Presents

Fear Itself: Episode 1: The Sacrifice

If you were a fan of the original Masters Of Horror series, then you were probably like me...very happy to see that NBC had finally scheduled Fear Itself (the network version of Masters).  So it was, with great anticipation that I sat myself down, turned the lights low and prepared for what I was sure would be an excellent hour of horror.  Well, after seeing the first episode, I'm not really sure if this series is going to be worth it at all!

The Sacrifice follows four criminals, and we know they're criminals because they tell us that they're avoiding any contact with the police.  Well, one of their number is injured and they spot some smoke on the horizon and decide that, since their truck has been disabled, they may as well head toward what appears to be some type of shelter.  What they find is a fort, an honest to goodness, made of giant logs, points at the top, fort!!  Inside are three beautiful women who apparently don't get much contact with the outside world.  As the story unfolds, the men begin to disappear one at a time, with the women involved in at least two of the deaths, and we discover...finally...that they're descendants of some ancient Romanians who accidentally brought a vampire to this country when the immigrated and, instead of killing the vampire, they decided to enclose it, keep it (and themselves) away from society and feed the vampire...in other words, to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

The real problem with this story is that the picture above.  That's some pretty good makeup effects, and we never really get to see the vampire on screen!  This is just what I was afraid of when I heard that Masters was moving to the network, that the horror would get so watered down that we horror fans don't get to see anything!  Now, I don't need dismemberments or graphic deaths, but for God's sake, would it have killed them to show the monster at least once?!?!  After this first episode, I'm very hesitant to continue watching the series, I'll probably check out the second episode...which airs Thursday night at 10pm...but the premise of Eric Roberts as a detective haunted by his past just sounds like a retread of countless b horror movies that I've seen before.  So, like most of these things, I'll give it one more chance and then I'll mourn the loss of Masters Of Horror.  Well, at least I still have all the episodes on DVD!  I'm giving the first episode of Fear Itself two out of four cigars, because it was just one of the worst TV horror shows I've ever seen.  No scares, no monster to be seen, and not one surprise in the whole show...and then an ending that really made me wonder what the hell?!?!  I don't have a trailer, but you can check out the entire episode for yourself by heading over to Hulu.com.  Take a minute and tell me what you think...am I wrong??  And, until next time, when I'll still be sitting in my easy chair with my remote in my hand in shocked horror of how truly bad this show was, remember that the best movies are bad movies.