It all started with the Wings being in the Playoffs, then the Stanley Cup. Normally I don’t watch that much tv, other than Sunday night’s animation domination on FOX. But when I saw the first teaser for Fear Itself, I damn near leapt out of my chair with delight. Finally, horror had made it back onto the airwaves! And I felt that the independent episodes were a better idea than a series. After all, let’s face it, the horror genre usually has a high body count.
My hopes were dashed with the first episode.
Aside from the acting, which I think was awesome, the story was formulaic. This is is what came from the greatest minds in modern horror? Other than the problem with the plot itself, there was one major problem that was never addressed, that indeed is a question that faces all horror writers.
One of the key components of horror is an inescapable situation. So settings, as in “The Sacrifice”, tend to be isolated. The problem is cell phones. Pretty much everyone has one (some people, like my brother, have a personal and a work cell). At first I thought that the time of the episode was before cell phones, but then one of the characters asked about the compound’s isolation, incredulous that they didn’t even have dial-up Internet. This hole in the show’s logic made me unable to get into it. So it was with trepidation that I sat down this past Thursday to watch the second episode.
But I was relieved.
As formulaic as the first, nevertheless “Spooked” was a much more effective episode. The flashbacks necessary for background information are foreshadowed early in the episode so that, when they occur, I wasn’t bored by it, but thrilled because of the connection made between what I was seeing and the implications made before. Also, far from being absent, the episode’s technology contributes to the horror. The ending, somewhat drawn out, left a smile on my face.
“The Family Man” was by far the best episode of the series so far. The acting was incredible! The actor who played Dennis Mahoney faced a challenge capturing the all-American suburbanite father figure at the beginning of the episode then having to switch personas to the serial killer whose spirit is transported into his body. He does a great job with this. The family dinner scene after he’s beaten up is filled with tension. You can see the anger building, struggling against the new found conviction of the killer to lead a normal, peaceful life. His opposite did an equally good job of portraying bottled panic and fear, although we don’t get any exposure to the actor pre-accident, so no comparison can be made. The secondary acting blew me away, especially the little girl, whose blood-soaked song chilled me and brought me to the edge of my seat. As the show rocketed to its conclusion, I didn’t feel rushed through the story. The tension built even as its pace quickened. The ending, of course, was nothing like I’d expect, which was great! Far edgier than any convention, the ending was the height of masterful horror.
But, unfortunately, the score is still even.
As mentioned on the main page, I did not care in the least for “In Sickness and In Health”. For the most part, I’m going to try to review these shows without giving anything away. Mostly, because I hate when people do that. However, to discuss what I saw as wrong with the episode, I am going to have to mention certain things.
First off, if it was a separate post, I’d have titled my review “Red Herring Soup”. For the uninitiated, a red herring refers to a piece of information that is misleading, ultimately contributing nothing to the understanding of the ending. This show had so many red herrings that I think the writer spent more time trying to think of ways to not write the story as trying to write it. The dead parents of both bride and groom, the woman in the red headscarf that turns out to be Samantha’s brother, Steven, the identical twin uncles of Carlos, one of whom is in the CIA, all are pieces of information that lead nowhere. The acting is superb, actually too much. As the teaser for the show indicates, Sam receives a note just before she gets married that says “The person you are about to marry is a serial killer.” Horrifying, of course, and she spends the next forty five minutes of the episode running around, jumping at shadows and crying. This is combined with a couple visual hallucinations: the words “serial killer” leaping off the paper of the note and a skull superimposed over Carlos’ face during the ceremony. The woman in the red scarf returns to the church to menace poor Samantha. At the same time, Carlos becomes intense and creepy, grabby and bullying, classic closet serial killer behavior in other words. All of this is great, and had me tense, but the ending ruined it. As it turns out, the priest, who received the note from the woman in the red scarf, gave it to the wrong person, and it’s actually Samantha who is the serial killer, supposedly along with her brother, who enters their house as the woman in the red scarf and disrobes to reveal. Now, I could see it coming that her brother was a closet psycho, based on the tidbit of information given earlier in the episode about Sam’s boyfriend’s never being heard from again after they leave her. However, based on Sam’s and Carlos’ behavior throughout the episode, the ending didn’t make sense. And once the internal logic of the story was disrupted (see the main page for an explanation), I started to question all the red herring details. Why did her brother want to give Carlos the note? Was it a true warning or jealousy? For that matter, why did Steven, after leaving the church early in the episode, come back later to menace his sister? Why did Samantha have those visual hallucinations, if, as it turns out, she’s the killer and really has nothing to fear?
Okay, I’ll stop now. Obviously, I didn’t like the episode. To me, the kind of “screw you” ending employed is lazy writing, hoping that the shock will be so great that people won’t question that everything leading up to it is contradictory.
First off, I just have to say how disappointed I was this past Thursday to turn on NBC only to find a Last Comic Standing special two hour elimination show. This bummed me out, but I guess it’s just fate’s way of telling me that I really have to try to stay current on my reviews. So here it goes:
“Eater” was a good episode, not great but good. Satisfying, not very surprising. I would have liked the writer to carry on the practical joke idea a little farther. I’ll admit, that had me going. Had it turned out to be a practical joke, Bannerman shooting one of the jokesters in a panic would have been a satisfying ending. But the way it played out was just as. The one thing that I didn’t like about the episode was its rampant self-reflexivity at the beginning. Bannerman reads horror mags, she demonstrates off-hand knowledge about the difference between Hannibal Lector and Buffalo Bill. She asks to read the eater’s file, and her captain admonishes her that Hannibal and Buffalo Bill are fake, the guy they’ve got is real. But he isn’t, and, in my opinion, attention shouldn’t have been called to that fact. But, like I said, it was a good episode. If I had to rate it, with 1 being something that I could fall asleep while watching and 5 being something that I stay up all night with all the lights on, I’d have to give “Eater” a 3.
There’s an old saying, I’m not sure where I heard it: “Those who can’t do, teach. And those who can’t teach, criticize.” Well, I’m not sure how I fit into that statement, seeing as how I try to do all three. But I do know that criticism can and does interfere with actual enjoyment of whatever it is. This was the case as I sat down to watch “New Year’s Day”. I found myself trying to out think the story and focusing on what I would say in my review instead of just letting go and enjoying the show. I read and write horror because, above all, I enjoy it. I do have some things to say about the episode, but since there’s also a connection to “I Am Legend” I’ll talk about them on my main page. I can’t rate this episode because I was too worried about how I’d rate it. Sorry.
I was able to get into “Community” much better than “New Year’s Day”, but that has nothing to do with the episode. Not to say that it wasn’t great. It was! It was a stunning example of how a good thing (community and concern for your fellow man) can be taken to the extreme with negative consequences. Also, I think that in the age of Google searches, electronic surveillance and other threats to privacy, the episode was poignant in pointing out what can go wrong. There were a couple loose ends that never got tied, but they mostly weren’t a problem. I’ve forgotten what the score is (heh heh), but I count “Community” in the win column.
I was wondering when they would be getting to a Wendigo story. I was glad they did get to it, considering that it’s such an iconic monster. It’s even the source of my screen name (the words “ween dagoh” mean “solely for self” in the algonquin language (to the best of my knowledge) and they and the legend is the source of the wendigo). I thought the episode was freaking awesome! The acting ruled once again. Gary, the man who is invaded by the Wendigo, is at times barely contained psychopathic, and at other times heart-wrenchingly remorseful for what he’s done. As the creature takes over more fully, its true motivation becomes known, which threw me for a loop. The only thing that bugged me about the episode is the presence of the Expositional Indian. Being that this is an American Indian creature, there’s always one on hand who recognizes what the creature is and lives just long enough to impart what’s going on and what should be done. Although I have to say that I’m not above using the convention in my own Wendigo story. Of course, now that I’ve noticed, you can bet that I’ll be changing the role of my Expositional Indian.