History Series / FearItself

* GenreSavvy: Bannerman in "Eater"- literally, given her love of serial killer films. [[spoiler:It's not enough to save her, but it allows her to take the killer down with her.]]

* ProfessionalKiller: The main character in "Echoes" believes he was a proffessional hitman in a past life.

** In "Eater", [[spoiler: the last surviving cop, having been disarmed, wounded and cornered in a closet with no escape route, takes the decision to eat and powder herself in rat poison. Thus when the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot unstopable cannibal serial killer-Voodoo sorcerer]] kills her shortly after by biting her throat off he is poisoned and dies.]]

[[quoteright:360:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fear_itself-show_2342.jpg]]

%%* ImAHumanitarian: "Eater" and "Skin & Bones".

%%* TheKillerInMe: "[[spoiler:In sickness and in health]]"

%%* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: "Community".]]

%%* CannotSpitItOut: "In Sickness and in Health" is a ''classic'' example.

%%* DownerEnding: Standard.
%%* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: "New Year's Day"]]
%%* FawltyTowersPlot: "Chance".
%%* FreakyFridayFlip: "Family Man".

%%* KarmicTwistEnding: "The Spirit Box".
%%* KidDetective: "The Spirit Box".

%%* OnlySaneMan: Bobby in "Community".
%%* OuijaBoard: "The Spirit Box"

%%* SerialKiller: "Family Man", "In Sickness and In Health" and "Eater"

%%* StepfordSuburbia: "Community".

%%* TownWithADarkSecret: The "Community" from the episode of the same name.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: This was originally intended to be Season 3 of ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' but Showtime chose not to renew the show. Starz (who acquired the show as a result of buying the show's distributor) ended up selling the rights to Lionsgate and this was the result.

* WhatAnIdiot: The writer in "The Circle" tells the girls to make light by ''setting the furniture on fire.''

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: As it's primarily set in a church, "In Sickness And In Health" naturally has a ''lot'' of this.

* [[FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire Friendly Neighbourhood Werewolves]]: "Something with Bite".

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: "Community".]]
* BatmanGambit / ThanatosGambit: "Eater".

** In "Eater" [[spoiler: the last surviving cop, having been disarmed, wounded and cornered in a closet with no escape route, takes the decision to eat and powder herself in rat poison. Thus when the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot unstopable cannibal serial killer-Voodoo sorcerer]] kills her shortly after by biting her throat off he is poisoned and dies.]]
* BlackMagic: "The Circle"
* BloodyHandprint: Many in "New Year's Day"

* CannotSpitItOut: "In Sickness and in Health" is a ''classic'' example.

* CrimeAfterCrime: "Chance".

* CursedWithAwesome: "Something with Bite".

* DownerEnding: Standard.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: "New Year's Day"]]
* FawltyTowersPlot: "Chance".
* FreakyFridayFlip: "Family Man".

* GroundhogDayLoop: The ending of [[spoiler: "The Circle"]].
* HauntedHouse: "Spooked".
* HollywoodVoodoo: "Eater".

* ImAHumanitarian: "Eater" and "Skin & Bones".

* JacobMarleyApparel: "Spooked", "The Spirit Box".
* JustBetweenYouAndMe: "The Circle".
* KarmicTwistEnding: "The Spirit Box".
* KidDetective: "The Spirit Box".

* TheKillerInMe: "[[spoiler:In sickness and in health]]"

* OnlySaneMan: Bobby in "Community".
* OuijaBoard: "The Spirit Box"

* PastLifeMemories: "Echoes".

* QuipToBlack
* RabidCop: The main character of "Spooked".
* ReincarnationRomance: "Echoes".

* TheRoaringTwenties: "Echoes".
* SerialKiller: "Family Man", "In Sickness and In Health" and "Eater"

* StepfordSuburbia: "Community".

* SplitPersonalityTakeover: "Chance".

* TomatoInTheMirror: "[[spoiler:New Year's Day]]"
* TomesOfProphecyAndFate: The titular "The Circle".
* TownWithADarkSecret: The "Community" from the episode of the same name.

* ZombieApocalypse: "New Year's Day"
* ZombieInfectee: Anita in "The Circle".

* BittersweetEnding: We do genuinely get one in "Skin & Bones". [[spoiler: The wendigo is dead and the wife and kids are saved. But half of our named characters are dead too. And of course the wendigo, being a spirit, is certainly not really destroyed, just gone back out into the wilderness somewhere.]]
** This may be tainted by FridgeHorror when, after noticing the [[spoiler: howling wind]] in the last couple seconds, you remember that Grady had been in the mountains with ''three'' friends. One who stayed in the cave with Grady, and ''two'' who [[spoiler: left for help and didn't come back.]] In both groups [[spoiler: there's one to eat and one to be eaten.]]
*** And Grady forced Elena to [[spoiler: taste Rowdy's corpse]] before Derek can [[spoiler: shoot him.]] Who knows if the [[spoiler: Wendigo be able to possess her?]] But considering Grady wasn't planning on being killed, one begins to wonder why he'd want her [[spoiler: possession-compatible]]... except that the episode has nothing refuting the idea that there might be [[spoiler: more than one Wendigo spirit out there.]]
**** However, one theme in director Fessenden's movies, is the concept that people would've been much better off if they'd just communicated better. Thus presumably, Grady's despair due to the fact that [[spoiler: his children are actually Rowdy's]] and [[spoiler: repressing the emotions of the incident]] made him [[spoiler: capable of being possessed, the eating of human flesh is merely the final step]] meaning neither Elena nor, presumably, either of Grady's missing travel companions [[spoiler: can be possessed]]

* HeyItsThatGuy: In "Community," [[{{Roswell}} Liz Parker]] is married to [[Series/{{Chuck}} Agent Shaw]]! And [[Series/{{Chuck}} General Beckman]] is their neighbor!
** And in "In Sickness and in Health," [[{{Psych}} Shawn and Juliette are getting married.]]

* CanYouHearMeNow: Seemingly played straight in "New Year's Day" and then subverted - [[spoiler: The main character was [[DeadAllAlong a zombie all along]] so while she still remembered how to dial her friends phone numbers she couldn't articulate the words well enough to communicate with them]].

A short-lived [[GenreAnthology Anthology Series]] from Creator/{{NBC}} that aired in the summer of 2008, ''Fear Itself'' is similar to ''MastersOfHorror'', but with less notable directors. (Michael Eisner's son, anyone?) A few of the directors from ''MastersOfHorror'' made the transition, at least, among them John Landis, Brad Anderson and Stuart Gordon.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Part ''MastersOfHorror'', part ''TheTwilightZone''

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: This was originally intended to be Season 3 of ''MastersOfHorror'' but Showtime chose not to renew the show. Starz (who acquired the show as a result of buying the show's distributor) ended up selling the rights to Lionsgate and this was the result.

* CareerKillers: The main character in "Echoes" believes he was a proffessional hitman in a past life.

* FreakyFriday: "Family Man".

A short-lived [[GenreAnthology Anthology Series]] from {{NBC}} that aired in the summer of 2008, ''Fear Itself'' is similar to ''MastersOfHorror'', but with less notable directors. (Michael Eisner's son, anyone?) A few of the directors from ''MastersOfHorror'' made the transition, at least, among them John Landis, Brad Anderson and Stuart Gordon.

* HeyItsThatGuy: In "Community," [[{{Roswell}} Liz Parker]] is married to [[{{Chuck}} Agent Shaw]]! And [[{{Chuck}} General Beckman]] is their neighbor!

* ShoutOut: One of the characters in "The Circle" is [[StephenKing a successful horror writer that sets his works in Maine]].

** And in "In Sickness and in Health," [[Psych Shawn and Juliette are getting married.]]

* TheKillerInMe: "[[spoiler:In sickness and in health]]" - and a particularly bad example, because it makes the rest of the episode [[GainaxEnding absolutely nonsensical]].

* TwilightZoneTwist: "The Spirit Box".

The show didn't finish airing [[CutShort its first season]], but at least it had a cool theme song: "Lie Lie Lie" by SystemOfADown's Serj Tankian.

* OuterLimitsTwist: Roughly two-thirds of their twists. One of them was ''so'' horrible, we almost considered renaming it "The Family Man Twist"!