OMG Horror.com

After a week off, NBC's horror series Fear Itself resumed with Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III & IV) at the helm of 6th episode entitled 'New Year's Day. With a slight formalistic departure from episodes past, New Year's Day employs a bevy of flash-backs and flash-forwards to tell its apocalyptic story of an Earthly zombie takeover. While a bit a more predictable than most episodes thus far, Bousman does a serviceable job with a torpidly uninspired script, injecting the show with just enough mood and kinesis to retain interest. A great episode? Hardly. The worst we've seen from Fear Itself? Not even close!

We immediately get started with a pretty young woman named Helen (Briana Evigan) waking up in bed. She's sweaty, greasy, hung-over; an assortment of bottles littering her nightstand. She grogs her way to the window, only to look out and see a chaotic war-zone; rubble fires, smoke plumes, looming choppers, all of it. A voice warns on a loud speaker, 'this isn't a drill' - all power lines and electricity sources have been cut-down; it's utter madness. Evidently a chemical plant exploded and rendered a deadly cloud of ashes over the city. Helen staggers her to her roommate Eddie's bedroom door, blood smeared all over the walls along the way. She finally musters the guts to enter the room, finding Eddie dismembered, body parts scattered throughout the joint. TITLE CARD.

In a stretch of flashbacks, we get better acquainted with Helen and her situation. She's a social outcast without living family members, only having her best friend and boyfriend James (Cory Monteith). Her brother recently died, she's in a constant state of lugubriousness. Yet it's New Year's Eve, and she should having a good time right? Well that's what her best friend tries to convince her of...soon Helen is downing more shots than Charles Bukowski. We meet Helen's roommate Eddy, a nerdy Weezer impersonator with an unkempt beard and a pair of emo-glasses. We can tell he's in the painful friends only zone, desperate for Helen's greater affection. After a few drinks, Eddie even advances on Helen, and a little tipsy herself, she doesn't recoil right away. But she has James, right?

Back to the apocalypse! Helen strives for communication with James, but cell-signals are interfered with, making it difficult. A pudgy zombie woman repeatedly bashes her head-piece against Helen's front door, but mysteriously wants no part of Helen's flesh? Hmm. Soon Eddie pops up, animated, deadly. He waltzes around, severely cracking his neck like he just mounted a cheerleading squad, a pumped air of confidence. He froths and foams at the sight of Helen, who for the rest of the episode is hell-bent on uniting with James. Along the way, Helen avoids a carjacking at gunpoint from an uninfected human, witnesses an old man meat-cleave his wife's head off in an apparent double suicide (to avoid zombification). Eddie (Niall Matter) manages to reappear several times, gawking and cricking his neck some more. When Helen finally reaches James and discovers him having an affair with her best friend, a series of climactic motions are put in play that bring the episode to its action packed crescendo. So, can you guess the twist?

The best attribute of the episode was the balance between the flashbacks and flash-forwards. The former had a slow, drawn out quality that let you really focus and get to know the characters, or Helen more specifically. For the most part, the camera is static here and lends a sense of comfort (false?) and safety. Of course all that is met with the exact opposite in the flash-forwards. A jarringly wild, almost spastic hand-held approach is fused with extremely dark source lighting (flash-beam, emergency light etc.) and bedraggled set pieces that only heighten the level of anarchy. Combining the two tones has offers a fractured sense of unrest in the viewer, never knowing when the shift will take place in the episode.

Another highlight of the episode is that way it was told through the eyes of one character, Helen. It's her story, and we the audience acts as a surrogate to the action as everything happening to her is simultaneously happening to us. That ratchets the suspense level a bit, because the audience has no one else to identify with. For better or worse, we live with this girl and witness the harrowing attempt she makes back to safe and civilized world. Taking this approach is quite necessary to really pay-off the final revelation in the most believable manner it can.

Yet despite all this and a decent amount of gore, the script and dialog are at times more ridiculous than a Nick-at-Nite rerun. The plot itself and the way it is initially presented can't help remind one of flicks like 28 Days Later or Cloverfield - the high hand-held energy has the feel of a 1st person shooter PC game. The acting is passable enough, but the final twist of the episode isn't shrouded well enough - and if you're keen enough to spot what it is, the show could drag a bit and feel quite pointless. Either way, New Year's Day is not the best we've seen from Fear Itself, but damn sure isn't the low point either.

Terror Rating: 2 out of 5
Originality: 1.5 out of 5
Level of Gore: 3 out of 5
Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Fear Itself airs Thursday @ 10:00 PM on NBC and can be re-watched at nbc.com

Related Stories:
• REVIEW: Fear Itself: 'EATER'
• REVIEW: Fear Itself: 'In Sickness and In Health'
• REVIEW: Fear Itself: 'Family Man'
• REVIEW: Fear Itself: 'Spooked'
• REVIEW: Fear Itself: 'Sacrifice'

• << prev
• next >>