LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - “13 -- Fear Is Real” is the dripping-with-irony title of a CW-staged reality show that scarcely could be more fake.
Somehow, “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi lent his name to this dithering mess which requires its 13 young “competitors” to “face their deepest fears” while competing to “stay alive.” As if the 12 people who won’t win the grand prize of $66,666 are actually in some type of actual danger of being killed.
In Wednesday’s opening installment of this unintentionally hilarious rope-a-dope, we learn that the real people present are terrible actors, world-class vapid or both. They’re said to be pitted against one another in situations culled from bad horror-movie scripts while a mock-scary voice chides them for being lame and cowardly.
We’re supposed to feel their fear when they’re left dangling in the dark by themselves, save for the fact we know there is least one cameraman and a sound guy -- and certainly a producer and probably a craft-services caterer or two -- hanging nearby.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter