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Masters of Horror - Season 1

Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 1 (2005)

Created by Mick Garris
Directed by Stuart Gordon, John Carpenter, Mick Garris et al
340 mins; R18+; Colour

Previewed Release: R4 IDT Entertainment/Starz
Tagline: Experience terrifying visions from the greatest minds in the genre… these are the Masters of Horror.
Country of Origin: USA/Canada

The Series:

Mick Garris’ claim to fame as a filmmaker is predominantly set in the dubious horror subgenre of Stephen King made-for-TV pictures, as well as scripting duties on a number of B-grade classics. However what Garris lacked in scale he made up for in concept – true to form, Garris conceived Masters of Horror, a wet-dream prospect for the horror fan. Thirteen episodes to a season, Masters of Horror would allow one genre auteur to work within a sixty-minute timeslot, free of studio restriction. This set is a compilation of six episodes of Season 1, which aired in the US on the pay-TV channel Showtime in 2005.

The best episode in this set is by far Cigarette Burns. Directed by John Carpenter (famous for Halloween and The Thing), Cigarette Burns introduces Kirby (Norman Reedus) a theatre owner who makes some money on the side tracking down rare films. Kirby’s client is a mysterious businessman (the inimitable Udo Kier), and his objective is to uncover the whereabouts of the film Le Fin Absolue De Monde, a picture that supposedly throws anyone who sees it in a homicidal rage. The several hundred thousand dollar remuneration will help rectify all of Kirby’s problems, from marital to professional, and his pastime quickly becomes a deadly obsession, as he goes deeper into the sordid underworld of the mythical film’s background.

Dreams in a Witch House is another one of Volume One's more interesting entires, and is a vaguely comic entry by Stuart Gordon, who gave us the seminal 1985 zombie comedy Re-Animator. Ezra Godden stars as Walter, a young man who rents a mysterious apartment that has a dubious past. When night falls, things go bump. The payoff of this episode serves to remind us that we aren’t often dealt out happy endings, and the series isn’t willing to skimp on gore or taboos, a refreshing fact in an era of unending political correctness.

The remaining four films all address different horror themes and issues. Don ‘Phantasm’ Coscarelli’s segment Incident on and off a Mountain Road was the series’ debut, and followed a young woman who, while escaping in the mountains from her deranged husband, instead encounters an equally formidable gaggle of Hills-Have-Eyes-esque freaks.

John Landis’ Deer Woman is a horror-comedy, big-killer-animal flick in a similar vein to his 1980 tour-de-force, An American Werewolf in London. The episode, one of the most critically slammed, is at worst dumb fun; at best, a satire of our favourite films, sexuality and our reaction to horror.

And while Lucky ‘May’ McKee’s claim to horror masterdom is somewhat flawed, he still manages to churn out a delightfully offbeat Corman-like creature feature Sick Girl, which throws in some lesbian action for good measure.

The only misfire of this set is the dire Chocolate, which was directed by Garris. A monumental cock-up, this deadeningly boring and hideously acted faux pas goes to show that Garris is far better suited as an ideas man, and should not be led behind a camera by an inflated ego.

The Release:

This is a six-disc set, and each is packed with as many features as you could hope. Each film comes with a making-of featurette, as well as commentaries, galleries, interviews et al. The films themselves are presented with a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack and are shown in 1:78:1 widescreen with 16:9 enhancement. There are no subtitles.

The discs are packaged in an oversized amary case with an embossed slipcase. A booklet with director profiles has been included.

The Verdict:

Two fantastic short films, two very good ones and one shithouse, this first half of the Masters of Horror series is a surefire winner. Whether or not you’re a fan of the series, Garris’ directoral decisions will undoubtedly ignite some lunchroom discussions among horror fans regarding the legitimacy of ‘masters’ – where’s Craven, Romero, Herschell Gordon Lewis and so forth. Regardless, colour us impressed – Masters of Horror is sure to become an absolute hit and this comprehensive set will give many hours of entertainment.

5 out of 5

Masters of Horror Season 1 Volume 2 (2005)
Created by Mick Garris
Directed by Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper, Larry Cohen et al
350 mins; MA15+; Colour

Previewed Release: R4 IDT Entertainment/Starz
Tagline: Experience terrifying visions from the greatest minds in the genre… these are the Masters of Horror.
Country of Origin: USA/Canada/Italy

The Series:

To quote the immortal words of a rap artist whose name escapes me – ‘this is the real shit’.

The second instalment in Australia’s release of the Showtime television show Masters of Horror, Volume 2 showcases the first season’s best episodes and introduces Tobe Hooper and Dario Argento, two bona fide old-school masters. Hooper is on sublime Texas Chain Saw Massacre form with Dance of the Dead, the misanthropic view of a post-apocalyptic America, in which youths run riot and pass time at a nihilistic club that showcases a perverted MC (Robert Englund; Freddy of the Nightmare on Elm Street films) hosting the macabre ‘dance of the dead’.

Italian horror favourite Dario Argento, who helmed the seventies classics Deep Red and Suspiria, is enlisted to tell the story of Jenifer, an uber-weird chick with a body like an angel but a face, quite literally, like a ghoul. When police detective Frank Spivey saves Jenifer from a deranged murderer, he soon finds that the disturbed woman is threatening to shatter his comfortable suburban existence. Who is she? What secrets does she hold? And what is that alluring power she possesses?

Haeckel’s Tale, directed by John McNaughton of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer fame, is a ye-olde tale of murder, mayhem and necrophilia, though only gets going in the final ten minutes with some seriously unerotic girl-on-zombie action.

Larry Cohen (It’s Alive) directs the episode Pick Me Up. One of the more intriguing episodes conceptually, Pick Me Up tells of a turf war between a road-tripper who kills hitchhikers and a hitchhiker who kills road-trippers, though it somewhat suffers from sub-par scriptwriting. What it lacks in pacing, Pick Me Up makes up for in slick aesthetic, which is probably due to the fact that Cohen’s past horror work has been primarily restricted to production, with classics such as Maniac Cop and its sequel.

The Howling’s Joe Dante is behind the political satire Homecoming, in which zombified US soldiers fallen in Iraq return to the home country to vote out the war-mongering President. It’s unnecessarily heavy-handed stuff, but it has its moments.

Finally, William Malone, one of the most dubious entrants in the annals of mastery, having previously directed the remakes/flops House on Haunted Hill and FearDotCom helms the supernatural tale Fair Haired Child. This episode surprisingly competent considering his past résumé, and the style, flair and suspense Malone brings to the picture rounds the set off well.

The Release:

Again, the extras are identical the first volume. Six discs with each film on it, each packed with features – making-ofs, interviews, biographies, retrospectives – as much as you’d ever want to chronicle the making of a television episode, and then some. The films themselves are presented with a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack and are shown in 1:78:1 widescreen with 16:9 enhancement. There are no subtitles on any of the films.

The discs are packaged in an oversized amary case with an embossed slipcase. A booklet with director profiles has been included.

The Verdict:

Again, there are some dubious decisions in this – Larry Cohen? John McNaughton? Fuckin’ William Malone? Not masters by a long shot, and now that we have concluded the series (with the omission of Japanese horror maestro Takashi Miike’s much-maligned entry Imprint), there are definitely a number of masters that will do well coming into the second series. Despite these shortcomings, each director produces an exceedingly competent entry, with Argento and Hooper working at their very best. Five stars for both Dance and Jenifer, and IDT are to be commended for the effort they have employed for the included features. Highly recommended.

5 out of 5

Masters of Horror Season 1 – Imprint (2005)
Created by Mick Garris
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Billy Drago, Youki Kudoh
62 mins; R18+; Colour

Previewed Release: R4 IDT Entertainment/Starz
Tagline: The greatest minds in horror.
Country of Origin: USA/Japan

The Show:

Japanese horror maestro Takashi Miike is one of the most notorious directors alive today. Having helmed the graphically violent shockers Audition and Ichi the Killer and the exceedingly perverse Visitor Q, it came as little surprise to most when Miike’s Masters of Horror episode Imprint was banned for cable broadcast, allowing itself to be discovered on the DVD market.

And it is totally disgusting, on par with the Miike vomitorium classics Ichi and Fudoh: The Next Generation. Imprint introduces Christopher (Drago), an American journalist travelling through 19th century Japan to reunite with a prostitute he fell in love with. While searching through Tokyo’s seediest bordellos, Christopher encounters a disfigured whore who is known only as ‘the woman’ (Kudoh). The woman tells Christopher a terrifying story of mayhem, torture and degradation, before unleashing an unforgettable spiel about her own deranged existence.

Frequently touted as the zenith of the Masters of Horror show, Imprint lives up to its notoriety. Torture of the grittiest kind is presented in stomach-churning fashion; themes of rape, incest and, most graphically, abortion are dealt with and Miike directs in his typically surreal, acid-trip style. The merits of Imprint, for the conventional filmgoer, are undoubtedly few and far between. Essentially, how you accept Miike’s segment entirely depends on your predilection for these kinds of films – fantastical, dreamlike visions stained with claret and OTT-depravity. Nothing makes sense, nothing is as it appears – visually, though, you’re in for a treat. The costumes and sets are fantastic, the direction taut and the SFX are great. However, the is one of Imprint’s few pitfalls – the Japanese actors appear to be delivering their lines phonetically, and Drago appears to struggle under Miike’s foreign language direction.

A typically deranged Miike exercise in grotesquery – you may not understand it, but Imprint will shock and delight as it basks in its excess.

The Release:

Imprint is soundtracked to 5.1 Dolby Digital and is presented in 1:78:1 widescreen with 16:9 enhancement. Extras include three featurettes, a commentary (sadly without Miike, two film critics are on board), as well as the script and a screen saver as DVD-Rom content.

The Verdict:

Those looking for coherence, refined plot details and acting subtleties will be bitterly disappointed by Imprint. Indeed, this is a showcase of Takashi Miike’s best work; a series of deranged set pieces of gore and perversity, glued together by a plot akin to one conceived during a particularly severe dope haze. In my opinion, all horror should be like the subversive insanity of Miike; alas, the fact that this was banned from cable and effectively shelved means that the Western world does not readily accept films such as Imprint as mainstream. Recommended.

4 out of 5