Fear Itself
NBC | Release Date: June 5, 2008
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: With so many different directors and writers involved, it's always hard to judge where anthology series may be going. But the first two episodes of Fear Itself are good, goosebumpy fun, with the deft set-ups, rousing action and surprise endings of a comic book. Read full review
70
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: A breath of cold, bracing and - bless it - fresh air. Eisner's fable is dark, almost impenetrably so, though skillfully rendered. Best of all, nothing here has ever been performed on reality TV, the best I can tell. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: Script by show creator Mick Garris and ensemble acting are serviceable but pale in comparison to the cinematography of Attila Szalay, production design of Stephen Geaghan and Brian Tyler's tension-inducing orchestral score. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond
Season 1 Review: Fear is pretty much like most of these genre-specific anthologies: wildly inconsistent, sometimes maddeningly so. But when it hits, it blasts the ball out of the park. When it doesn't, well, at least you have the pools of blood to keep you company. Read full review
60
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: For the most part, they're neither fish nor fowl: not gory enough for the "Saw"/"Hostel" crowd, and not genuinely scary enough for anybody else. Read full review
50
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Each episode tells a different story but in the first two, it's clear the stories won't be all that different from those we've seen a million times before. Read full review
50
PopMattersCynthia Fuchs
Season 1 Review: A little tedious for the rest of us, who have seen such exploration before. Read full review
50
The New York TimesGinia Bellafante
Season 1 Review: Fear Itself, which is directed by a platoon of horror film veterans (including the Hong Kong auteur Ronny Yu), delivers a lot of ripped flesh and spilled blood--terrible things happen, in particular, to lips and teeth--in the service of very little terror or discomfort. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Season 1 Review: What they do have in common is wintry Canadian weather, a general lack of humor without having much serious to say and the fact that they are not particularly scary. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: Suspense should be nerve-tingling fun, not necessarily punishing, and most of what I’ve seen so far has been about as enjoyable as taking a sledgehammer to the temple. And just about as cheesily predictable. Read full review
30
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: NBC's new anthology horror series is, like far too many TV horror anthologies before it, just not scary enough. Read full review
25
New York PostAdam Buckman
Season 1 Review: The only fear engendered by this series is the fear that the NBC programming department has been possessed by Satan. Read full review
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