"If this is luck, I’d hate to see misfortune."

- quote from Sacrifice, first episode of NBC’s Fear Itself

Ever since Happy Horror started up two years ago, I’ve been wanting to do a review (episode by episode) of a horror series. However, since I’ve not had cable regularly until very recently, that’s been a no-go. Plus, for many series you need to subscribe to a pay channel which I’ve not got the cheddar to do, ya know? That’s where NBC’s come to my rescue with a show that’s on at a time that works for me: Fear Itself (not to be confused with a movie of the same name). Unless you’re fairly new to this site you know I’ve been hyping this show since I first heard about it being announced. So, let’s see how it did!

I damn near missed the very first moments of the show. Okay, technically I did, because I was facing away from the TV grabbing my notepad - but have no fear! Glittersoul saw them and I only missed maybe thirty seconds. Other than that, I caught the whole thing right down to the Smokey Chipotle chicken from KFC that I seriously want to try at the first opportunity. Oh, and that creepy guy in the Best Buy ads.

Anyways, right off the bat we were impressed with what we heard. That opening intro music? Glittersoul said "That sounds like System of a Down" which I figured couldn’t be true. Yet, I was wrong - sort of! That music’s actually composed by dear old Serj Tankian who ’s the lead singer for the band System of a Down. He did a truly fine job and it goes great with the visuals which are also pretty frickin’ cool.

The story’s not bad at all, either. It has a twist so I hesitate to say too much because that’ll definitely mean spoilers. Essentially we’ve got a group of dudes from California out in the snowy wilderness needing help because one of them’s been injured. They’re crooks so they’re already a little wary. They come across a massive fort that looks like an old fur-trading outpost, decorated with all sorts of dead animal heads. In fact, you’ll see lots of dead animal heads throughout this episode. Kind of gives me flashbacks to some of my first memories as a child. I digress.

Desperate for help, the guys drag their wounded friend into this clearly not abandoned fort so they can enlist the support of whoever lives in this castle of wood. They come across a bunch of attractive girls dressed like they’re from around the time of the fort’s construction. From there on in, bad things happen. That’s really enough to know until you actually watch the show. The surprises and twists really are interesting and not all of them are easy to expect either, so I commend Mick Garrett (screen writer, also of Riding the Bullet, Amazing Stories) and Breck Eisner (director, also Sahara) for going through some extra troubles to create memorable moments. Of course, they were working from a great story written by Del Howison who I mention because he runs what wikipedia claims is the world’s only brick and mortar store dedicated solely to horror! Yes, I was amazed, too, so I looked it up: visit if ya want.

One of the real stand-outs of this episode is the camera work. It’s very good at not giving us all the details, but they don’t hide the monsters too much like I mentioned disliking in my review of BloodMonkey. Really, the story reminded me alot of the The Village due to the ‘Amishness’ glittersoul pointed out in the residents of the fort. However, I can promise you something wonderful: you will see submachineguns! If you’re geared the way I am then that’s pretty much reason enough to catch this episode whenever it’s re-broadcast. Beyond that, plenty of creepouts, not too much gore and story that’s coherent. Plus, since most of this is filmed within the confines of older wooden buildings, the creak and thumping sounds being well-executed keep you inside the filmmakers’ world.

That brings us to the cast. There’s Jeffrey Pierce who you may recognize from TV’s The Nine or S1m0ne. He plays a badass who’s also got some heart. He doesn’t say it, but we see it. I like that approach and enjoyed his portrayal quite muchly. As his brother Lemon (Lemuel the Third, you’ll come to understand), we have Jesse Plemons (Varsity Blues, Friday Night Lights) who sort of reminds me of a hybrid between Doogie Houser and Matt Damon, visually-speaking. Funny he’s playing a guy nicknamed Lemon when his last name’s Plemons. He does a terrific job in his role and adds some non-hammed comic relief, as well. There’s also Stephen Martines (mainly soap operas), as Diego, the Don Juan of the group. We just didn’t get to see enough of this guy for me to really evaluate his character but the actor performed well enough.

Lest we forget, the ladies of Fort Sacrifice. Ah yes, the quaintly sweet things who, "Do not care much for the bonds of modern society," as it were. There’s Rachel Miner (Tooth and Nail, Cult) who gave an outstanding portrayal of her character, essentially the star of the show alongside Jeffrey Pierce. There’s something eerie about her character but you can’t place your finger on it until the very end - and even then, you’ll wonder if you’re right. Playing what seems to be her sister Virginia is Mircea Monroe (House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim & voice of Kara in the upcoming Tekken). She’s good with her role and you’ll note the rapid personality shifts she pulls off with startling ease - excellent!

All told, it’s a solid first episode for this anthology series. I’m certainly glad to see genuine horror on the air because spooky’s done alot, but outright horror tends to be a genre the major networks shy away from. I believe we can look forward to several more excellent episodies. Glittersoul and I agree it’s definitely a 4 out 5. Only real reason it’s not perfect is that we’d prefer two hours - the story certainly could have survived a longer running time.

That’s it! This is GlowStormLion reminding you to keep visiting because we’ll be reviewing each of the twelve remaining episodes as they air!

-- by GlowStormLion of http://www.happyhorror.com

Tags: horror, supernatural, television

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 12:47 am and is filed under Horror Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.