FEAR ITSELF Episode Review: "The Circle"
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This is our Review of "Fear Itself:The Circle", one of the five episodes which were never aired by NBC prior to the shows cancellation. Sadly so, because this ep, which was directed by Eduardo Rodriguez, and penned by Jonathan Schaech and Richard Chizmar, is a good one. The ep begins with two trick r' treaters being captured by a coven of witches on Halloween night. What follows, is the introduction to a writer (Schaech) who's creative well has run dry, so to speak. Soon, some of his associates show up to join him and his wife on Halloween night.
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They are there to convince him to start writing again, and get some new material out there. That's when the two trick r' treaters show up, and deliver a book written and authored under the writers pen name. His associates simply write it off as a clever Halloween-styled intro for his latest literary work. But the writer didn't write the book! What's even worse, is the book begins to foretell the evil and dark events which will occur later on in the night, when an ominous darkness surrounds the house, and begins to devour the writers guests one by one. This episode I believe, had it been aired before the other eight, would've probably saved this series. It's a very well written, and creepy episode.
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The gist of the ep isn't hard to figure out or predict. The ominous darkness surrounds the house, and we know it will take the guests inside one by one. But, there's something at the beginning of the episode which occurs that gives us a glimpse into why the person who sent this darkness is so angry at the writer. But that's not the whole story, which is where the pretty surprising twist at the end comes in. The darkness is a typical evil force, which infects the living, and turns them into raving killers, which the writer in the ep refers to as "bloodthirsty's". But what hurts this episode is the total lack of focus by the characters. For example, the mysterious book tells them ahead of time what their fates will be, and it also says that their disbelief in the supernatural will leave them unable to believe in the power of the books ink.
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Yet they never figure this out or even try really, and instead most of them end up getting killed in the process. Eventually, the ending comes along to take out what's left of this clueless people, and despite the characters being written as not very bright, the acting is pretty well done with a cast that includes as I stated above, Jonathan Schaech, along with Ashley Scott, and Victoria Pratt. It's probably the best casted episode of the series I would say, and has it's fun and intense moments to go along with everything else it has to offer. Overall, it's a good episode because it's set on Halloween, and has some above average acting talent involved. The story is also dark and intriguing, and the twist ending works on a basic level.
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