Every Haunting Hour Ever #11: Fear Never Knocks

Season: 1
Episode: 11
Original Airdate: February 26, 2011
Director: Peter Deluise 

     Ladies and gentlemen! Strap yourselves in because today you're in for a big ass kicking treat with this episode! Why? Well let's look at the story. 

     Fears become real when the grandchildren of a decorated psychiatrist named George (Matthew Walker) play around with an ancient recorder in their grandfather's office. It turns out the recorder (called the Box of Fears) was brought to their grandfather by Fear itself (Christopher Heyerdahl) thirty-five years earlier. Now, with Grandpa George retiring, Fear returns, wanting back the box so that he can unleash upon the world all the dark fears stored inside.

     The first reason why this episode is so great is because of the atmosphere. Just like in Ghostly Stare, there is a heavy emphasis on atmosphere. Given that this is an episode about fear, it helps enhance the scares even more than in previous episodes. For example, There are a lot of quiet moments or moments where faint music is playing and when the scares do show up, it catches the audience off guard and the episode becomes extremely tense. 

     Another reason why this episode is so great is the message. Basically, the moral of this episode is that while fear can be seen as undesirable, it can sometimes be a good thing. I gotta be honest, I don't recall too many kids shows with an episode that has a similar message. Why this is I'm not too sure because it's an interesting and  valuable lesson for kids and even some adults to learn. 

     But by far the best part of this episode HAS to go to the villain. Oh my god is this guy phenomenal! He's basically like Freddy Kruger mixed with Jim Carrey in the sense that there's a lot of energy and emotion put into this character. I mean every second this guy is on screen, he seems like he's having a lot of fun and gets lost in the role! Because of this, he's one of those characters that the audience can't take their eyes off of. In other words, he basically steals the show! 

     Though, even with all these awesome elements being presented I still had one issue with the episode. Like I said, the moral of the episode is that fear can be a good thing sometimes. However, towards the end of the episode, the granddaughter gets rid of fear by turning into FDR and says that she fears only fear itself. By getting rid of fear, she not only eliminates the bad fears, but the good fears that keep people safe as well. If they wanted to convey the message a bit better, I think they should've shown the world plunging into absolute chaos with people running into the streets and getting run over, people hurting each other, and many other things. Though I guess you could only fit so much content into a 30 minute episode. Also, I checked. There is no sequel episode so this is all we get. 

     Overall, Fear Never Knocks is one of my favorite episodes of the series. In this episode, it seems like the people working on it really put in their best efforts and after watching a lackluster episode like Alien Candy, I can see why. While it's not perfect, it has plenty of likeable elements to warrant at least several viewings. 

     Overall Grade: A