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MTV: FEAR

Damn, this show is addictive. I don't watch much TV these days, preferring to mess around with the computer at night (or stuck bringing work home with me), but I'm positively aglow with excitement when Kristin (my fiancé) hollers in from the next room: "Honey, it's on!"

There's very little that can tear me away from my 3D modeling programs like that one phrase can.

It's essentially, at its core, a game show developed where contestants must must brave-out two night's worth of dares--on par with what MY psyche would dream up--to win 5-grand a piece. I swear this show feels custom-fit.

It's all about ghost stories, and creeping around quietly in the dark while daring the boogeyman to come get you. It's about climbing rope ladders into dark cisterns in almost total darkness as bats whip past you. It's about your mind twisting the shadows and branches into your greatest paranormal fears lunging at you from every direction as you creep through areas listening to tales of horrific cruelty and barbarism. It's about watching false bravado melting away as primordial fears surface within contestants pushed to the edge of their ability to cope with their fears.

It's about the self-concern writing its way onto a contestant's face as they hear a teammate screaming and crying, pleading for someone to come get them because the fear they're facing isn't worth $5000, realizing suddenly how important family is to them, and how quickly the thin veil of illusional protection offered by society can be stripped away leaving them exposed and bare as they are faced with the world through eyes that their ancestors used when fire was the extent of man's technology. And, as their ancestors did, they plead to their God, terrified that if something comes around that next corner, they might have to face it alone.

It's about nervous teammates glancing at each other as another teammate radios in, telling them through gasping sobs that they have to leave because there's something in the room with them that just grabbed at them. About teammates walking through the door, returning to the "safe house" absolutely drenched. Is it raining? No, that's fear, baby.

This series is easily the best to date, there seems (at this point) to be a focus on touching primal fears, which is good because more folks can relate to those types of fears.

A few of the contestants seem as though they may need psychiatric counseling as they aborted their dares and left the show. One guy stood at the bottom of a 15-foot deep outdoor pit in the woods and his dare required him to spread blood on the ground around him to set himself up as bait for a creature that is believed to be responsible for stripping the skin from its victims in this very same location. As he poured the "blood" around him, a dozen bats with almost a 1-foot wingspan soared into the pit, attracted by the smell. They swooped and dived on him while all he had was the light from a glowstick to see by. This contestant was then told that his dare also required him to stay in that pit for 3 hours without any radio contact with the other teammates.

I kid you not when I say that this guy was bawling within a few minutes, and whimpered/cried for the duration of his dare. He gave intermittent screams where the reaching arms of the overhanging trees that were swaying in the breeze, and dipping under the sheer weight of the divebombing bats as seen in almost complete darkness, coupled with the movement of animals within the woods adjacent to the pit, proved to be overwhelming to his senses. He begged for his parents, he pleaded for God to protect him, but for some reason, he never aborted the dare. That guy was either so scared that he forgot he COULD abort, or there was some reserve of strength that he found, though the sobbing and tears, that enabled him to continue. I have to say, that in spite of, or perhaps because of, all the tears, I'd judge his persistency to be one of the stupidest yet also one of the bravest things I've ever seen. That was a well-earned $5,000.

His later descriptions of the situation illustrated the fact that he didn't really understand what was happening to him at the time: (paraphrased from memory) "Then when I poured the blood, the spirits were angered and these huge montrous bats were swooping and diving all over the place.. REAL LIVE BATS! (he emphasized dramatically). It seemed apparent to me immediately that the bats weren't angry, they were gleefully going for the spilled "blood". (I suspect that it wasn't blood, but more likely some kind of syrup that had a scent that was attractive to what appeared to my untrained eye as fairly large fruit bats.) His mind must have been supplying him with all sorts of paranormal excuses for what was happening to him.

Plus, there was the entertainment value of watching the false "FEAR THIS" bravado he started with, deteriorate within moments of walking outside the "safe house." Kinda like the environment said: "No.. FEAR THIS!" ( or.. "that's not a fear.. now THIS is a fear!). This guy didn't know what primal fear was all about until it hit him like a freight train loaded full of TNT and sledgehammers falling off a cliff on top of him as he skated peacefully on a frozen-over lake admiring our sun going supernova, as the nuclear bombs in his backpack detonated! (Uhh..? heh heh.. yeah okay, that was a bit much.. but you get my drift.)

Is my interest in the show sadistic? Well, only as sadistic as those that are glued to their sets when a good horror movie comes on. Although I arguably DO have a slight sadistic streak, it has little to do with anyone having an emotional breakdown, heh heh.

No, I just have a fascination with the concept of fear itself. I love things that relate to the topic. I used to love scaring folks, and I even enjoy getting a little scared now and then. As noted in an earlier Deadguy's Dementia column somewhere, I have horror movie collections, etc, etc. I really used to enjoy seeing what scares folks, and seeing instinctive reactions to scary situations. As you can well imagine, I was a great kid to have as an older brother while growing up, and even now, I occasionally find myself apologizing at family dinners for stuff I used to do to spook my sister. (We got along well enough, I guess, and I was very protective of my year-younger sibling, but I also loved to get her scared).

Fear thru deception is intriguing to me. For example: It's one thing to be scared of someone holding a gun, and interesting to me that a fake, plastic gun can trigger the same response if it's applied appropriately and realistically. Halloweentime Haunted houses are chock-full of examples. (Usually chock-full of nonsense, too).

Fear thru self-deception (imagination) is even more interesting. For example: If I pulled out a gun and pointed it at you, it would possibly scare you. If I pulled out a wallet and just happened to move it "just right", I could possibly accidentally fool you into being just as scared. Or more appropriately, outside in the dark, a simple bush can look like a person standing there staring at you.

MTV:FEAR is a wonderful demonstration of the concept that "The more afraid you are, the more afraid you will become." It's irrelevant whether, or not, anything is faked on the show, because I'm not really looking for a historic documentary of a location (true or otherwise). I'm there for a good ghost story, followed by folks willing to try and brave out their fears. Then to see how things are interpreted by the teammembers (ie.- "angry bats showing displeasure by swarming"). However, I should point out, the locations used in this series have realistic backgrounds that could very possibly be legitimate. The legends are colorful, and possibly slightly exaggerated, but are not really beyond belief as far as legends go. I can certainly imagine that people may have heard of legends about an abandoned mine shaft that included miners digging far enough into the earth that they uncovered a monster that attacked and killed the unwary. (Kinda' reminds me of the AWESOME Stephen King book: "Desperation")

The legends on these episodes I've seen seem more legitimate because they're taking place in Mexico, where the culture itself holds legends that include similar types of things in it. As far as the legendary brutality of a tribal priest was discussed in a recent episode, the descriptions were dwarfed by the actual history of some of the old tribes from these areas.

But again, I reiterate.. does it even really matter? These folks are scared, and that's the concept behind the show: "Bring people face-to-face with fear, and see if they can overcome it long enough to win the prize money."

There's a lot of commentary about how hidden MTV crews are probably lurking around just off-camera to make additional noises and slam doors etc, to scare the contestants. Yes, that's entirely possible, but does it really matter? More importantly, these folks are scaring themselves silly even WITHOUT additional aid from anything like that, and possibly even being affected by the haunted location itself.

It's also pretty neat how team members will have dares at the same time. These are exceptionally cool because one person may have their microphone off as a part of their dare and be reacting to something (like say, swooping bats), and the other contestant can hear "screaming in the woods somewhere that's completely freaking him out!"

Earlier series of MTV Fear attempted to do this kind of thing, and it was a bit awkward at times, but other times, it really came across as sadistic genius. For example, one team member is dared to go lie down in a partially unearthed coffin without his lights or radio or camera, and is required to stay there until further notice, with the lid closed. As I recall, the team member is doing this in order "to see if any paranormal activity is detected within the coffin itself."

Great, right? Poor guy's cut-off from everyone, lying in a closed coffin, wondering things like: "Is this a USED coffin?", "Hang-on.. if I don't have my radio, how are they going to contact me to say it's over?", "Without my radio, how will I hear if something bad happens and we're required to abort the entire show?", ".. more importantly, if something happens to ME, how do I contact anyone?", "Geez, how long have I been out here?", "(sniff), is that smell coming from the coffin?", "Wait!.. what's that noise?", "Is that an animal or something approaching?", "Holy crap! someone, or something is using a shovel right outside!", "Oh my god! it's shoveling dirt on the coffin!!"

Was this his imagination? Nope, one of the other team members was required to go out, and without making any contact with the guy in the coffin, shovel dirt on it! As I recall, based on the fact that most dares involve recreating some of the events that occured within the backstory of the site, the 2nd player was told to do this to recreate the burial of the coffin, in order to stir up the ghost supposedly residing within the coffin! Masterfully sadistic if you ask me!

Fortunately, there's very little of the whole "eating bugs" dares that you see on most of the other reality shows these days. Now and then it shows up though, and I absolutely hate it! That's got nothing to do with conquering a fear, and everything to do with being freakishly gross. Reality shows are notorius for employing it every now and then, presumably to cater to the audience's delight at disgusting crap like that, but it's really out-of-place unless your show is about "the things people will do for money." I guess it's OK on "Survivor", because it can be rationalized that in a true survival situation it's possible that the only source of food might be some creepy-crawly bug, but it's hardly appropriate in a fear show (either FEAR, OR FEAR FACTOR), and it irritates me.

Would I be afraid to do it? Well kinda, because I have a weak stomach when it comes to food, and I'm going to throw up if I put stupid stuff in my mouth, but that's about the extent of it. Would I do it for $5000? Sure, but only if I'm allowed to throw up immediately afterwards, because that's whats gonna' happen. Usually you're disqualified from the event if you do that, so I'm not going to bother eating stupid stuff in the first place if I'm not allowed to throw it up immediately. (Man, I hate throwing up, but I've got a sense of humor!)

I've been in touch with the site location scout again recently ("Kriss," the one I interviewed here last year). She's busy scouting locations for the next season, and very receptive to my ideas and comments about the show, but unable to spend too much time communicating because she's on the road. Apparently my ideas have interested her, and she intends to get in touch with me when she get's home in order to discuss the ideas further. She also mentioned that she might pass on my emails to the show's producers! I'm excited about it, and can't wait to hear from her. Like I said, this show feels tailored to my psyche, and the potential improvements I spoke to her of would be exciting to see in action.

In any event, MTV FEAR is, in my opinion, the best thing on TV these days, and I'm eagerly awaiting the new episode that's due on Sunday Evening. I'm also watching the FEAR reruns throughout the week too, I'm just irritated that it's only an hour long per episode. :)

If you've read this far, then you gotta' go watch it at LEAST once! If you liked my article at ALL, you'll love the show!

Comments are welcome, as always, and my email address is easy to remember.
--deadguy@ email.msn.com