Fear Itself Episode 3: Family Man

Fear Itself Episode 3: Family Man

It's one thing to lose your life - but to lose it to another person? There's something untouchable in that, because when you lose your life, it's gone and nothing can ever replace it. To lose your life to another person means that your psyche, ideas, memories - everything that you've made for yourself - is replaceable, given to another person to carry on where you started. This is exactly where Family Man touches upon, in this dark cellar of our minds where we wonder whether our soul can be stolen by another. To tell the truth, I had an idea for a story like this for quite some time now, but never wrote it. It was a premise where two men went into comas at the same time, waking up in each other's body.

Directed by Ronny Yu, Family Man stars Colin Ferguson as the straight-laced, religious father and devoted husband Dennis Mahoney. Mahoney's the stereotypical family man, as the title suggests, but as Mahoney is driving while talking on his cell phone (which is illegal, Mr. Law-Abider), he is hit by a car at an intersection. You guessed it - Mahoney's dead, but his soul doesn't realize it. And he encounters a plaid-clad, scary looking, prematurely balding or shaved skinhead dude, who has died at the same time. Before Mahoney can turn all Ghost, he wakes up from his little Heaven trip, except to something that he wasn't expecting; instead of looking like Mahoney, he looks like that dude from Heaven. Oh, and one other surprise is added to Mahoney's list of things to comprehend - the guy whose body Mahoney is inhabiting is serial killer Richard "Family Man" Brautigan (Clifton Collins Jr.)! So Mahoney, as Brautigan, gets chucked in jail, and the only way they'll give him a life sentence (instead of the chaise d'electrique) is if he tells them where he buried the bodies. Of course he has no idea, but that's okay, because Brautigan visits Mahoney, in Mahoney's body, to tell him how he's just loving living Mahoney's life. What an evil bastard! With all this in mind, Mahoney-Brautigan escapes to find Brautigan-mMahoney, and finishes him off. But wait! This changes Mahoney back into his own body, only to find a grisly surprise involving his family waiting for him. Lots of surprises!


I was very impressed with Family Man - the acting was phenomenal and the story very flowing. The tale drew me in, so much so in fact that I jumped at the well-placed car crash sequence. The car didn't come out of nowhere. Ironically, I can usually pick those cheap scare tactics out of the movie minutes before it happens. But what Family Man did so well was suck the viewer (i.e. ME, the one that matters) into this family man's life - his innocence and youthful vigor, his loving wife and kids, his strive for creating a happy family. And then it bashed this fantastical family life to smithereens with the car crash, bringing a misanthropic worldview to the whole story. Even though you lead a good, innocent life, it doesn't mean something terrible won't happen to you. It's the omens like this that really create the fear in Family Man.

Colin Ferguson plays both of his parts extremely well, but it's his take on becoming the evil criminal that really shines through. Ferguson's loving, caring husband-daddy side is quite believable, so when Brautigan inhabits his body, Ferguson has to do a double-take and act quite vile. It was hard to believe that Ferguson could be so nice in the beginning, which seemed genuine, and turn into a ruthless killer in the middle half, but Ferguson pulled it off with no flaws. In all honesty, he seemed like an absolute dick, someone you wanted to just kick the crap out of. His ability to sickeningly threaten Mahoney brings chills, not only because of the taunts that he shoves in Mahoney's face, but also because of the impending violence that Brautigan hints at towards Mahoney's family.

Most of the action in Family Man is psychological, delving more into the minds of both Brautigan and Mahoney than actual violence. It would have been easy for Ronny Yu to have Brautigan perpetrate a torture-porn-esque half an hour on Mahoney's family, but instead, we see Brautigan trying to have a real life with this new family, and his anger and different demeanor escalating as reality-based situations happen to him where a normal person would be able to cope without violence. Without having to see Brautigan's murders, we can picture how his mentality came to become obsessed with murder.


There did seem to be a few mistakes during Family Man, however. For one thing, we hear that Brautigan is supposedly a freak, being able to withstand stabbings and beatings. At one point, a cop hits Brautigan with his bat and Brautigan doesn't seem to feel it. However, later on in the episode, Brautigan is getting beaten by a few guards, and he seems to go down hard. It wasn't a big deal, just a lack of consistency that could slide by, considering how much of an onslaught Brautigan was receiving.

Other than that, Family Man was a very captivating watch from beginning to end. It proves that a lot of action doesn't have to happen as long as the film is psychologically challenging to the audience. Plus, the ending has a great twist that, while not hard to see, makes for a very visceral experience - it's quite disgusting.