Fear Itself: The Complete First Season – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Sep 18, 2009, 16:38 GMT

Conceived along the lines of Showtime\'s "Masters Of Horror", NBC\'s "Fear Itself" was a dramatic anthology consisting of 13 separate hour-long films, each one a spine-tingling exercise in psychological and physiological terror. The series boasted the combined efforts of some of show business\' top horror writers and directors: talents like John Landis, Ronny Yu (the "Chucky" films), Darren Lynn Bousman (the "Saw" series), Dan Knauf ("Supernatural"), Mary Harron ("American Psycho"), ...more

“We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt

I almost wanted to type “Masters of Horror, Season 3” but that wouldn’t be right.  Fear Itself may have been from Mick Garris, who also created Masters, but Fear Itself was an attempt to bring the same type of series to NBC.  That might’ve been the rub since they couldn’t get away with some of the stuff they did on cable.  

Fear Itself is a horror anthology that is from Mick Garris, who created a similar series for Showtime.  The premise was basically the same as Masters of Horror in that Mick’s famous friend’s roster of directors would make short horror films for broadcast. 

The list would include directors Brad Anderson, Ronny Yu, John Landis, Stuart Gordon, Darren Lynn Bousman, and Larry Fessenden.  Most of them also appeared on Masters.  The series began on NBC in 2008, but only eight of the first season’s thirteen episodes actually made airtime on the network. 

The final five would end up airing on cable channel FEARnet.  Masters of Horror was a mixed bag and Fear Itself also has some stories that work more than others.  The problem may be that since Fear Itself airs on network television that the show isn’t able to explore more salacious or gory subject matter. 

It makes Fear Itself seem like a poorer cousin of Masters.  The series has been cancelled on NBC so the “first season” moniker on the disc packaging should probably have been “the complete series.”  

Disc one, Side A: Eater (director’s cut): Rookie cop Danny Bannerman spends the night in an isolated precinct guarding a serial killer who eats his victims and is intent on making Danny his next “meal.”

Spooked: While on a stakeout in a haunted house, a private eye hired by a mysterious woman is forced to confront the demons of his past.  

Disc one, Side B: Community: A young married couple moves into a seemingly perfect planned community, but find out the hard way that their neighbors will go to any lengths to preserve their twisted sense of perfection.

The Sacrifice: Two brothers, Point and Lemon, along with two of their friends, end up stranded in an old fort and slowly discover that the three sisters who reside there are hiding a deadly secret.  

Disc two, Side A: In Sickness and Health: On the day of her wedding to Carlos, Samantha receives a shocking note that reads “The person you are marrying is a serial killer.”

Family Man: A likeable family man switches bodies with a serial killer after a near-death experience.  Now, he must fight from behind bars to keep the murderer from adding his wife and kids to the long list of victims.
 
Disc two, Side B: Something with Bite: When a veterinarian is bitten by a large, strange animal brought into his clinic, he begins to see the world and his stale life differently.

New Year’s Day: A young woman wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by terrifying zombies and struggles to survive the day.

Disc three, Side A: Skin and Bones (director’s cut): When a rancher leading a hunting party returns home to his family after being lost in the mountains for days, he just doesn’t seem the same.  Soon, a terrible mortal struggle ensues against the terrifying monster possessing him.  

Chance: In the vein of such classic doppelganger stories as “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and Poe’s “William Wilson,” “Chance” explores a dreadful classic battle when a man is confronted by his evil self.

Disc three, Side B: The Spirit Box: When two suburban high school girls try to contact a dead classmate via a board game, they receive an unexpected message from beyond the grave.

Echoes (director’s cut): An affable, good natured young man moves into an apartment where he once lived – 88 years ago in a past life.  But as memories appear to him like ghosts, he begins to believe that in his previous life he was a sadistic murderer – or is he just imaging things?

Disc four: The Circle: A group of people meet every Halloween to tell horror stories and suddenly discover they’re living one.  

Fear Itself is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include a 5 minute “Recipe for Fear” featurette about each episode. 

The packaging looked interesting and unique but opening the case produced disappointment.  The four dual sided discs are on top of each other in the case and could be prone to scratching.  The case may look interesting but it is cheap plastic.  

Fear Itself has some moments, but the series does fail to come together.  For fans it’s a nice treat that all of the episodes are available, especially if you don’t have FEARnet on your cable channels.  The special features are light, but the packaging and disc design are more horrific.  

Fear Itself: The Complete First Season is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.