TVSquad

(S01E06) Steve Niles has become the modern day horror maven of the comic book world. He brought us 30 Days of Night, which is far better in the comic world than on the big screen. Here, he's paired with Darren Bousman, director of the Saw sequels to bring zombies to broadcast television. Right away, then, this had a better chance of me liking it because I've always had a soft spot for zombies and Niles has offered us a pretty different take on the genre.

Not only do we get the freshest possible zombies, making it less likely even that you'll know at first sight what you're facing, but he's giving the story to us from the point of view of an incredibly hung over young party-goer. Limiting us to her perspective increases the sense of chaos and confusion. This works from the beginning and then even moreso when things change at the end. Bousman's frenetic directing throughout brilliantly amps up the sense of terror. It's as if Fear Itself has finally found a pairing of story and director that allows for a truly scary experience on the small screen. This was easily the best episode of the run thus far with solid acting, effects, pacing, writing and direction. Who knew it could be done?

Briana Evigan, who's most well known role thus far is in Step Up 2: The Streets, does a great job here at looking hot and terrified at the same time. I'd always thought that a zombie outbreak in the middle of a city would be a lot more terrifying than the more rural or suburban outbreaks that we usually see. From the beginning, with Helen (Evigan) trapped in her apartment building, you could sense the huge threat level. There are just so many people in such a small area the danger would be multiplied a thousandfold from the likes of Night of the Living Dead.

Then, you've got the story shifting to the prior evening, New Year's Eve, and the festivities that lead to Helen's hung over state, and the scenes are just packed with people. So many people drunk on New Year's Eve, so many potential undead zombies craving human flesh come New Year's Day. Even the expected radio and television news reports feeding us viewers information about the outbreak; even if the main characters weren't particularly paying attention to them; was well handled.

The tragedy and insanity of the older couple toward the middle of the episode I thought was a very good representation of how humanity might respond to such an outbreak. The love and heartbreak they shared knowing that the woman was dying immediately followed by the outrage and seeming insanity of the man as he blamed Helen for everything just captured the gammut of human emotion in calamity. All of this worked in the context we were given at the beginning, which was that Helen was another victim of the outbreak trying to survive like everyone else. But then ...

SPOILER WARNING (and really why have you even read this far if you've not yet watched the episode? It's worth it. Give it a watch. In fact, why don't you watch it right now before you read any further.)


See, you had questions like 'why were none of the zombies trying to attack Helen when they were all over everyone else?' And 'why did she just stand around a lot rather than run the hell away from whatever was going on?' Then, with that reveal at the end that she's been undead all along, you're treated to a whole new perspective on every encounter she's already had. In that sense it's like a horror version of The Sixth Sense. And I enjoyed tremendously how she doesn't know that she's dead, possibly even at the end.

It explains Eddie constantly being near her and yet never attacking her. Some remnant of their former selves clearly stays with them post mortem. It makes me wonder if he, too, didn't really know yet that he was dead? Did it take a while for it to sink in that you were dead for some people? All people? Or was it Helen's magic cocktail of pills and booze that put her in a unique mental state? Helen didn't seem to attack any of the living when she did encounter them and even ran away from the old man with the gun. When she fought off the long-haired guy for the keys, she didn't attack him the way the other girl did. So she wasn't acting really like a zombie at all? And yet the final reveals showed that in some ways she was.

Maybe she was attacking and killing, but we just didn't see it because we were getting the story from her perspective? Ultimately, I loved how this was a zombie revenge story. A woman scorned getting vengeance against the man who did her wrong. Even death couldn't keep her from making him know that if she couldn't have him, no one could.