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...
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I found this week's Masters of Horror episode, The Washingtonians, to be one of the more creative and clever stories of both seasons. The premise reminded me a little bit of Ravenous, a cannibal movie of the confederacy kind, which I highly recommend if you like gruesome, moody and blackly comedic horror with a twist of historical drama. (It has a superbly unsettling musical score, too.) Of course, The Washingtonians was more of a political satire than a serious attempt at "rewriting history," but Ravenous truly made me feel like the events of the story could have possibly happened during harsh winters at "ye old valley forts." At one point during Washingtonians, HHH (horror-hound-hubby) and I decided that we knew the exact wording used in the casting call for the show: "the oldest, creepiest looking actors money can buy." Some of those cast members were pretty frightening before the white makeup, powdered wigs and blood-drenched feasting. I can definitely understand why "Amy" alway...
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"Meow meow meow meow meow meow." My black cat, "Sprite" wanted to get her 2 pounce in about this week's Masters of Horror episode, The Black Cat. I had to give her a six-word limit, or else she would have hijacked this post. She gives it 4 out of 4 claws, mostly because she thought that "Pluto" the cat was very handsome (even with just one eye). Ahem.How can I find the words to describe Stuart Gordon's adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat, when all I can think is "wow?" I've always enjoyed Stuart Gordon's masterful cinematic interpretations of H.P. Lovecraft's work, and had hoped he would bring the same atmospheric, dramatic and gory details to his Edgar Allan Poe debut. Well, he did, and I would love to see Gordon take on even more Poe in the coming years. Come on, Stuart, we know you can't resist the pulse of The Tell-Tale Heart!As Gordon explained in the Fangoria interview I posted Friday, The Black Cat does get into some difficult terrain with realistic scenes of graph...
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Fangoria.com has posted a "Fearful Feature" on tonight's Masters of Horror episode, The Black Cat. It's a really good interview with "Master Director" Stuart Gordon and our beloved genre actor Jeffrey Combs, who I am certain will make a perfect Edgar Allan Poe in this episode. It's a good read; great to get primed for tonight! Enjoy.[Click Here to Read the Feature]
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After a bit of a lukewarm start, Masters of Horror has picked up significantly in this second half of season 2. I cannot wait for Stuart Gordon's interpretation of Poe's The Black Cat next week. I have pretty high expectations for it, and the preview looked amazing!This week's episode, We All Scream For Ice Cream felt much like an episode of Tales From the Crypt. It was creatively creepy, but not really as intense or groundbreaking as some of the other Masters episodes. Director Tom Holland has a couple of my favorite classics on his resume, including Child's Play and Fright Night. It turns out, he also directed several episodes of [HBO's] Tales From the Crypt, so I guess there's a good reason why We All Scream... reminded me of Tales From the Crypt.In all honesty, I'm a bit ambivalent about this episode. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was entertaining in a "made for TV" kind of way... it even felt a bit like an '80s horror film for reasons that I cannot pinpoint. I liked it, bu...
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Rob Schmidt's Masters of Horror episode Right to Die is the first in 2007, and now my third-favorite Season 2 entry. Although it didn't have the serious socially aware intensity of my first two favorites, Pelts and Screwfly Solution, it provided a seriously twisted and darkly comedic examination of the right-to-life debate. Right to Die brings an effortless, deadpan sense of irony to this issue, which is what I'd hoped John Carpenter's Pro-Life would do, but did not. The story is surreal and satirical enough not to offend, yet offers a bit of a pinch through grandiose displays of human selfishness and greed. It was just enough to make me wince, and just enough to make me feel a bit self-deprecating over how silly and predictable our species can be when rubber meets the road (in this story, literally).Now, Schmidt's name sounded familiar, but I have to admit that I couldn't remember what his prior work had been. I did extensive research prior to Season 2's premiere, drafting a huge b...
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After a two-week holiday hiatus, it felt like home to watch the first glorious blood splats, and that eerie piano in the Masters of Horror opening sequence. It isn't often that horror fiends get their "own" TV series, so I really feel like I'm going through withdrawals when MoH is over, or even on break for a couple of weeks. Now that Dexter has become a favorite series among the horror crowd, it looks like Showtime's really got the goods for my most beloved genre. I've gotta say, once Masters of Horror is over this year, it's going to be a hellish wait for Showtime's horror audience, or at least, for this horror fan. First of all, I haven't heard whether or not a third season is on the books for MoH, and it's probably going to take a good year for season two of Dexter. At least I'll have Battlestar Galatica, Heroes and Lost in the new year, but they can't take things nearly as far as Dex and "The Masters." Ah well. I'll just have to break out the Buffy DVDs for the 200th time (how ...
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I am so relieved. Last week, Dario Argento's Pelts provided a pivotal turning point in what I was starting to lament to be a disappointing Masters of Horror Season 2. After finding great satisfaction in maestro Argento's masterpiece, the big question for me was: Could the remaining masters keep this new momentum going, and would the second half of the season redeem the first? I had hoped so.Well, Joe Dante's The Screwfly Solution is now my second favorite episode of this season, stepping up pretty closely in line next to Pelts. Furthermore, Pelts and Screwfly Solution have now taken their places in my Top 5 favorite episodes of both seasons combined, and Screwfly is definitely the best sci-fi/horror gene-splicing of the lot. Actually, The Screwfly Solution is a far more sophisticated and significant work than many of the feature-length science fiction films I've seen over the years. Last season, Joe Dante had opted for politically challenging, sardonic horror with the zombie electio...
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My fellow horror fiends, I apologize for the late posting. Between my city’s first-ever-in-history blizzard last week and a trip to the ER (I’m fine now, no worries), I’ve been a bit behind. While recovering over the past weekend and attempting to stay warm, Dario Argento’s fur-fringed Masters of Horror episode, Pelts, seemed a fitting theme.I haven’t held back from admitting that so far, I’ve been underwhelmed and disappointed with Masters of Horror this season. Knowing that Italy’s horror maestro Dario Argento was up next, I still had some hope for the rest of the season, yet I also cringed because I wasn’t too fond of his season 1 episode, Jenifer. One of the main reasons I didn’t like Jenifer was that Argento departed from his trademark style to try a grittier perspective, and I just didn’t feel that it worked. The Showtime website synopsis for Pelts did indicate that Argento would be returning to his legendary vividly colored, o...
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John Carpenter's entry, Cigarette Burns, was my second favorite Masters of Horror episode from season 1. (My all-time favorite MoH to date is William Malone's The Fair-Haired Child). Cigarette Burns had everything in it that makes a horror film (even a short one) great: A unique, darkly mystical story; gorgeous photography; a deep feeling of dread; extremely shocking, perfectly-placed gore; an atmospheric musical score; and Udo Kier. If you have not yet rented or purchased Cigarette Burns on DVD, I highly recommend it. The episode itself remains one of the best of the series, and the DVD contains some interesting extras, including commentary by the master himself, John Carpenter.See, I had to begin this entry by praising J.C., because I hate feeling "meh" about any of my favorite directors' work, and I don't like blogging about disappointment. Considering the title alone, Pro-Life evokes a hot-button issue, and I expected to feel at least a bit stirred up, no matter which side of th...
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