Fear Itself: Season 1 (2008)This horror/suspense anthology series sparkles with talent — including renowned directors John Landis, Darren Lynn Bousman and Ronny Yu, as well as gifted actors Eric Roberts, Brandon Routh, Shiri Appleby and Cynthia Watros. Plotlines include a devoted family man who finds himself in the body of a serial killer, a bride who receives a chilling note about her husband-to-be on their wedding day, and a cattle herder possessed by a monster.

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Each installment was directed by the biggest horror directors working in feature films today, including John Landis, Darren Lynn Bousman, and Ronny Yu. The episodes went on hiatus during the 2008 Summer Olympics with plans to return after, but no further episodes were aired. Now the plan is to air them online with episodes continuing to be added each week.

Currently, there are already three episodes online with behind the scenes clips as well.

The first is Eater, directed by Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator). This installment stars Samantha Moss (Mad Men) as a rookie cop who must spend her first night in the precinct watching over a serial killer, coined “The Eater”. When her fellow cops start acting bizarre, she quickly learns that no one is who they seem. See below for videos (new for FEARnet) that go behind the scenes with Gordon and discuss the creation of “The Eater” character.

Fear Itself: Eater – Behind the Director

Fear Itself: Eater – Behind the Characters

The second is Spooked, directed by Brad Anderson (The Machinist). Eric Roberts plays an ex-cop who’s thrown off the force for brutality. Now he’s a private eye on a stakeout of a haunted house, where some restless spirits are set on revenge.

The third full episode available is Skin and Bones from director Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter, Wendigo). After being lost in the woods for days, a rancher returns home to his family. But somehow, he isn’t the same. And now, his family is in trouble.

Ben Silverman, Co-Chairmen, NBC Entertainment told iF Magazine in late July, “No we’re not taking it off.” Still, the schedule is empty and the network’s website for the show has nothing to share about these final five. They last released any news about the series at the end of July.

The ratings have been lackluster, trailing behind CBS’ Swingtown, which is why Silverman admitted the series was on the “bubble” regarding a second season.

“We’re really happy with the numbers,” Silverman said at the press tour. “On a relative basis it did better than Studio 60 last year at one-quarter of the cost and that was a big reason we put it on. It was a marketing vehicle for motion picture studios, in the summer, when they’re desperately looking for platforms to reach their consumers and Thursday nights have always been the home of the big movie marketers. That’s why we put that show in there. Also by being produced in Canada, by letting the DVD rights go to our partner, we’re able to get that show at 1/8th the price we pay for a show like Heroes.”

The final five, which will likely run online or be saved as exclusives for the inevitable DVD box set, include “Something With Bite”, directed by Ernest Dickerson (Heroes) and written by Max Landis (Masters of Horror); “Chance”, directed by John Dahl (Joy Ride) and written by Lem Dobbs (The Score), “The Circle”, written by Johnathon Schaech and Richard Chizmar (Masters of Horror) and based on Lewis Shiner’s short story, directed by  Venezuelan director Eduardo Rodriguez (Curandero); “The Spirit Box”, directed by Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn) and written by Joe Gangemi (Wind Chill); and “Echoes”, directed by Rupert Wainwright (Stigmata) and written by Sean Hood (Masters of Horror).

7/17/08 – “New Year’s Day”
Directed by Darren Bousman (Saw II, III & IV)
Written by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night)
A young woman (Briana Evigan, Step Up 2: The Streets) wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by horrifying zombies and struggles to survive the day. Niall Matter (Eureka), Cory Monteith (Kyle XY) and Zulay Henao (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) also star.

7/24/08 – “Skin and Bones”
Directed by Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter, Wendigo)
Written by Drew McWeeny & Scott Swan (Masters of Horror)
When a cattle herder (Doug Jones, Hellboy & Hellboy II: The Golden Army) returns home to his family after being lost in the woods for days, he just doesn’t seem the same. Soon, a terrible mortal struggle ensues against the terrifying monster possessing him

7/31/08 – “Something With Bite”
Directed by Ernest Dickerson (Heroes)
Written by Max Landis (Masters of Horror)
After a veterinarian (Wendell Pierce, The Wire) gets bitten by a large, strange animal brought into his clinic, he begins to see the world and his stale life differently. Paula Jai Parker (Side Order of Life, The Proud Family) also stars.

“I read the script and liked it a lot, and the two writers [Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan] are good friends of mine, but [the Fear Itself producers] fired Mick Garris! And he was the only reason I wanted to do the TV show…so f**k ‘em!”

The reality is that Garris stepped down as the showrunner because of the Writer’s Strike, which reported on earlier this year.

The biggest problem with producing a suspenseful network television series is the very nature of broadcast television (and applies to basic cable as well). You have to have breaks for commercials and therefore you’re structuring your story for the act breaks, knowing any sense of suspense is interrupted with bright, colorful and loud advertisements for product that can totally spoil the mood.

Additionally, the work of the director and crew is spoiled when the networks insist on including the colorful bumpers — advertisements for other shows on the network – in addition to the network bug, that is the ID for the channel. In this week’s “Spooked”, the screen goes black for effect but the bumper remained spoiling the moment.

Yes, Rod Serling had this issue to a lesser degree on The Twilight Zone, but our expectations were far different and his stories so masterfully told that we seemed caught up in the moment.

Also, on the other genre shows (Moonlight, Reaper) we have come to know and care about the characters and come to an episodic series with a different set of expectations. When this anthology notion was hatched as Masters of Horror for Showtime, they didn’t have the same act break, bumper or even time restrictions. Yes, it led to more gore and flesh so the team this time had to focus more on story and suspense than out and out horror, hearkening back to the TZ and Outer Limits models of superior storytelling.

And here’s where I find the show to deficient: the stories. “The Sacrifice” is a clever idea from Mick Garris that doesn’t hold on because so little is explained to round things out. For example, why does the one sister not talk and why would the father, trapped in the fort with the vampire, be a preacher when there’s no one to preach to? And what about the entire need for procreation to extend the family line? Nice directing and an interesting cast is spoiled when the story fails to keep you riveted so you don’t think of the flaws until after the final credits.

This week’s “Spooked” has a stronger story with a beginning, middle and an end but feel overstuffed with details and backstory. And the largest lingering question remains how could a house sit vacant and rotting for so long in what otherwise appears to be an affluent neighborhood? Director Brad Anderson also went for a full-color look that robbed the story of mood, lessening its overall effect and wasting a pretty great performance from Eric Roberts.

Summer is also not necessarily the optimal time for a spooky series and the ratings seem to reflect that. In its second outing, the numbers have tumbled against CBS’s first-run . At this rate, the thirteen may be the only episodes ordered, spoiling a great concept that needs a tad better execution and some network cooperation to avoid the bumps and bugs that go a long way to spoiling the mood.

What do you think?

Fear Itself debuted on Thursday night to small ratings, with a mere 5.2 million viewers tuning in .  That it opened against another first run series, CBS’ Swingtown (which had 8.5 million viewers) , didn’t help.  Nor did the lack of serious promotion from NBC despite the stellar line-up before and behind the camera. NBC, though, is reportedly  pleased with the performance.

The John Landis-directed installment of NBC’s Fear Itself has been scheduled to air June 26. “In Sickness and In Health” was written by Victor Salva, starring Maggie Lawson (Psych), James Roday (Psych), Christie Laing (The 4400), Sonja Bennet (Eureka), and Marshall Bell (Sex and Death 101). The synopsis says this is about a bride, learning on her wedding day, that her husband may be a serial killer.

June 5: “The Sacrifice”, directed by Breck Eisner, scripted by Mick Garris from a story by Del Howison: Four criminals hole up in an old, snowy fort and encounter a beautiful and deadly trio of sirens. Stars Jeffrey Pierce, Jesse Plemons, Stephen Martines, Rachel Miner and Mircea Monroe.

June 12: “Spooked”, directed by Brad Anderson, scripted by Matt Venne. A private detective stakes out a haunted house and winds up facing personal demons from his past. Stars Eric Roberts, Jack Noseworthy, Cynthia Watros and Larry Gilliard Jr.

June 19: “Family Man”, directed by Ronny Yu, scripted by Daniel Knauf: A near-death experience leads a husband and father to switch bodies with a serial killer, and while imprisoned, he struggles to save his wife, son and daughter from becoming the murderer’s next victims. Stars Colin Ferguson, Clifton Collins Jr., Josie Davis, Gig Morton and Nicole Leduc.