(Note: Wikipedia and the DVD set give
different episode orders. It doesn't really matter, since it's an
anthology show, but I decided to stick with Wikipedia. I've also
decided to keep my initial comments about the show in early reviews
to reflect my opinions at the time of writing, even if my opinions
changed as I continued to re-watch it.)
For anyone unfamiliar with this show,
it's the unofficial third season of Masters of Horror.
When HBO decided to cancel MoH, Lionsgate had already sunk an
investment into the third season, and tried to recoup some of it's
money by moving the show to NBC and changing the name. The gore had
to be substantially toned down, and many of the “Masters” were
unwilling to return for a network show, so the notability of the
directors dropped significantly. Breck Eisner, who directed this
first episode, didn't even direct a theatrical horror film until his
remake of The Crazies two
years later.
That said, however,
I think that this show is underrated. While it never reached the
heights of MoH, it also never sank to the same depths. The show is,
overall, a lot less experimental, and so it maintains a much more
consistent quality.
Four criminals
running from the police have a break-down. Navarro (Reamonn Joshee)
was wounded in their latest robbery, and the others are forced to
carry him. They find a settlement with three sisters and an elderly
man (Bill Baksa), who live in isolation from the rest of the world.
The sisters initially seem helpful, but standoffish. However, they
quickly begin to isolate the men from each other.
Virginia (Mircea
Monroe) lures Diego (Stephen Martines) into the barn under the
pretense of sex, and traps him in a pit. Chelsea (Rachel Miner) sews
Navarro's mouth shut, while Tara (Michelle Molineux) feeds the
brothers, Point and Lemmon (Jeffrey Pierce and Jesse Plemons). Just
as Point discovers Navarro's now-staked corpse, a creature (Walter
Phelan) attacks.
I love the reveal
of this episode: The creature is a vampire that followed the settlers
from Romania. The creature turns its victims with a bite, and none
of the settlers were able to kill it. The only option they had to
prevent an exponential plague of vampires from overtaking the Earth
was to live with it far away from civilization, luring in victims to
keep it fed and happy, and killing them when they turn.
I'm not sure if I
should call the sisters anti-Villains or anti-Heroes. By the end of
the episode the two survivors, Chelsea and Point, have teamed up in a
final effort to end the creature. However, it's not clear if Chelsea
has had a change of heart about their methods, or if the creature has
simply become uncontrollable.
The twist of the
episode works...kind of. Chelsea and Point are able to burn the
creature, but Point has been bitten, and so Chelsea closes the gate
of the community again to begin feeding travelers to Point in order
to keep the evil appeased. I like the irony, but the sisters had no
difficulty dealing with young vampires earlier in the episode. In
fact, the entire premise is based on their ability to do so.
Maybe Chelsea just
knows that Point will be as much of a badass vampire as he was a
human. Or maybe she's supposed to have developed feelings for him,
and can't bring herself to kill him. I don't really buy either of
these, though. Still, it's an anthology show, so twists are to be
expected, especially when writers are desperate to avoid happy
endings.
I'd
say overall this episode got Fear Itself
off to a solid start. Nothing up to the standards of The
Washingtonians, but a hell of a
lot better than Fair Haired Child.
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