SPOOKED is the second episode of FEAR ITSELF and is directed by Brad Anderson (Session 9) and written by Matt Venne (White Noise 2, Pelts). Director Brad Anderson is well known for also directing the Masters of Horror Episode SOUNDS LIKE as well as a few other episodes of other popular television shows. But it was with SESSION 9 that he turned the heads of horror fans and is now looked at as a talent who’s work can’t be missed.
SPOOKED is about a former cop named Harry (Eric Roberts). Harry was a cop who took things to far and in the beginning we see him cutting up a guy who kidnapped a boy. For this he loses his job as a cop and it’s all down hill from there. Some fifteen years later Harry is working a undercover private eye, tracking down cheating husbands and wives and bribing them when he digs up things fro m his clients past as well. He’s pretty much a man consumed by greed and the greater good for himself and nobody else. That’s until he is hired to stake out a house for a client who believes her husband is cheating on her. But Harry will soon learn that the house he is staking out has a history and is haunted. But this house is not haunted by just any old ghosts, its the ghosts of Harry’s past that are coming back for him.
The script for this episode is pretty one dimensional as it plays strictly on a one character basis. Not to say that it’s a bad thing, but the scripts character development pretty much avoids the development of the supporting cast, and focus mainly on Harry and his life from a child to the present. It’s a script that I’m well aware only comes in at about 40-45 minutes on the small screen, so I really can’t give writer Matt Venne any crap for the script he wrote because of time. But needless to say it’s a decent little script, nothing great, but nothing bad either.
The acting in this episode is not half bad, Eric Roberts was a good fit for the role of Harry, and he was really good at playing the scumbag role. Larry Gilliard Jr. who played Harry’s sidekick was also pretty good in his role as well. The production value was also very good, some great looking and dark locations and the haunted house really did have a great haunted house look and the set design for it’s interior looked like something out of Andersen’s SESSION 9. Overall the production looked very good. Even the effects were pretty gruesome and realistic.
My only real complaint comes from the way this episode ended, I felt that the ending came too soon and it just ended with a very climatic scene that when it was over, left me a bit disappointed. I can’t get too deep into it without spoiling the episode, but I felt that even though the episode ended with an ending that came full circle, I felt that it left many questions unanswered. Don’t get me wrong, SPOOKED does start off good, and manages to keep it’s pace all the way though, but the ending was where it kind of feel apart for me. Overall it’s not the greatest made for television horror film I’ve seen, but it’s not a bad film either. It managed to keep me interested all the way though, and although it’s really a one character play, it works, and that’s all that should really matter.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
