’s really nice having horror back on network TV.
