Halloween Has Come Early to NBC

I guess I had pretty low expectations when I sat down to watch NBC’s new series, Fear Itself, a reincarnation of Showtime’s Masters of Horror. When I was younger I loved shows like Tales From the Darkside and Friday the 13th, but I was a lot easier to scare back then and now for whatever reason the idea of a successful horror series seems unlikely. It’s way too easy and tempting--if the majority of horror movies are any example--to try and disguise a weak story, crummy script and/or poor acting with a deluge of blood and guts. And sometimes that actually works, especially if it’s tongue-in-cheek.

I really don’t want to trash this show because it would be fun to see something so different succeed on a major network, but it might be dangerously close to taking itself too seriously. This week’s episode, “The Sacrifice,” featured four criminal-types on the run who end up in some weird, quasi-Amish log cabin compound inhabited by three alluring sisters. It’s clear that something isn’t quite right and before long the blond beauties are doing some fiendish things to the men. But in the end you have to just have to forgive them . . . they’ve simply been protecting the outside world by feeding strangers to the vampire who followed their family from Romania (you know, one of those pesky, undead stowaways).

Despite the corny-looking vampire (who, thankfully, you only catch a few glimpses of) I did find myself wanting to stick around until the end. That in itself can be quite a feat, so I’m willing to give it another chance next week. And with a new director and cast every week, maybe things will just keep getting scarier.