Making a horror series to the standards of network television can't be an easy task — but NBC has put some of the genre's best on the case. Fear Itself [1], the network's horror anthology series, premieres tonight, with the directors of films such as American Psycho and Bride of Chucky taking turns creating spooky one-hour episodes for the next 13 Thursdays.

There's nothing overly gory about these episodes — in part because that kind of thing would never make it past broadcast censors but also because the producers (who also did Showtime's Masters of Horror) thought that those R-rated elements had been pushed as far as they could go [2] in films and on cable. The result is a series that's reaching for a more psychological sort of horror — spooky, not gross.

Tonight's first episode, "The Sacrifice," is a pretty straightforward take on the genre. Four fugitives — including one played by Jesse Plemons, Landry of Friday Night Lights [3] — turn up at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. At first it seems like a safe, comfortable place (stocked with beautiful women, no less), but of course it's anything but. The story isn't terribly complex (it could be a slightly more adult take on something from Are You Afraid of the Dark?), but it's well-directed by Breck Eisner, who's currently remaking The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the acting is sufficiently creepy. For more on the series and to see a preview, just .

Later episodes go heavier on the psychological elements; while I still haven't seen either of the two I'm most highly anticipating [4], the second episode — in which a bad cop stages a stakeout at what turns out to be a haunted house — has a very different feel from "The Sacrifice." I'm curious to see where the series goes; its format seems perfect for Summer, since viewers can pop in and out without missing plot.

Will you be checking in to see if Fear Itself spooks you? Here's a look:

Photo courtesy of NBC [5]