NBC and Lionsgate have cleverly encouraged and nurtured a fascinating and talented group of filmmakers to create horror stories they personally were excited about.
Eric Roberts - Hollywood, CA, USA © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos
The chosen directors cover a broad range of subjects and tone in the stories they present on NBC’s new suspense and horror anthology series, “Fear Itself.”
The Emmy Award winning creators of "Masters of Horror" and some of Hollywood’s most accomplished directors, writers, and stars work in tandem to bring great storytelling back to network TV, premiering Thursday, June 05, 2008.
The thirteen-episode run brings back the good old anthology – think “Night Gallery” or even to some degree “Outer Limits,” but much more horror, less sci fi. There is a dearth of good serial storytelling, especially with horror that doesn’t devolve into gore. Yet this series rises above that and shines as each episode is an auteur moment for a specific director.
Tonight’s "Sacrifice" has a screenplay written by Mick Garris from a story by Del Howison ("Dark Delicacies") as Breck Eisner ("Creature from the Black Lagoon") directs his tale of four criminals on the run.
Their truck breaks down in a bleak snowscape of nowhere, A far off deserted looking farmhouse yields the warm blond bosom of a seemingly welcoming sister siren trio who proceed to divide and conquer the male ranks; all for a blood offering to appease a certain creature of the night.
The incredible vampire for this episode was created by Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero’s K.N.B. Effects, a powerhouse, award-winning special fx makeup shop that has hundreds of films and TV shows under their belts.
Jeffrey Pierce ("The Nine"), Jesse Plemons (NBC's "Friday Night Lights"), Stephen Martines ("Port Charles"), Rachel Miner ("Californication") and Mircea Monroe ("Drive") star in this episode.
NBC's take on Showtime's "Masters of Horror" features the work of Darren Bousman ("Saw II, III and IV"), Brad Anderson ("The Machinist"), Mary Harron ("American Psycho") and John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London").
The following episode to savor is "Spooked," directed by Brad Anderson and written by Matt Venne.
Great casting with the talented Eric Roberts, who brings a layered performance to the tale of a broken PI with a history, made to confront the demons of his past.
Jack Noseworthy ("Judging Amy"), Cynthia Watros ("Lost") and Larry Gilliard Jr. ("The Wire") also star with Roberts.
The last episode in the review screener is "Family Man," directed by Ronny Yu and written by Dan Knauf. This psychological thriller takes “Eureka” star Colin Ferguson, a nice guy whose soul is hijacked by a serial killer played by Clifton Collins Jr., during a near-death experience.
In any man’s worst nightmare, Ferguson must try to save his family from the predator inhabiting his “clothes” inside his home.
"Fear Itself" is well worth your time.
Monsters and Critics spoke to Jesse Plemons, star of the first episode entitled ‘Sacrifice’ and Eric Roberts of the episode “Spooked; ” executive producers Andrew Deane and Keith Addis, partners in Industry Entertainment and Oscar winning special effects makeup artist, Howard Berger.
Andrew Deane: What’s your publication called? Monsters and Critics?
April MacIntyre: Monsters and Critics, yes, an entertainment and news Web site.
The production values were top shelf, and I’m curious to know more about your art department, are they consistent? I know that the directors change, but do you keep your same production designer and art director and set decorator for each episode and they just sort of tackle a new story?
Andrew Deane: We rotate. Each episode's an entirely a different director, entirely new casts, but we rotate the - our directors of photography from episode to episode.
So while one is shooting the next is prepping and vice versa.
Eric Roberts: Can I say something about the crew?
I’ve worked all over the world, I’ve done A, B, C, D, F movies, I’ve done everything possible and they - this experience was one of my three favorite crews I’ve ever worked with in my whole career, they were all there because they wanted to be there and they all had fun and they all had a lot of humor and there was no cast system with this crew, Everybody was the same.
And it was really great. It was like being at a really hard camp and it was fun, and it was all thanks really to the crew because they are there every week and they know what they’re doing and they know why they’re doing it, and they have fun doing so.
And it was just such a pleasure every day to arrive on the set. It really was. I can’t emphasize that enough with this crew.
The collaborative efforts definitely show in your finished product, it’s brilliant, and hats off to you. Who is the production designer and the art director for this particular series?
Andrew Deane: Steve Geaghan is the Production Designer, and then Suki Parker is the Art Director.
Howard, Tell me about how you envisioned the unexpected vampire in "Sacrifice", what iconic version inspired the rendered character KNB designed?
Howard Berger: Breck Eisner wanted something very different and as described in the script written by Mick Garris, it is right there in black and white. Greg and I wanted this vampire to be as different as anything we had created for MASTERS OF HORROR and any other show.
Our first thought was to make the vamp very thin and desiccated, almost crumbling away, and Breck agreed and brought in a lot of reference to the table as well. We hired Walter Phelan, a very thin makeup and suit performer we like to work with, as he was perfect for this part.
We had very little time to build as you do on these shows, so our key designer, John Wheaton come up with a concept that everyone really liked. Next step was to have Norman Cabrera sculpt it in record time and away it went once all the other stages had been completed by the amazing team at KNB. Sarah Graham applied it on set for us and I think at the end of the day everyone was pretty happy with it all.
Howard, For the fans, can you explain what the process was for the actor who donned the prosthetics and makeup?
Howard Berger: Walter Phelan is use to being put through hell on every show we do with him, be it blind, mouth full of jagged teeth, full body makeup, running around in the freezing snow in a diaper, whatever, he is the best of the best and a great trooper.
The first step was that the full head cowl is applied to Walt, glued down along with all the other facial and body appliances that make up his look.
His body is painted with tattoo inks, then his finger extensions and nails are applied and then he is all tied together with airbrush paints, dirt and blood per Breck's instruction on set. the final touch is full contact lenses and dentures and away we go, a very cool looking vampire.
Jesse, regarding “Sacrifice” this seems to fit you so well, the character here has some of the same characteristics of the Friday Night Lights. Was that was coincidence?
Jesse Plemons: I kind of pictured him as a similar type of guy as Landry on Friday Night Lights. There's a dialogue in the script, it just seemed like he is one of those kids that didn’t quite fit in. The relationship with him and his brother was obviously strained and it just always seemed like he was trying to impress his brother especially with this deal that he made that went wrong.
I think a lot of times my mind gets working too fast and I just jumble some of the lines together, so I don’t know if a lot of that’s on purpose or just by accident.
Keith, there have been a few incarnations of anthologies over the years, what makes this one stand out?
Keith Addis: One of the cool things about an anthology is that every one of these films is completely separate and unique from all the others. And that's something we enjoy the most about this form.
Some of the episodes have more of a Twilight Zone feel and dwell in the realm of psychological thrillers. Others are at the very opposite end of the spectrum of the genre and are much more down the center, down the bull’s eye of what the genre offers most frequently.
So I really think you’ll see an incredibly broad cross section of different kinds of storytelling and its own over this life of the 13 episodes.
What makes you want to be a champion for this format?
Keith Addis: This has always been since I remember going to the movies in the late 50s, a genre that’s been entertaining, delighting, frightening audiences, providing a catharsis during challenging times.
We’ve watched the different spikes that have taken place in interest in the genre over the years, and it seems to us in a non-scientific way that there is a correlation between audience interests in these shows and the kind of general unease in the zeitgeist culturally, and to the extent that this provides a safe escape from some of the challenges and anxieties of modern-day society.
We hope it's a great entertainment and a little refuge from the storm in a way.
Andrew Deane: I think what also makes it exciting and fun to do is to give the writers, directors, and the performers all an opportunity to do something with a little more freedom than they would ordinarily have and I think the results reflect that.
Explain the title of the series
Keith Addis: This was in fact Mick Garris’s idea, and there was a lot of enthusiasm about the idea as soon as he mentioned it in one of the first meetings.
One hopes he’d have a rich and wonderful sense of humor about it.
Of the first three episodes that we got on disc, they all seem to have a bit of a twist ending. Do the other ten episodes also have a bit of a twist ending?
Andrew Deane: some do and some don’t but that’s coincidental as to the order of them that these first three happen to have that.
Keith Addis: There was no conversation about creating a thematic through line, we really went to the filmmakers and encouraged them to find and develop the stories that they were the most excited about telling.
And if there are any coincidences that are - or any thematic through lines, they're completely a function of coincidence.
Eric, Jesse, does it feel more like working on a short indie or being a guest star on a TV show?
Eric Roberts: It’s like working on an independent film, exactly. Or at least my experience was with Brad Anderson because he does him homework and he directs like a movie director and it was like making a movie.
Jesse Plemons: For me it did, it felt like a really fast movie. We filmed for eight days and it was a pretty hectic schedule as I’m sure most of the other episodes were.
Keith, will you have a narrator on this anthology?
Keith Addis: Of course it was discussed particularly because of the tradition that exists in anthology with some of the iconic posts that we've seen in the past including Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock and the extent to which the Outer Limited main title sequence really served that function.
I think we decided that it was a fresher approach to use the time to dive right into the story telling itself. But it was discussed and everyone agreed that this was the right approach under these circumstances.
There are only 43 and odd minutes to tell these stories in a network hour, and we wanted to make sure that that directors had as much of that time as we could possibly give them.
Jesse, Eric, have you done much horror before?
Jesse Plemons: This is actually my first horror project that I’ve done and it was something that I always wanted to do. I mean, I’ve read a lot of scripts, but honestly this was - it was a well written story which really got me excited.
I think the main thing that I kind of took out of it was just how I got a new-found respect for actors and everyone involved in horror because there’s just so much that goes into it - time, energy, it’s not an easy process, I mean, and this was eight days. I can’t imagine doing a movie where you’re screaming and being freaked out the whole time, but it was a lot of fun though.
Eric Roberts: My interest was piqued because of Mr. Addis and Mr. Anderson, my commitment came through because of the script itself. It was just juicy.
I knew I had a really great director behind me because of his past work I was aware of. So I knew I could put myself in his lap and he would steer me correctly because it’s hard to cry and die in almost every scene of a project and not get boring. Mr. Anderson really took good care of that and kept it interesting.
Talk about the nature of this anthology
Keith Addis: I grew up in the 50s and remember the great anthologies and particularly one of the great things about an anthology is, you don't have to get locked in to every episode the way you do in the serialized television show.
If you liked one of the episodes, there’s a really good chance you will like others. And frankly, if one wasn't for you, there’s still a really good chance that others will be. So I think we have a really broad spectrum of people that we think we can draw to the show and enjoy it.
Andrew, what are the highlights of the first 13 episodes?
Andrew Deane: I don’t think I can answer that question other than to say what appeals to you might not appeal to the next person, might not appeal to me what my favorite is won’t appeal - won’t be the next person’s favorite, so I think they’re all extremely entertaining and very well done and we’ll have certainly each will have fans and audiences hopefully a majority will appeal to a majority.
Eric, were you familiar with The Machinist before and if so, did you speak to Christian Bale?
Eric Roberts: I was very familiar with the movie, no, but I didn’t talk with Christian Bale about it.
I just knew the movie and I knew that was a real bona fide director. And as a movie buff, I’ve seen thousands of movies in my life, so when a movie is that well done, it jumps out at you.
Eric and Jesse, can you talk about the acting challenges you found stepping into your respective roles on Fear Itself?
Jesse Plemons: I guess for me the most challenging thing was just the endurance of it all, I mean, for most of the show, well at least the last, you know, 20, 30 minutes of it, it’s all really high intensity, high emotion, like, he’s scared out of his mind. So it was - that was something that was kind of challenging was just keeping that same intensity throughout the show.
Eric Roberts: The biggest challenge for me as an actor and a person was this story peaked in about ten minutes, and that peak maintains itself up to the very, very end. And it doesn’t ever come down from that peak level.
And as an actor if I didn’t have a truly great director, I would have been panicked.
I would have come across as cheating and being repetitive, but Brad Anderson kept it interesting and every scene was a different level of peaked hysteria.
I was in a great director’s hands. I just can’t say that enough.
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