"Masters of Horror" thread (1 Viewer)

Did anyone watch the premiere episode of "Masters of Horror" tonight? It's a Showtime series featuring hour-long horror stories from such names as John Carpenter, Dario Argento, Joe Dante, and Don Coscarelli (director of tonight's episode). Here's a link to a more comprehensive credit listing:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0448190/f...dits#directors

I didn't know about this until a few minutes ago, but--being a Phantasm phan--I'm going to watch the premiere to see what Coscarelli came up with.

ooo neat

I changed from Starz to Showtime just for this series. That said, I'll spoilerize major plot points, but if you want to know nothing before seeing the ep, don't read further.

A great start to the series! Incident on and off a Mountain Road is one of Lansdale's stories that I've wanted to read for the longest time, but never got around to. That said, I figured she had killed Bruce after I'd read an interview where it was mentioned that the most effective part of the story was the part with him and her. After reading that, it was just a feeling I had, but I was happy to be right, because it was a perfect development. The anal rape was surprising. It was great how she passed him off as one of Moonface's victims. Poor ol' Angus though, killed in cold blood. :frowning:


Speaking of Angus, he was hilarious. He pretty much cracked me up nonstop. The stuff about the eyes witnessing all the evil was interesting, and I liked the bodies being put up in scarecrow fashion. I liked the song that played at the beginning and end, though I have no idea what it was. Ethan Embry was fantastic, as was Bree Turner, who I thought to be very attractive as well.

Looking forward to the rest of em'!

According to an article I recently read in either Fangoria or Rue Morgue, Showtime is only showing the series but has no stake in it. It will not have unlimited re-airings (like HBO seems to do with its shows) and will be released to DVD in a much shorter time. It had not been decided if the series would appear as a season box set or as single releases, although I would guess that they would be paired up since the shows are only an hour long.

Good to see Angus again.

Hey Justin, I agree with you completely!

Great episode. Creepy, atmospheric and solid all around, Keep em coming.

Tonight's episode by Stuart Gordon was a bit much for me. I guess I'm more "softcore" when it comes to horror, but the subject matter kind of turned me off.

I'm not much into seeing babies hurt and killed. I've got a six-week-old nephew, so this was really bad timing for me.

But, I suppose it's the nature of a show like this that some episodes will appeal while others will not.

The first episode was ok but smelled like your typical teen-slasher fare. I liked the second episode better - creepier and more nightmare-inducing. Especially the part with the witch with four nips. And rats! I hate rats - especially rats with human faces! Creepy!

The song played at the beginning and end of the first ep was Gratitude's "If Ever". I picked it up on their cd "Gratitude" but it is NOT the acoustic version. We may only be able to get the acoustic version by buying the 2 cd set of the music from Master of Horrors. Bummer....

Judy

Last I read, Dead in the West was being developed by Sean Cunningham's son. As Lansdale's short stories go, I'm surprised they didn't decide to do The Night They Missed the Horror Show, unless the rights to that one have been sold to someone else.

I think Hooper's was definitely the strongest episode yet. The premise was very intriguing, and the episode was full of great imagery. This one also had a rather big budget look to it. Definitely the most movie-like yet. I'm sure some won't care for a certain editing technique used throughout the episode, but I thought it fit the world the characters were living in quite well, and what a postapocalyptic world it is, beautifully realized. Pretty fine acting all around here, and Englund was a blast as usual. I wasn't sure what the terrorist weapon that ruined the world was exactly, but I guess Matheson's story would better explain that, not that that's a complaint against the ep or anything. I just thought it was interesting.

The ending was pretty groovy.
Thanks for the info.

I think they started off with the Don Coscarelli episode because he seems like the most competent director of the three. This was probably the best of the first three episodes aired.

I find Tobe Hooper incredibly over-rated, and think his episode was just complete crap. My friends and I got together to watch this series and watched the first three episodes back to back, and just wanted Tobe Hooper's to be over...

I like Stuart Gordon, but I think his episode could have benefitted greatly by the inclusion of Jefferey Combs...

Just caught Jenifer tonight, and as a huge Argento fan, I view it as a disappointment. I thought it was okay, but nothing more. The makeup job on Jenifer's face was pretty grotesque, and her kills were pretty nasty as well. Some of Argento's trademark style managed to shine through, though I thought it was much more evident in The Card Player, a film that many say feels nothing like Argento (I totally disagree). That said, the storyline in general left a bit to be desired. I don't mind a simple plot, but I just didn't find it all that compelling, and some of the situations throughout didn't ring true to me. Stuff like Weber forgetting all about his family and getting all cuddly with Jenifer after she's just eaten someone, not to mention him moving away and giving up his life rather than turning her back into the asylum or just killing her.
The flow of the episode also wasn't the greatest, and I found myself getting bored with the sex scenes. Aside from Weber, the acting wasn't very good either.

A rather entertaining episode, but where last week's episode was the strongest yet, this is so far the weakest one IMO.

Not sure if anyone is interested, but there is a 2CD soundtrack available for the series. I saw it at Target for $13.99 or $14.99...

I've had the Matheson story for a long time in my copy of I Am Legend, but I had never read it until after watching this episode. I have since, and it is really no more illuminating on this point than the Hooper adaptation. As a matter of fact, Chris Matheson added quite a bit to his father's tale. The entire plot about Peggy's family was invented for the show. Basically, the short story starts with the car ride to the club and features only one dancing luppy, who is completely unknown to the characters. I think there are two references to a biological agent, and one of them was spoken nearly verbatim by Englund when he described the animated dead soldiers being found. Also, I believe the song they were singing in the car featured lyrics Matheson wrote, and there were two instances where the guy in the front seat read off a dictionary definition--that was directly from the short story.

The Mick Garris episode was one of the few that I wasn't really looking forward to, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. I thought Henry Thomas gave a good performance in the lead and I thought the story worked pretty well for the first 45 minutes or so. It kind of fell apart for me with the fight in the girl's apartment and I thought the ending was really flat, but it was certainly more watchable for me than Garris' recent Riding the Bullet.

Anyone know who's up next?

Joe Dante and then John Landis.

So far this series has been a disappointment for me. Some good ideas here and there, but poor execution. Until John Landis' episode that is. Just awesome, and for once the low budget works for it and not against. I've always liked Benben since Dream On too, so that was a plus. I don't know what the best part of it was, the midpoint sequence with the cheesy dear monster, or the direct reference to An American Werewolf in London.

I really enjoyed Dante's episode, "Homecoming" I think it's titled with the zombie soldiers coming back to vote. Amusing with a sharp political point to it as well. Other favs include Tobe Hooper's and the very first episode as well. The Landis segment was kinda funny and I had to laugh at the "Werewolf in London" reference. Of course my most anticipated episode is John Carpenter's tomorrow night!

However, I think "MoH" overall has been disappointing. I really HATE this juvenile obsession with sex scenes and naked women. Horror is and can be much more than that so I was hoping the filmmakes would use this opportunity to rise above such infantile junk. One would also hope there'd be more HORROR in a show called "Masters of Horror" but really, just what the hell was that episode starring Henry Thomas about? Did I watch a sorta spooky "Silk Stalkings" by mistake? Get smarter guys (or more horrific), whichever.

Even with all that, I'm also disappointed that Anchor Bay is releasing the series one episode at a time. What lamebrain thought that one up? There is NO WAY I'm doing this piecemeal, either do a season 1 set or lose a sale from me (and I'm sure many others as well.)

Did anyone see the posting on TV Shows on DVD that mentioned that Miike's episode won't air. It will apparently be released on DVD though. Still, disappointing news.