| Thanks to Cetanu I now have 6 of the 13 Masters of Horror movies. The series is a collection of films each by a different directer and aired at some time on Show Time. The prodject was started by Mick Garris and each film is a one hour "episode," though they are each stand alone films. Heres what I thought of the first half of ther series on a 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) scale. *contains spoilers*
The series puts its best foot forward with the original Master of Horror, John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, Escape from New York, In the Mouth of Madness) and his contribution to the show, "Cigarette Burns". The movie is about the owner of a struggling movie theater who earns extra money finding rare film prints for ritch people. He is soon hired by an excentric millionare and classic movie fan to find the Holey Grail of obscure films, "Le Fin Absolu Du MOnde," which was only screened once and drove its audiance into a murderouse frenzy. Early on we meet a "character" from the film in the form of an old man in black and white, which creats the impression of it being one of those "the movie is alive" films, but we're soon taken on a bizzar trip as the search for the film turns up some truely disturbed characters. The scary part of the film is not the underplayed paranormal aspect, but the things that regular people do to each other; the crazed directer that beheads a cab driver on camera, the butler gouging his own eyes out after seeing "Le Fin", the millionares daughter eating him alive, etc. The whole thing comes to an enthralling conclusion as it is revealed that the old man from the film is it's star, a real angel sacraficed on film. The movie was brilliantly acted and written, made all the better by John Carpenter's directing. It has two distinctions of being the best horror film I've seen in a long time, and being the first movie in recent memory to give me nightmares. 5 out of 5.
The second movie in the series is by one of my favorite directers, Stuart Gordon. He's braught to life the work of one of my favorite writters, H. P. Lovecraft (the most prolific writters of the 20th century) in such films as; Re-Animator, From Beond, Castle Freak ("The Rats in the Walls" was Lovecrafts version), and Degon. His contribution to the Masters of Horror is another Lovecraft title, "Dreams in the With House." Its about a college student renting a room in an old bording house. During his studies he becomes haunted by feverish dreams of an evil witch making him do horrible things. As the movie progresses he begins to question his sanity and if he's a danger to the people around him. His fears become relized when he finds himself face to face with the witch, and unable to stop himself from sacrifing his neighbors baby in a satanic ritual. If the film has a failing, its got to be in the un-named familier of the equaly un-named witch, a large rat with a humans face. Lovecraft made the vile creature seem terrifying, but seeing it on screne just makes it look comical. This may be intintual on Gordon's part for the end of the movie, when the underestimated familier kills the child and later eats the main character alive. All in all, it was a good show, but its hard to follow and act like John Carpenter and comes off a bit lukewarm in comparison. 4 out of 5.
Don Coscarelli comes next with his movie "Incident on and off a Mountain Road." Coscarelli is the writer and directer of the famed "Phantasm" movies, so I had pretty big expectations for this one. Its about a woman who gets on a wreck in a remote highway who is attacked by Moonface, a backwoods psychopath who gets his kicks capturing and killing people lost on that strech of rode. The movie takes to the woods where Moonface chases his prey only to find that she's not just going to role over and die. She sets a series of traps for Moonface until one backfires and he brings her back to his cabin, where he kills people bydrilling their eyes out and proping them up like scarecrow in fis front yard. In a series of flashbacks we see that she learned from her survivalist husband, whom she is leaving aftert he becomes abusive. The movie comes to a head with a confrontation with Moonface in which she finaly kills him. But it doesnt stop there, as she returns to her car, she opens her trunk to reveal her husbands dead body. A final flashback shows her last fight with the abusive man as he beats and rapes her for trying to leave him. She finaly has enough and strangles him to death. The ordeal with Moonface presents her with an oppertunity to take the body back to the cabin and set it up to look like Moonface killed him. A happy ending for everyone who diserves one. I realy enjoyed this tale of a damsel not quiet in distress, espetialy since it featired Angus "the Tall Man" Scrim from Phantasm, playing a crazy old man living in Moonface's basement. It was an exciting trip, but more thrilling than scary. 4 out of 5.
The next was by Mick Garris, the creater of the Masters of Horror, personal friend of Stephen King, and directer of such movies as "The Stand", "The Shining" (second version), "Riding the Bullet", and the upcoming "Desperation". He adds to the series with a movie wrote himself called "Chocolate". It's about a recently divorced man who gets occasional flashes of someone elses life. He soon figures out that its a woman (he sees everything from her perspective) and falls in love with the unknown girl. One day he gets another vision of her killing her lover, sending the main character in seach of the woman to help her, only to end up the next on her list. My only problem with it is that I don't think it actualy counts as a horror movie, more of a spychological suspence story. It was a perfectly good film, but a bit out of place in the Masters of Horror. 2 out of 5.
The next directer, John Landis, is a bit of an oddity in the group of horror dircters. Landis had worked on several movies including "Animal House", The Blues Brothers", "Trading Places", and "Comming to America". He got his title as a horror directer with his film "An American Wherewolf in Londen", and later in the vampire moffia film, "Innocent Blood". His contribution to the film is "Deer Woman" about two detectives assigned to a series of strange murders in which each victim seems to be trampled to death. They eventualy uncover the Deer Woman, a lycanthropic creature from Indian mythology. She is something of a sucubus, with the upper body of a woman, and the legs of a deer. As is Landis's style, theres a good bit of humar in the movies as well, evident as the Indian casino worker tells them the story of the Deer Woman. The detective asks what her motive for killing people could be, to which the Indian replies "We're talking about a woman with deer legs, logic realy doesnt come into play here." I've got to hand it to the Deer Woman herself, as a character with no actual lines, she conveys a great deal of character silently. No easy task. By the end, I'm a bit underwhelmed by the film. Its kinda in the vein of "American Wherewolf". but lacks something. It had to conform to an hours time slot, but it would have done better with another half hour or two. 3 out of 5.
The last Film I saw in the Series was Lucky McKee's "Sick Girl". McKee doesn't have the most extincive film career, but has the distinction of writing and directing "May", a chiiling tale of a lonely girl playing Dr. Frankenstien with variouse people. "Sick Girl" is an homage to 1950's mutant bug monster movies... with lesbians. For most of the movie you might not even be able to tell your watching a horror movie. It play out more like a romantic comedy between two socialy akward lesbians (ones an entamologist {bug scientest} and the other a hippy artist) as the scientest recieves a sample of a rare and unclasified insect that quicky escapes it confines and bites the hippy. After a bit of romance and jokes, the hippy begins to go insane as they learn that the bugs venom efects the mind while causing genetic mutations that makes it's prey able to bare it's young. It all comes to a sickoning conclusion as the hippy goes full bug mutant, eats the neighbors, and helps the bug do to her scientest lover what it did to her. The who things end with the two happy and pregnant, joyfuly taking about haveing several hundred "babies" and day now. Considering the slowpaced and kind of high spirited begining, the end leaves you feeling satisfied in a dirty kind of way. 5 out of 5.
I'll update when I get the last 7 movies. |
