Fear Itself

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

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.

NewsdayVerne Gay

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.

VarietyBrian Lowry

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.

Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall

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.

Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond

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.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

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.

PopMattersCynthia Fuchs

A little tedious for the rest of us, who have seen such exploration before.

The New York TimesGinia Bellafante

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.

Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd

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.

TV GuideMatt Roush

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.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

NBC's new anthology horror series is, like far too many TV horror anthologies before it, just not scary enough.

New York PostAdam Buckman

The only fear engendered by this series is the fear that the NBC programming department has been possessed by Satan.