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3%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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6[[quoteright:332:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fear_itself-show_2342.jpg]]
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8A short-lived [[GenreAnthology Anthology Series]] from Creator/{{NBC}} that aired in the summer of 2008, ''Fear Itself'' is similar to ''Series/MastersOfHorror'', but with less notable directors. (Michael Eisner's son, anyone?) A few of the directors from ''Masters of Horror'' made the transition, at least, among them John Landis, Brad Anderson and Creator/StuartGordon.
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10The show didn't finish airing [[CutShort its first season]], but at least it had a cool theme song: "Lie Lie Lie" by Music/SystemOfADown's Serj Tankian.
11----
12!!''Fear Itself'' provides examples of:
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14* AllLoveIsUnrequited: The geeky roommate is in love with the main character in "New Year's Day" while she is in love herself with another guy who is not interested in her. [[spoiler: They eventually get TogetherInDeath.]]
15* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: The protagonist gets his legs hacked off by his BrainwashedAndCrazy wife in the CruelTwistEnding of "Community" so he'll never run away again.]]
16* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: [[{{Yandere}} Becca]] and Mr. Drake in "The Spirit Box".]]
17* AttractiveZombie: The episode "New Year's Day" has one, once we learn that [[spoiler:Helen (played by Briana Evigan) was a zombie all along.]]
18* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: "Community". The main protagonist gets captured trying to escape by his BrainwashedAndCrazy wife, and gets his legs hacked off so he'll never leave again.]]
19%%* BatmanGambit: "Eater".
20* BigEater: The main antagonist of the episode "Eater". [[spoiler: Throughout the duration of the episode, Duane Mellor eats an entire pizza, 3 human hearts, and even manages to bite a few chunks out of the main character.]]
21---> [[spoiler: '''Mellor:''' You know us Cajuns...We don't eat to live, we live to EAT!!]]
22* BitchInSheepsClothing:
23** [[spoiler: Becca in "The Spirit Box"]] planned everything from the start. For added irony, she's seen dressed as an angel on Halloween. [[spoiler: Mr. Drake]] is also a pedophile working at the school.
24** [[spoiler:The three sisters from "The Sacrifice" are a heroic variant of this. They're hospitable towards the heroes, but they're actually planning to feed them to a vampire trapped inside their walls. However, [[WellIntentionedExtremist they only do this so it doesn't escape to the outside world]].]]
25** Just about everybody in "Community", with the exception of Phil and his wife, are brainwashed by Candace, and will resort to extreme measures to preserve the shallow beauty of the eponymous community, up to and including murdering the family and friends of anyone who tries to escape.
26* BittersweetEnding:
27** 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.]]
28** 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 unstoppable cannibal serial killer-Voodoo sorcerer]] kills her shortly after by biting her throat out he is [[TakingYouWithMe poisoned and dies]].]]
29%%* BlackMagic: "The Circle"
30%%* BloodyHandprint: Many in "New Year's Day"
31* BreatherEpisode: "Something with Bite" is mostly comedic and completely devoid of the mandatory DownerEnding.
32* CannotSpitItOut: "In Sickness and in Health" is a ''classic'' example.
33* CellPhonesAreUseless: 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]].
34* TheCorruption: The Darkness from "The Circle" is an EldritchAbomination that takes its victims and transforms them into zombie-like beings known as the "blood-thirsty" before it completely consumes them.
35%%* CrimeAfterCrime: "Chance".
36* CruelTwistEnding: Roughly two-thirds of their twists. One of them was ''so'' horrible, we almost considered renaming the trope "The Family Man Twist"![[labelnote:An explanation containing unmarked spoilers]]Brautigan kills Dennis' family while still in his body. When Dennis returns to his house, he kills Brautigan, and regains his own body in the process. His daughter — who had survived her wounds — is asked who killed her family, she points at her father.[[/labelnote]]
37%%* CursedWithAwesome: "Something with Bite".
38* DarkIsEvil: "The Circle". And an EldritchAbomination to boot.
39* DidntThinkThisThrough: The writer in "The Circle" tells the girls to make light by ''setting the furniture on fire.'' Keep in mind they are in a locked room in a wooden cabin with no way of putting a fire out.
40* DoesNotLikeGuns: The PrivateDetective from "Spooked".
41* DownerEnding: Standard. Always the episodes with the CruelTwistEnding.
42* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: "New Year's Day"]]
43* EvilSoundsDeep: The main antagonist of "Eater" [[spoiler: (when he's not disguised as someone else)]] has a naturally deep, rumbling voice.
44* TheEndingChangesEverything: The plot of "In Sickness and In Health" revolves around Sam panicking after she receives a note that Carlos is a serial killer. [[spoiler:Then Sam reveals at the end that the note was meant for ''Carlos,'' which makes everything else before it seem pointless.]]
45* FawltyTowersPlot: "Chance".
46* FreakyFridayFlip: "Family Man". With a loving father and a SerialKiller.
47%%* GroundhogDayLoop: The ending of [[spoiler: "The Circle"]].
48* HalloweenEpisode: The setting of both "The Spirit Box" and "The Circle" is [[UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve Halloween]].
49%%* HauntedHouse: "Spooked".
50%%* HollywoodVoodoo: "Eater".
51* HoneyTrap: Shelby seduces [[spoiler: Mr. Drake]] in order to get close enough to incapacitate him.
52* HowWeGotHere: "Community", "New Year's Day" (via {{flashback}}s).
53* IJustWantToBeSpecial: "Something with Bite" - [[spoiler: turns out, the gruesome murders were being done by an ordinary man who wished to attract the attention of a real werewolf to bite and turn him. The main character promptly rips him off to shreds.]]
54* ImAHumanitarian: "Eater" and "Skin & Bones".
55* IronicNurseryTune: Occurs in "Family Man": ''Amazing Grace/How [[strike:sweet]] creepy the sound/that [[strike:saved]] fucked a wretch/like meeeeee...''
56%%* JacobMarleyApparel: "Spooked", "The Spirit Box".
57%%* JustBetweenYouAndMe: "The Circle".
58* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Becca]] murdered Emily because she was jealous of her relationship with Mr. Drake. She drove out to a lake with her, poisoned her, and dumped the car with Emily still inside into a lake. When Mr. Drake is framed for the murder, Becca flees to Taiwan and brags to her unwitting accomplice, Shelby about what a victorious KarmaHoudini she is. However, Emily's ghost traps Becca in a car and poisons her with the smog spreading throughout her garage. Which causes Becca to ''slowly'' suffocate to death before Emily's ghost closes in on her to watch.]]
59** [[spoiler: The serial killer in "something With Bite" committed murders in the hopes of attracting a real werewolf to bite and turn him into one and sure enough, his ploy works. Too bad one of his victims was this particular werewolf's co-worker and close friend.]]
60* KarmicTwistEnding: "The Spirit Box". [[spoiler: [[{{Yandere}} Becca]] brags about what a KarmaHoudini she'll become and gloats over her victory. She ends up killed by the ghost of the same girl she killed earlier in the episode.]]
61* KickTheDog: In "The Spirit Box", [[spoiler: Becca mocks Shelby over MissingMom and declares herself a KarmaHoudini who got away with murder. She gains a KarmicDeath right after.]]
62* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler: Mr. Drake is a pedophile having an affair with ''a lot'' of his students. It's safe to say that he did deserve to die. [[ManipulativeBitch Becca]] becomes a victim of this as well when Emily's spirit gets its vengeance.]]
63* KidDetective: "The Spirit Box". Shelby tries to solve Emily's death when she is communicated through the spirit box. [[spoiler: Or so she thinks.]]
64* TheKillerInMe: "[[spoiler: In Sickness and in Health]]"
65* LooksLikeOrlok: The main vampire in "The Sacrifice". Possibly because [[AgeWithoutYouth he's damn old]] - the newest ones look like they were just before death but with fangs.
66* MandatoryTwistEnding: Apparently, you can't air an anthology series nowadays ''without'' having these.
67* ManipulativeBitch: [[spoiler: [[{{Yandere}} Becca]] used Shelby to kill Mr. Drake because she wanted to get even with him for dumping her for Emily. She pretends to be Shelby's best friend, but she just wanted her to kill him so nobody would suspect her. She gets a KarmicDeath for her trouble.]]
68* MissingMom: "The Spirit Box". She died of cancer.
69* OffscreenTeleportation: The zombie roomate in "New Year's Day" is one of the biggest offenders ever seen in TV. True, he's following her, but how did he get past that closed door blocked by a piece of furniture from the inside without touching either? And that's only one of them.
70* OhCrap: Always present in the twist ending.
71* OnlySaneMan: Bobby in "Community". [[spoiler: Too bad he becomes absorbed in the community.]]
72* OuijaBoard: "The Spirit Box". [[spoiler: Subverted. Becca faked talking to the dead so she could manipulate Shelby in her EvilPlan.]]
73* OurVampiresAreDifferent: "The Sacrifice" - They're fairly standard, only capable of being killed by fire, being stabbed in the heart, or being beheaded. Daylight either renders them dormant or actually harms them, as the vampire didn't attack during the day. One bite is also enough to convert a victim, leading to the necessity of killing them when the feeding is done.
74* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: "Something with Bite" - After a while, you can transform only when you want it. And it makes you [[YouSexyBeast a total sex god]]. Oh, and there's vegan werewolves, too.
75* OurZombiesAreDifferent: In "New Year's Day", the ZombieApocalypse is started by an accident in a chemical plant, and all dead raise regardless of how they died. They also keep a lot of their previous memories. They also don't kill mindlessly, like the zombies in most ZombieApocalypse stories. [[spoiler: Before TheReveal, Helen doesn't kill anyone and even actively tries to rescue a girl who is being chased by zombies.]]
76%%* PastLifeMemories: "Echoes".
77* ProfessionalKiller: The main character in "Echoes" believes he was a professional hitman in a past life.
78%%* QuipToBlack
79%%* RabidCop: The main character of "Spooked".
80%%* ReincarnationRomance: "Echoes".
81* RewritingReality: Attempted in "The Circle". [[spoiler: It results in a GroundhogDayLoop, forcing the characters to [[AFateWorseThanDeath live that horrible night again and again]].]]
82%%* TheRoaringTwenties: "Echoes".
83* SelfPoisoningGambit: The end of "Eater" features a variant. [[spoiler:The last cop left alive is wounded, disarmed, and has no way of escaping the cannibal SerialKiller. She decides to both ingest poison and put it all over her body so when he tries to eat her he'll be poisoned too.]]
84* SerialKiller: "Family Man", "In Sickness and In Health" and "Eater". [[spoiler: They all die by the end, but that didn't stop them from starting the CruelTwistEnding in all of them (except "In Sickness and In Health") either. There's also one in "Something With Bite", although that has a decidedly happier ending.]]
85* ShoutOut: One of the characters in "The Circle" is [[Creator/StephenKing a successful horror writer that sets his works in Maine]].
86* StepfordSuburbia: "Community". Don't be fooled by the positivity around the area, it's actually evil.
87* SmugSnake: [[spoiler: Becca thinks she's so smart when escaping with murder. She suffers the ''only'' KarmicTwistEnding in the series because of her overconfidence.]]
88* SpiritualSuccessor: Part ''Series/MastersOfHorror'', part ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''.
89%%* SplitPersonalityTakeover: "Chance".
90* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: "Chance". most of the episode could be explained as him talking to himself, but at least one scene shows his doppleganger actually helping him move a body, indicating that either he's completely insane, or something supernatural is going on.
91* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:The ending of "New Year's Day" reveals that Helen has been a zombie all along, and was completely unaware of it.]]
92%%* TomesOfProphecyAndFate: The titular "The Circle".
93* TooDumbToLive: In “New Year’s Eve”, a group of survivors is trying to escape the city and the zombies and one of them approaches a policeman despite numerous signs the policeman is a zombie. He gets eaten for his troubles.
94* TownWithADarkSecret: The "Community" from the episode of the same name. [[spoiler: Half the town is BrainwashedAndCrazy.]]
95* TheVirus: See TheCorruption above. The Darkness can spread the "blood-thirst" disease if someone ingests parts of its fluid form.
96* {{Wendigo}}: The antagonist of the final episode to air, "Skin & Bones".
97* WritersBlock: The writer in "The Circle" is apparently going through a bad case of this. In reality, [[spoiler: he always sucked as a writer and his only successful work was actually written by a witch in exchange of him leaving his wife for her. After he refuses, the witch writes a RealityWarper book to unleash her revenge on him.]]
98* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler: Becca in "The Spirit Box".]]
99* YouAreWhoYouEat: The HollywoodVoodoo cannibal in "Eater" can adopt the image of a person after eating its heart.
100%%* ZombieApocalypse: "New Year's Day"
101%%* ZombieInfectee: Anita in "The Circle".

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