Masters Of Horror Episode 7 - Deer Woman

Karl Hungus

I think the excitement that surrounded Masters Of Horror has died off a lot, especially on these boards, where we had a steady thread per episode as soon as it came out, and as it is, nobody has bothered to review the frankly abysmal episode "Chocolate" yet, and I seem to be the only one to have tackled "Homecoming" indepth.

So after 3 great episodes, and 3 stinkers (Though with that said, I'd nearly bump Jenifer up to "Mediocre" after what the following two episodes had to offer), I think my estimation of the show in it's entirity being a hit or a miss was resting on John Landis' Deer Woman. Thankfully it's a hit in my book, so I think I'll still look forward to the rest of the series with optimism, as we've yet to see what John Carpenter and Takashi Miike aswell as other have to offer, and not to mention one episode is being written by none other than Clive Barker, which I'm quite certainly looking forward to.

Deer Woman is about a Native American deer spirit who takes the form of a beautiful woman to seduce and murder men. The idea is complete hokum, kitsch and clichéd, yet it is delivered quite masterfully by Writer & Director John Landis, who injects his rather unique humour into a story that in the hands of so many others would come across as pure crap. He actually elevates the story beyond the kitsch that the storyline seems to suggest, and while I was waiting with a cynical expectation of the eventual forced morality of the Native American spirit that takes revenge on the White man, there was no such morality tale that tried to force itself on the audience, and the whole episode is a lot better for it. Though it certainly leaves us looking for answers by the end, it's still an astounding breath of fresh air in such a stale genre.

The lead actor, Brian Benben is certainly a far more endearing protagonist than some of the others in previous episodes, though that could be because he was in a B-movie favourite of mine, Darl Angel. Either way, I actually liked him as the main character, which seems isn't an often occurence for this series.

Overall it stands up as a very enjoyable episode, with some very funny scenes altogether, and avoids being overly clichéd, even with the old buddy black cop cliché, there's no racial morality forced on the audience, he's simply another character and comes off all the stronger a character for it. Again, a breath of fresh air. One of the best things this episode has going for it is definetly the gore, and what's worse is what's not shown. Something that was simply mentioned in this episode made me absolutely wince! I'm sure everyone will know what I'm talking about here though.

Definetly a good episode in my books.

spooky donkey

I havent actually watched the last 3 ive been busy, what with Satan comming and all that ( Im dislexic, not sure how bad yet ).
But I have epp 8 now I might try watch it tonight.

columok

How on earth are you guys seeing the episodes?

spooky donkey

Sent you a PM.

garred

Pm would be much appreciated aswell spooky:)

Hugh Hefner

Aye.

spooky donkey

PM`s sent.

Anyway I finally got to watch this epp last night and it was a good one. I see what KH ment about the main character, i kinda liked him, reminded me of tom hanks but older. Had a bit of a mad ending too.

I also loved the references to John Landis`s other most well known films, like they are all in the same universe. American warewolf in London was indirectly mentioned. Also the Blues bothers any one not think it strange that `murph and the magic tones` were still playing in casinos.

Great epp. Thumbs up from me. I also have epps 9 and 10 to watch. So much to watch and so little time, i`ll post up when I get those epps watched also. I still have hope that there is still some life left in this seriees yet.

Hugh Hefner

Oh man, oh man, oh man... oh man! I laughed more at this episode than at any comedy program in years. And that's not a bad thing. Deers ftw!