Masters of Horror Season 2: Five Episode Reviews

Inspired by Ambrose Bierce's classic short-story. Tale of a monstrous force that devastates Sheriff Kevin Reddle's family and his small Texas town.

This is a good episode but not great. Sean Patrick Flanery does a great job here, as does the rest of the cast. I liked seeing Ted Raimi in his role as a priest/pastor.

The story is both simple yet vague at times, with a few plot holes that bothered me. It's like two stories in one. First, we have a mysterious force that causes the townspeople to go crazy and attack each other to the death. Second, we have Sheriff Kevin Reddle who, as a child, witnessed his father go crazy on his birthday and kill his mother. Why on his birthday is never really explained. Now, Kevin's birthday is coming up and the force/monster is out for revenge for the sins of the father.

If you want to really get deep into the social commentary that is at the heart of the story, you will see a story of revenge by nature on mankind. I clearly see this aspect but this movie mixes it into other horror aspects that detract from this nature and moral "lesson". I do enjoy good social commentary but there is a time and place for it but this isn't it. Tobe Hooper and Richard Christian Matheson should have focused on just one story and not try to do several at once.

It had potential to be so much more than what we see here. I think it just needed one more edit to make a tighter-knit story. I find it hard to believe that Richard Christian Matheson, such a renowned writer, would put out something with so many problems. He wrote the teleplay of Ambrose Bierce who wrote the short story on which this is based. I hear that the story is much better written.

There is tons of gore with a few eviscerations and geysers of blood. If you are a gore fan, this movie will be like opening gifts on Christmas morning! Blood, guts, organs ripped out and hanging and more! The SFX are okay until the end where the monster is shown; it just looked cheesy. It would have been much better if it was left unseen.

Overall, it was a fairly good episode but far from stellar and not one of my favorites. It's still worth a view.

Masters of Horror Season 2, Episode 3: The V Word

A lone vampire punishes two teenage boys who make the poor decision to break into a mortuary.

I thought this was going to be a great episode and it was! It started out with a slow first few minutes with two teenage boys playing video games, Doom to be exact. The one asks the other to see a dead body at the morgue where his cousin works. Then it gets really good, as soon as they reach the morgue. It's night, of course, and full of atmospheric lighting, images and music. The music is especially good; it really reminded me of Phantasm, especially during their first meeting with the vampire. That is a very intense scene with the music.

The acting is great on all parts. I didn't know beforehand that Michael Ironside had a role in this episode but, when I did see him as the vampire, I was so excited! Also, as soon as I saw him, I immediately thought of how coincidental the title, "The V Word", is with Michael Ironside's 80s series, "V". Another cool allusion is the vampire's name, Mr. Chaney. Lon Chaney was originally meant to play the role of Dracula before Bela got the part. These things added to an already fun episode. Oh, one other sort of allusion, which my friend George told me but I forgot, is that in the vampire's past life he was a child molester. Ironside was in V, as was Robert Englund, who played Freddy Kreuger, a child molester in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Some have fans and will take issue with the liberties with the vampire mythos and the rules we associate with modern vampires. Firstly, the vampires here have no fangs; they just bite into their victims' necks and gouge out big chunks of flesh so the blood gushes out. Also, they must feed while their victims are alive. Personally, I found it to be more realistic and gorier this way. If it bugs you, it's still just a minor irritation.

The SFX are good. There's TONS of gushing blood and gouged out flesh! I LOVED IT!

The ending shows us three different outcomes for vampires: be killed, live with it or suicide. I liked it, like a Choose Your Own Adventure book for vampires.

Overall, this is a great episode with a great cast, atmosphere and music. Plot's a little weak but it serves its purpose for a less than an hour show. Great nods to Dracula, Phantasm & Salem's Lot. Must see episode!

Masters of Horror Season 2, Episode 4: Sounds Like

Quality control supervisor spends his days monitoring the nuances of his tech support staff's telephone conversations... listening is his life. However, when grief over his son's death leads to a supernaturally heightened sense of sound, Larry is forced to take violent action to silence the horrific cacophony in his head.

I thought that this episode sounded great at first (weeks before it aired), then I changed my expectations to boring before I watched it.

The episode starts out really slow but it quickly grew on me. It's not really a horrific episode but the ending is a little gory. This is, at least to me, a very sad and depressing story. It's sad because it shows a man's angst with his own life and society, as well as his growing insanity due to hearing everyone's voices, breathing and even their eyes blinking, which become thunderous to his ears. This would drive me bonkers. But, it does bring up the question: why didn't he just go to see a doctor who probably would have been able to fix his medical problem? I chalk this up as being the only problem that I have with this episode so I can overlook it and focus on the parts I do find good.

Back to Larry's problems. Besides his problem of hearing everything around him, add to this depression over his son who died as a child and his wife who rambles on and on incessantly. It'd drive anyone insane! He misses his son because he never had the chance to see him grow up or be with him much. His wife is in denial about their son and so she ignores it and just talks non-stop about trivial things in her life which Larry despises. She acts as if nothing happened and has locked their son's room; out of sight, out of mind. Larry just can't take it any more.

Larry has never seen a psychiatrist to recover from the loss but near the midpoint of the story, his boss forces him to see one. At the first meeting with a doctor, Larry starts out cold but quickly warms up to him when the doctor tells him that he recovered from a cigarette smoking addiction. He feels a kinship, that is, until his "super" hearing hears signs that the doctor lied and is still a smoker. I felt terrible for him.

Another sad part is that Larry tries to befriend one of the tech support operator, whom he reprimanded previously. They go out for lunch and Larry reminisces about his son and acts like the young man is his on and asks him out for a boat ride. The man is freaked out and reports Larry to the boss. Yet another attempt by Larry to reach out for friendship gone wrong. So sad.

The acting is good but Michael Daingerfield is superb as the star, Jim. He goes from the perfect worker to totally insane by the end of the show. Very well done. He put a human face on the insanity.

A good episode. If you're looking for gore or horror, this isn't it. If you want to see one man's journey into the depths of insanity, this is perfect for you!

Masters of Horror Season 2, Episode 8: Valerie on the Stairs

This is a fairly unique horror story. It is kind of a like a bad fairytale became real but you need to watch it yourself to understand. Rob Hanisee is an unpublished writer who has agreed to stay at a boarding house for aspiring authors which was founded to give writers a place to stay for free until they become published. Te last woman to stay there had committed suicide for no apparent reason and was agreed that it was probably the stress created by desiring to be a published author. So, Rob moves in place of the woman and is joined by a few authors already there: an old man, Everett, played by Christopher Lloyd, a young southern woman and a young man. Rob starts hearing odd noises and then begins having dream of a mysterious, beautiful, naked young woman and a monster played by Tony Todd. Soon, the woman and the beast crossover into the real world and the three writers explain the truth to Rob which he needs to know in order to stop the beast!

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time I've ever seen Christopher Lloyd & Tony Todd together on a project before which made it interesting for me. All of the acting was very good. Tony Todd played a good beast with his distinct voice. Christopher Lloyd was just great as the older author who has a book published but one which he's ashamed of and hides it in order to start anew.

The setting of the dark, shadowy inside of an old hotel makes for a fairly creepy setting that reminds me of the season one episode of Masters of Horror, H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House, directed by Stuart Gordon. I love the soft atmospheric music which makes me feel sorry for Val. The SFX are fairly good but nothing really gory. Tony Todd's make-up could be better.

This is a good addition to the Masters of Horror series although; some might consider it a bit slow-paced for the first half. Guys will enjoy the flesh showcased by the nude Valerie (Clare Grant). Mick Garris creates a tight horror package based on the short story by the great Clive Barker. Like Haeckel's Tale, a season one installment also by Barker, sex and nudity takes a bit of a role but less with Valerie on the Stairs and without the gross aspects that pushed some people away from it. I recommend this episode to horror fans.

Masters of Horror Season 2, Episode 11: The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe is a writer out of ideas and short on cash that's followed by a black cat that will destroy his life or help him to write one of his most famous stories.

I just loved this episode! Jeffrey Combs IS Edgar Allan Poe! The story is original to my knowledge but it is very similar to Poe's original story, The Black Cat. In this adaptation, Poe himself is protagonist of the story. The story is ingeniously setup as a dream within a dream while merging fact with fiction, weaving a tale which takes us on several journeys into one man's search for a story idea. For most of it, we don't know for sure which parts are real and which are dreams. This is maddening but it s intended to be because it is exactly what Edgar is experiencing. In essence, we are taken along for the ride alongside Poe.

We start with Poe reciting poetry, which he has written, to his young, invalid wife, Virginia. She loves it but, when Poe takes it to the publisher of a magazine, the publisher only offers him fifty cents per poem because poetry is relegated to the back pages in the women's section. Poe asks for twice that amount but the publisher stands his ground and Poe accepts. He goes on to tell Poe to write another scary story which pays more and is printed in the front pages. Poe daydreams of choking him to death and snaps back to say that he will write one for next month's edition but request an advance so he can go drinking at the bar.

Returning home drunk yet again, he finds his wife with a buyer for their piano which has all but forgotten in his stupor. At first, he refuses but then reluctantly agrees to it if Virginia can play one last time. After a few minutes, a coughing fit hits her and she coughs up a vast amount of blood. A doctor is called and treats her. Poe cannot afford to pay again and, the doctor tiring of Poe's drinking and non-payment, tells him to find another doctor.

All throughout the story, the Poe's black cat, Pluto, is annoying Edgar to the point of madness, biting, scratching and meowing at him. So we see constantly see Edgar in drunken stupors, trying to write, the cat bothering him and Virginia's deteriorating health. It all contributes to his seemingly deteriorating mental health as he reaches the brink of insanity. But nothing is as it seems in Poe's experiences shown here.

In reality, Poe was indeed an alcoholic and a drug addict and Poe was married to his first cousin, Virginia Eliza Clemm. The story blends fact with fiction quite well.

The acting is terrific! Jeffrey Combs make THE perfect Edgar Allan Poe. He looks just like Poe! It's uncanny. This s probably Combs' best role to date! Elyse Levesque makes a great Virginia Poe. The rest of the cast is few and all do their part to create a truly authentic-looking production in every way. Stuart Gordon knew exactly what he wanted and achieved it.

There is a bit of gore and scenes with animals that might make you squeamish but nothing too bad. Love the music too.

If there is one Masters of Horror episode to see, be sure you watch this one! I highly-recommend it to everyone!