November 3, 2006: Masters of Horror's Family Matter
The quiet, suburban Wisconsin neighborhood of
John Landis'
Masters of Horror entry,
Family, looks much like
Desperate Housewives' notoriously perfect Wisteria Lane. Sure, Wisteria Lane continues to experience its own share of scandal, mayhem and murder. But if
George Wendt's character Harold compared notes with Wisteria Lane's latest diabolical resident Orson Hodge [
Kyle MacLachlan], I believe that even Orson would get a chill down his spine. Or... maybe he'd just wish that "he'd thought of that." Yes, I think that Orson would find a mentor in Harold. He certainly would respect Harold's excellence in homemaking, gardening and cleanliness as well as his devotion to family values - especially the value of hiding the evidence. (Bree Hodge really needs to watch this episode!)
If I were to recommend a
Masters of Horror episode to entry-level horror fiends or to my squeamish friends, it would be
Family. Yes, there's a bit of gore, but nothing (I mean, nothing) compared to last week's entry. As I suspected, John Landis focused more on the sense of irony, black humor and mystery. He also spent considerable time revealing the inner workings that motivate the outer doings of Harold. At one point, I found myself feeling sorry for the guy - until the twist ending. I didn't see that one coming, but HHH (horror-hound-husband) did. He always does.
As I've lurked around in various horror communities after last Friday's MoH premiere, the consensus on
The Damned Thing was about 50/50 love/hate. The one thing everybody loved from last week was "hammer time," and the one thing that many hated was the ending. If they didn't hate the ending, they at least felt greatly dissatisfied with the abruptness of it. Well, we didn't get any huge gore surprises in
Family, but I do believe that this ending will make up for any dissatisfaction with last week's. At first I'd started to feel that all of Harold's music selections were irony overkill, until the twist.... As I watched Harold become karma's bitch, it was the first time ever (and last time) that old-time gospel music put a wicked smile on my face.
