After developing the Showtime series Masters of Horror, acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter Mick Garris returned with another intriguing horror anthology series, and horror fans could not be happier.
Fear Itself, an American horror suspense anthology television series that premiered on NBC in June 2008, is what we are talking about. It only took one season for this sitcom to gain a fanbase, 13 riveting episodes to be exact. Television performers and writers with the ability to concoct stories in less than 45 minutes. An eager group of directors that excelled on tight budgets. I have woven an intriguing yarn.
So, returning to today’s video, we will be delving into the fifth episode, Eater, in great depth. Eater is undeniably a horrific piece of entertainment, owing to the late horror veteran Stuart Gordon’s direction and a fantastic screenplay by Richard Chizmar and Johnathon Schaech. Please keep in mind that today’s video will be an in-depth analysis of the episode. Eater is based on a short story by Peter Crowther with the same title. So do not be shy in sharing your thoughts in the comments area.
So, let us get started!
Eater – Nothing Is As It Seems
It is snowing and the audience gets to see two police officers dragging a chained man out of the police van. One can’t really make out the face of the prisoner; he has long hair and most of his face is hidden behind those hair strands. He is taken inside the police station where the officers are literally stunned to see him and his gigantic size. Some even address him as ‘the serial killer’.
Amongst the officers, there is a blonde female officer, who watches the prisoner, while he is being taken upstairs. The man is eventually led inside a holding cell and his shackles are removed. The sergeant begins by asking him questions, he initially nods his answers but when he’s asked if he has any questions or concerns, the man breaks into sinister laughter.
This disturbs the officers and they leave him alone locked inside the room. The man takes out some kind of a talisman from under his sleeves, shakes it, and starts chanting ‘ZUZU ZUZU ZIZA. KANDU’I MI’ALLEI. We get a close-up of his rotten teeth and are taken to the opening credits of the series!
Next, the sergeant is seen taking the attendance of his officers and that’s when we are introduced to the blonde female cop – Danny Bannerman, who has only completed three months at the station. Clearly, it has not been easy for Bannerman; as her colleagues don’t fancy her at all. They are visibly not okay having ‘a chick’ watching their backs but Sergeant Wiliams is all game for Team Bannerman.
The sergeant assigns work to his officers and before leaving tells them about their ‘special overnight guest’ – Duane ‘Eater’ Mellor. Over the last two years, Mellor has butchered around 32 people in about five different states. In every case, he has taken his victims home, killed the males straight away but kept the females alive for weeks initially playing with them, then tormenting them, and ultimately eating them.
This piece of information startles everyone. We learn that Mellor is there at the station for the night only, to be taken by the feds, the next morning. Officers Marty Steinwitz, Mattingley, and Bannerman are assigned the task of holding the fort. When Bannerman becomes curious to know more about the ‘Eater’, the sergeant tells them, how he would slice a bit of meat from the bodies of his victims and throw it into a frying fan to satiate his occasional hunger pangs.
That’s not all; his intestines and other body parts were wrapped up in plastic bags and kept inside the fridge to make his custom-made skin closet apparently taken while the victims were still alive! This information about the ‘Eater’ turns out to be quite appalling.
Bannerman takes the Eater’s report from the sergeant and begins to read it before he leaves. Parallelly, the ‘Eater’ is shown to be chanting from inside his holding cell whilst moving back and forth.
We are taken to a flashback; the ‘Eater’ is seen casually cutting off the tongue of a horrified female victim, tossing it on a frying pan, and then relishing it. Of course, Bannerman is utterly disgusted by what she has read so far. Very quickly, a crash is heard and the lights are seen to flicker.
Bannerman heads upstairs to find Marty hungrily eating a pizza. When she asks him about the crash, he tells her that he has heard nothing. With Marty taking a giant bite of the pizza, Bannerman for a split second sees a human eyeball on his slice. Marty offers her a slice but Bannerman refuses.
The duo starts discussing the serial killer, that he is Cajun, and how he actually made lampshades out of human skin and bowls out of human skulls. Bannerman makes her way towards the holding cell; Mellor is seen resting, wrapped in some kind of a black cloak. Marty startles her from behind with some coffee for her.
The officers start talking amongst themselves and Marty tells Bannerman about an old voodoo saying which says, “if you cut a man’s heart out and then you eat it before it stops beating, not only do you gain his strength but you also gain his spirit.”
With a sudden sound being heard, Marty tells her to wait upstairs and goes down to investigate. A little later, Bannerman takes the keys to the cell and attempts to open it, to only find it, already open. Next, Mellor is seen letting out a roar and trying to grab her but Bannerman starts to imagine things.
Mellor is seen lying like he was underneath his blanket. Mattingley intervenes and tells her to stop being such a ‘woman’. Bannerman starts laughing and tells him that he and Marty are doing things on purpose and just trying to mess with her head. Mattingley is least amused with her conclusion and asks her if she wants another cup of coffee.
Bannerman does not say anything and faces toward the cell. Mattingley asks her for the second time only this time it appears to be Marty asking her. Bannerman looks around everywhere trying to locate Marty but Mattingley tells her that it was him who asked her if she wanted coffee. He can’t figure out what’s wrong with Bannerman and attempts to advance on her but the latter ducks her and goes to find Marty.
But he is nowhere to be found; the front gate is seen to be locked from the outside and all communication devices have stopped working. She takes out her cell phone and is terrified to hear Mellor chanting. Petrified, she drops her phone down and discovers the lifeless body of Mattingley staring blankly at her with his heart ripped out.
Not knowing what to do, she runs towards the locked front gate only to hear another crashing upstairs. She starts running hysterically and bumps into the sergeant who has just come back to the station. Bannerman fills him in saying that the ‘Eater’ is out and loose in the station. She tells him that Mellor has killed Mattingley and is currently disguised as Marty.
Of course, the sergeant is bewildered by her statements and Bannerman tries her best to make him believe her. The duo head upstairs to check things out and are shocked to find a dead corpse of Marty hanging from the ceiling. His heart’s ripped out as well. They see another body inside the room, one whose face is covered.
The sergeant asks Bannerman to check his face and to the latter’s horror, the dead body is revealed to be that of the sergeant, his heart ripped out as well. Bannerman turns back and tries shooting at the ‘Eater’ now disguised as the sergeant but he shows her the bullets of her gun which he had unloaded before.
A chase between the duo follows with the Eater letting out wicked laughter. Bannerman goes back to the locker room and tries opening the back door but to no avail. Bannerman hides behind a locker when she hears someone approaching her. She is fast enough to disable the person for the time being and it is revealed to be Marty but Bannerman knows it’s not him.
She calls him ‘the damn Eater’. Marty agrees; his teeth start rotting up and he manages to pin Bannerman down to eat her heart out. A struggle ensues and Bannerman is barely able to run away from him. Mattingley appears from nowhere but Bannerman is able to evade him. She reaches the front door but turns back towards Mattingley telling him that she just can’t let him go.
The ‘Eater’ disguised as Mattingley morphs back to his original self and bites off Bannerman’s ear. Screaming in pain, she manages to headbutt him and gets away. She enters inside what looks like some kind of a supply closet and the audience gets to see a couple of rat poison packs there. Meanwhile, the ‘Eater’ is literally tired of Bannerman; he does not want to play any more games with her.
He frantically looks for her and sees a trail of blood leading towards the supply closet. He laughs and opens the door dragging a whimpering Bannerman out. He hits her and tells her, ‘Time to eat’ and we can see her getting eaten by the ‘Eater’. Bannerman screams but does not really fight back and somehow, she manages to handcuff the ‘Eater’ to her. Suddenly, Mellor is seen gagging.
A flashback scene shows Bannerman rubbing rat poison around her neck first and also forcefully consuming a good quantity of the powder. The ‘Eater’ realizes he is poisoned and starts foaming at the mouth saying, “You bitch! You killed me! You killed me! You killed me!” He falls to the floor and gags himself to death beside an already dead Bannerman.
Want To Know What Do We Think Of?
What we have here is a product of Stuart Gordon and we all know how Gordon has never really shied away from all things gore. With ‘Eater’, it goes without saying that he has done a marvelous job. Well, of course, we have the screenplay duo Chizmar and Schaech to give due credits to but to be honest, Gordon knew exactly what his role as the director was.
But if we are really talking about the high points of the episode, the main award goes to the one and only Stephen R. Hart for his spectacular portrayal of the ‘Eater’. He is the definition of creepy and there’s nobody fitting enough to play the role of Duane ‘Eater’ Mellor.
Next, we possibly cannot disregard Elisabeth Moss’s portrayal of the rookie cop Bannerman. She is a natural and her performance is convincing. ‘Eater’ also delivers a solid performance from the rest of the supporting cast – Russell Hornsby, Pablo Schreiber, and the late Stephen Lee.
We at Marvelous Videos believe that it would not be wrong to address ‘Eater’ as one of the strongest standalone episodes of Fear Itself. If you still have not seen it, we highly recommend that you do so at your earliest!