Fear Itself "Family Man" (2008)

Well this week's episode wasn't the best but it was a great improvement over the last two. Another common premise in the horror canon is explored: spiritual transference between a good man and an evil man. Slightly with a twist in that being in each other's bodies slowly starts to influence the actions of each man. Aside from some issues I did rather enjoy this episode.

The premise is set up first by experiencing briefly a day in the life of Dennis Mahoney who attends church with his family, appears to be a good husband and father and the victim of a horrific car accident. We don't get a glimpse of Richard Brautigan's life before the accident but we do learn he is a notorious serial killer which strikes families leaving almost thirty people dead and he also murdered his own family when he was twelve. We never get to truly explore how Brautigan came to be this merciless killer but he does view the body swap at a chance for redemption and attempts to insert himself into Dennis's family and take over his role as the patriarch. I think the lack of an understanding of Brautigan's past makes his desire to change seem shallow. All we heard about this man was the he was a cold-blooded killer who doesn't exclude women and children as his victims however as soon as the change takes place we don't see any kind of edge to his character at all. This doesn't seem like a man who could kill so many people, especially children, and quickly shrug off that persona. Eventually he does return true to form as he finds it less and less likely that he can resume a normal life. However we never get to see this struggle play out nor any kind of conflict with him and his family. They easily come to accept him as the Dennis they always knew and loved and when his true colors do start to show the episode is practically over.

On the reverse side we do get to spend quite a bit of time with Dennis and see how he adjusts to the change. We learn quickly that Brautigan for some unexplained reason is strongly resistant to pain and that one of the guards has a grudge against the killer as he murdered his fiancée. He is brutally treated by the guards and who lock him in his own cell block. That coupled with the fact that he is away from his family who he obviously loves who are with a murderer posing as him slowly start the evolution of a loving family man to a man driven to do anything to protect his family. Take his exchange with the guard with the grudge, he is easily able to to block one of the guards punches in Brautigan's body and holds him while he tries to get the guard to admit being scared of him. The allure of the power in both the strength and in terms of how people are frightened of him begins to sway him. During his escape attempt he knocks the sheriff unconscious with a shotgun and then pauses and appears to seriously consider killing the man in cold blood after all the anguish he has suffered. Something he would never have even considered before the change took place. Obviously his time in Bruatigan's body has vastly changed him from the man he once was.

Perhaps the time constraints of the story conspires to spend more time with the "hero" so his change becomes more believable and understood. It would have been interesting to see how the reverse played out and how he struggles to forget the past with his need to seek redemption. However all we get are brief glimpses of him interacting with the family and inconsistent portrayal from the man we have heard previously described. We get a brief explanation in that he sees this as chance for redemption and therefore has a need to bury his violent tendencies but it seems unbelievable he could easily bury those characteristics with his history of horrific violence. I also had quite an issue with the ending, Dennis is able to return to his own body after taking down Brautigan only to discover that his wife and son have been murdered and his daughter fingers him as the culprit. The fact that religion was obviously playing a strong part in this episode and the repeated statements that the events were "God's will" it seems so appalling that after everything Dennis went through to return to him family, the only one left accuses him of being the one who murdered them. So Brautigan gets to find peace in death (if there is such a thing) and Dennis is sentenced to the rest of his life locked away from his only remaining link to his previous life and branded as the person responsible for their murders? I realize there are not always happy endings in real life but in horror movies there is great satisfaction derived from when the hero takes down the villain. Three episodes into this series we've haven't seen anyone "win" yet.

Favorite moment: The fight between Dennis and Brautigan at the end of the episode is both shockingly brutal and doesn't seem to be the type of violence one would normally find on network television. However it serves as the ultimate culmination for the showdown of Brautigan's return to his violent ways and Dennis as changed by the transference. Without the experience of living Brautigan's life it seems unlikely that Dennis would be able to even contemplate the level of violence necessary to take down the man who has "stolen" his family let alone be able to successfully defeat the man. It would have been a more satisfying episode if it had ended with the death of Brautigan.