Ranking Terror Episode 1: Masters of Horror/Fear Itself

Welcome to Ranking Terror, a new horror media criticism show from Sketching Details. Every month, we're going to look at a collection of horror media to rank from best to worst. We stop along along the way to discuss the ins and outs, the strengths and weaknesses, of the media in question and justification for how they line up in the end.

The first episode is the culmination of 39 weeks of articles looking back at the entirety of Masters of Horror/Fear Itself, the anthology horror TV series from executive producer Mick Garris. Essentially, horror directors from around the world were invited to create original short horror films (one hour long on Masters of Horror, 42 minutes long on Fear Itself) with no restriction on subject, genre, or form. Fear Itself is the unofficial third season after Showtime opted not to pickup season 3; NBC aired it instead, in a slightly more family-friendly format.

Here's a fun game. Put a finger down every time my brain short circuits and credits an episode to Dario Argento that he had nothing to do with. Also keep a tally of how many times the upstate NY kinfolk accent and phrasing came out.