"The Family Man"
Finally a good episode of
Fear Itself, one written by Daniel Knauf, he most recently of
Carnivale (the HBO dark fantasy historical drama), and one as well shot and acted as the previous two, this one directed by Ronny Yu.
Rather a simple story: a doting husband and father of two children is asked by his wife to run an errand, and is so wrapped up in his cell phone conversation with her he doesn't see the pickup truck that charges into the intersection and centerpunches his sedan, apparently killing the pickup's occupants and, it turns out, very nearly killing him. Indeed, he has an out-of-body experience at the hospital where he's being treated, and meets another disembodied spirit; this other spirit tells him that they're both dead. As it turns out, the second spirit is jumping the gun, and both men survive, but when they awaken, they discover that they have swapped bodies. And family man Dennis Mahoney is now occupying the stronger, more pain-resistant body of a prolific serial killer, The Family Man, Brautigan. And, worse, the serial killer is in his body.
Mahoney in Brautigan's body can't believe what is happening to him, and tries to convince Brautigan's court-appointed lawyer of his plight; the lawyer notes that "the transmigration of souls makes for a lousy defense." Brautigan in Mahoney's body comes to visit his incarcerated new friend, and proposes to help Mahoney if Mahoney will help him, in adjusting to their new lives. Brautigan also comes close to taunting Mahoney about inheriting Mahoney's life along with his body, and apologizes, but notes that he, Brautigan, is as close to Mahoney's family as Mahoney will get, as their new circumstances will allow.
Meanwhile, Mahoney has to cope as best he can with hostile police and guards, including one grief-stricken officer whose fiancee and her family were murdered by Brautigan. Brautigan, even in Mahoney's body and life still a maniac, initially seems to be getting by, even if he seems to have odd memory lapses and unprecedented fits of hostility and suspicion, but soon is consistently abusive to both his family and, less successfully in Mahoney's more pain-sensitive body, to strangers. Mahoney has nightmares about Brautigan and his intimacy with Mahoney's family, and manages to escape, wounded, from the local sheriff (it seems improbable that even a distracted Mahoney would forget to disarm the sheriff after knocking him senseless). Mahoney and Brautigan face off in Manhoney's house, Mahoney gets the upper hand just before the sheriff breaks in and shoots Bruatigan's body, and both the displaced men die again...apparently...but Mahoney is revived again, and finds himself in his own body. Weak but joyous that he is whole again, he seeks out his family, only to be warned by the various police and medical personnel on hand that he shouldn't...for Brautigan in Mahoney's body had snapped just before their confrontation, had raped and murdered Mahoney's wife and apparently raped Mahoney's daughter, leaving the child in shock...but capable, when asked by the police who had done all this to her family, of pointing to the man she saw attack them...her father. Mahoney's scream of anguish is the last thing we hear.
Again, a rather simple and straightforward horror variant on the stolen life/Secret Sharer theme, but aside from a believable lapse of judgememt on Mahoney's part (noted above), this script doesn't offer any remarkable stupidities, and manages to be both engrossing and moving as presented, even if not much, if any, new ground is broken...after the previous episodes, the danger is in overpraising this one, but this is an episode the series cast and crew should be proud of. Good performances by the adult cast, including Clifton Collins, Josie Davis, and Colin Ferguson, and Nicole Leduc is effective as the daughter particularly in her father's nightmare sequence.
It's really rather unfortunate that two weaker episodes were allowed to introduce the series, but we can hope that such upcoming episodes as (
Jeepers Creepers scripter) Victor Salva's "In Sickness and in Health" with another intriquing warhorse of a premise, the mysterious warnings apparently from an anonymous stranger, and (horror- and suspense-fiction writer,
Cemetery Dance editor and publisher) Richard Chizmar's "Eater," from which the still on
Fear Itself's page here is drawn, will continue an improving trend. I suspect they will.
And I've decided I genuinely like the theme music...glad to be able to like at least one episode, too.
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Fear Itself, please see our
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