February 2, 2007: ... And They Lived
Well, this is it - the last post for
Masters of Horror Season 2. I still haven't read or heard whether or not there will be a Season 3, but I sure do hope so. As soon as I find out, I'll definitely post it here. I thought that Season 2 wound up being pretty damn good, with four episodes now filling some slots in my top 10 favorites:
1. "Fair-haired Child" (Season 1)
2. "The Black Cat" (Season 2)
3. "Pelts" (Season 2)
4. "Cigarette Burns" (Season 1)
5. "Right to Die" (Season 2)
6. "The Screwfly Solution" (Season 2)
7. "Imprint" (Season 1, aka "The Banned Episode")
8. "Dance of the Dead" (Season 1)
9. "Deer Woman" (Season 1)
10. "Dreams in the Witch-House" (Season 1)
As you can see, the final episode of this season, "Dream Cruise," didn't make it into my top favorites, but I also didn't find it to be a particularly bad episode. The story was interesting enough, even though it conjured up similar specters from other J-horror films like
Ju-on: The Grudge and
The Ring (Ringu). Some of it even reminded me of
Open Water, and of course the "attack arm" reminded me of
Evil Dead 2. (By the way, if you haven't seen
Open Water yet, it is extremely frightening and I highly recommend it.)
The one thing that J-horror does well is create some really freaky ghosts that tend to burn their images permanently into my psyche. This ghost could have competed against Regan from
The Exorcist and won. [
Shivers] What I found to be particularly surprising in this episode was the benevolent twist, which reminded me a bit of
The Sixth Sense or
A Stir of Echoes. Sometimes, cynical and malevolent endings in horror get exhausting; it was a breath of fresh air to see that the characters not only survived the horror of what happened, but transcended decades-old fears after the experience. The ending of this final episode made it feel like the entire season has ended on a good note, almost like a sigh of relief: We watched, we screamed, we gasped, we survived. (We want more!)
To conclude this season, I would love to see your list of
Masters of Horror favorites (it doesn't have to be 10, it can be any number) in the comments. And finally, thank you all for stopping by to read this spooky l'il section of TVGuide.com. I do hope we'll be here next year for a Season 3!
