User Reviews

Even though I grew up renting "Faerie Tale Theatre", this is an episode I didn't see until I was quite a bit older. Basically, Peter MacNicol plays a young man unafraid of anything, which is amazing considering everyone in his village is very superstitious. So, like the title suggests, he leaves home to find out what it means to be fearful. He stops at an inn, where a king and his daughter are staying, since their castle is haunted. The king challenges Martin (MacNichol) to stay in the castle for three nights, and Martin agrees, hoping it'll do the trick. All I'll say is it has a surprising ending, which I won't spoil for anyone because that just wouldn't be any fun, now would it?

There is a lot to like about the 'Faerie Tale Theatre' series. Many of their adaptations of various well-known and well-loved fairy tales are charming, clever and sometimes funny, a few even emotionally moving. 'Faerie Tale Theatre' puts its own magical spin on the best of the episodes while still capturing the essence of the stories, while also giving further enjoyments in seeing talented performers in early roles or in roles that are departures from their usual roles.

While not one of the Grimm Brothers' better known stories (in some way one of their least known), and not quite among their best (there are more magical, darker and more fun ones), 'The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was' (or 'The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear') does deserve to be better known. It is an engaging story with a lot of atmosphere and a protagonist who is fearless and intelligent instead of a fool or anything like that.

Adapted by 'Faerie Tale Theatre' as "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers", the story is not often adapted, most interpretations listed online (i.e. Wikipedia) are more things that were influenced by the story rather than proper adaptations. It is a shame because it deserves to be. 'Faerie Tale Theatre's' "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers" does the story justice, it's a quite faithful telling, and to me it's one of the best of the series.

It's not perhaps child-friendly, being one of the darker and scarier episodes of 'Faerie Tale Theatre' (with a horror and Hammer horror vibe at times) but there is an amusing and satirical edge that adults will appreciate. Love the Gothic look of the production values that add enormously to the atmosphere needed. The score is suitably haunting and sometimes playful.

Writing entertains without being too silly, while the story provides a Gothic atmosphere that rivals the best of Hammer Horror often and some eerie jolts. The attempts to scare the boy may come over as silly to some, but that approach is not too far enough from those in the original story and the attempts here are still pretty unsettling and show the boy's admirable and envious resourcefulness. Things don't go at a fast pace as such but is hardly dull, though admittedly the second half is more interesting.

Good casting helps and "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers" certainly has that, great even. Peter MacNicol is an appealing protagonist, while Dana Hill also charms and David Warner schemes effectively. The standouts however are a magnetic Christopher Lee and a pitch-perfect Vincent Price as narrator.

Overall, a 'Faerie Tale Theatre' gem and goes to prove that a fairly little-known story deserves more recognition. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I usually watch episodes from this fantasy series over Christmas but, since this one co-stars the recently-deceased Christopher Lee, I thought I might as well get to it now. The cast actually includes Peter MacNichol as the fearless titular figure, Jeff Corey as his ultra-superstitious father, David Warner as a scheming innkeeper in cahoots with the regal Lee, Frank Zappa as the latter's mute hunchbacked servant, and even Vincent Price providing the narration (making this the fourth and final collaboration between the two Horror icons, obviously discounting the THIS IS YOUR LIFE TV episode devoted to Lee I recently watched).

The film is likable enough and occasionally amusing (Corey's antics to fend off misfortune at the start and, while spending three nights at Lee's ostensibly haunted castle, the protagonist is not only averse to terror but he even teaches the visiting ghouls how to play bowling with a skull!), but the attempts to scare the hero and his gauche obliviousness to them are often too silly – in the vein of a "Scooby Doo" cartoon – to elicit much interest from an adult audience! This is all the more telling when it transpires that MacNichol is basically afraid of growing up…since he gets all shivery when ultimately offered the hand of Lee's daughter in marriage upon completing his endurance test!