Synopsis
Includes:
Masters of Horror: Incident on and off a Mountain Road (2005)
Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch-House (2005)
Masters of Horror: Chocolate (2005)
Masters of Horror: Dance of the Dead (2005)
Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns (2005)
Masters of Horror: Haeckel's Tale (2006)
Masters of Horror: Incident on and off a Mountain Road
The Showtime series Masters of Horror opens with Phantasm director Don Coscarelli's Incident on and off a Mountain Road, based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, who also wrote the story on which Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep was based. As the tale opens, Ellen is driving on the eponymous twisty and remote road in the middle of the night, when she takes her eyes off the road for a moment and plows into another car. Waking up a short time later, she goes to check the other car, and finds a trail of blood leading to the side of the road. She calls out to see if anyone needs help. It's soon apparent that someone does, and that someone is Ellen. There's a gruesome giant of a man (John De Santis) dragging another girl up toward the road, and Ellen quickly realizes that her life's in danger. She flashes back to the training she received from her boyfriend, Bruce (Ethan Embry), a survivalist who brought her to live with him in his cabin in the woods, and bullied her into learning how to defend herself. She runs into the woods, and sets a trap for the madman, injuring him, but this only seems to spur him on. Eventually, he catches up with Ellen and brings her back to his lair. There, she meets a demented elderly man in a wheelchair named Buddy (Angus Scrimm, the Tall Man from the director's Phantasm films), who explains that the madman must like something about her to let her live so long. Looking about the creepy abode, filled with the eyeless corpses of previous victims, Ellen can see for herself that her chances of surviving are not good. But she's determined to use everything Bruce taught her and get through this terrifying night. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch-House
Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond) tackles the work of H.P. Lovecraft again for his episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, Dreams in the Witch-House. Ezra Godden, who starred in Gordon's Dagon, plays Walter, a grad student who, naturally, rents a room at a creepy old house. Bad signs abound, from the reclusive downstairs neighbor, Masurewicz (Campbell Lane), to the gruff, mean-spirited landlord, Dombrowski (Jay Brazeau). The room itself is kind of a hole. Then there's all that mysterious late-night pounding and chanting. But, hey, the rent's cheap. One night, Walter is awakened by screaming, and runs next door to find his attractive neighbor, Frances (Chelah Horsdal), and her little boy, Danny (David and Nicholas Racz), being terrorized by a large rat, which runs into a hole in the wall. When Walter goes to complain to the uncaring landlord, crazy old Masurewicz asks him if the rat had a human face! Things get even stranger. He has vivid dreams of a witch visiting him and seducing him, but the dreams leave real physical evidence behind. Walter, who is studying string theory, begins to suspect that there is a portal to another dimension within the building. Maybe old Masurewicz isn't so crazy after all. He seems to know all about the witch, and urges Walter to get out while he still can. But Walter suspects that the witch (with help from her familiar, that ugly rat), is after Danny's innocent blood, and, having developed a romantic attraction to Frances, he's determined to keep her and the boy safe. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Masters of Horror: Chocolate
Executive producer Mick Garris, the driving force behind the Masters of Horror series on Showtime, writes and directs this episode, Chocolate. Garris is best known for directing several Stephen King adaptations, including the made-for-TV versions of The Stand and The Shining, but here he is working from his own short story. Henry Thomas stars as Jamie, a repressed, recently divorced lab technician. At work in the lab with his aging rocker co-worker, Wally (Matt Frewer), Jamie designs artificial flavorings to simulate the foods he craves, but won't allow himself to eat. One night, he has what seems to be a powerful hallucination, in which he tastes expensive fine chocolate. He goes to see Wally's band play, and seems to temporarily lose his hearing. While driving home, he has a vivid visual episode that almost results in a car wreck. He picks up a girl (Leah Graham) at the supermarket, and they really hit it off, but he has another episode at the most inopportune time, ruining their budding romance. As these episodes increase in their frequency and duration, Jamie begins to realize that he's sharing the experiences of Catherine (Lucie Laurier), a beautiful young woman who lives in another city. Jamie believes there must be a reason for his connection to Catherine, and after witnessing a particularly violent and disturbing scene, he decides to track her down. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Masters of Horror: Dance of the Dead
An innocent young woman is lured to the dark side, and discovers the wholesome, sheltered life she led before was rooted in betrayal and deceit in Tobe Hooper's installment of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, Dance of the Dead. In the not-so-distant future, a potent terrorist weapon called "Bliss" has destroyed America's major cities. Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) lives in a small town outside the corrupted metropolis of Muskeet, where she helps her mother, Celia (Lucie Guest), run a diner. Business is slow, but Celia says their father left some money for them when he died. The terrorist wars also claimed Peggy's older sister. Jak (Jonathan Tucker, from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) and his buddy Boxx (Ryan McDonald) do what they can to get by. They've forcibly taken blood from an elderly couple, with plans to transport it to the city, where the MC (Robert Englund) at the Doom Room waits to use it for some nefarious purpose. They stop in the diner to get some ice. Celia can tell they're from Muskeet, and is immediately on her guard, but Peggy is intrigued, and strikes up a conversation with Jak. Jak tells her, "You are something I haven't seen in a long time," and invites her to "see the world" with him. Later that night, she sneaks out of the house and goes back to the diner, where Jak picks her up, as planned, and they head into town. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you," Jak assures her, "except what you want." Dance of the Dead was scripted by Richard Christian Matheson, adapted from a short story by his father, Richard Matheson. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns
Directed by horror expert John Carpenter, Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns concerns a man who makes his living hunting down films that are often thought lost. He sets off to find a legendary film titled "Le Fin Absolute du Monde," a movie that supposedly turned the one audience who saw it into a murderous mob. The man begins to fear for his life as he gets closer and closer to his goal. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
Masters of Horror: Haeckel's Tale
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer director John McNaughton adapts horror icon Clive Barker's tale about a headstrong medical student who discovers, much to his chagrin, that not everything in the mortal realm can be explained through science. Overconfident young medical student Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil) believes he has the power to restore life to the dead, but after an embarassing failure he is forced to seek the advice of traveling Necromancer Montesquino (Jon Polito) - who is rumored to use black magic as a means of resurrecting the recently departed. When Haeckel requests that Montesquino share his powerful secrets and the impatient Necromancer refuses, the young medical student Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil) sets out on the road to visit his dying father. As a storm sweeps though the New England countryside, a mysterious stranger offers Haeckel shelter from the rain in his nearby cabin. Spellbound by the elderly farmer's etherial young wife, Haeckel watches as the young beauty ventures out into the darkness, and money changes hands between his shaken host and the mysterious Montesquino. Though he is explicitly instructed by the frightened farmer not to venture outside of the cabin at any cost, the heartrending cries of an endangered infant coupled with the guttural moans of an unseen entity soon compel the horrified Haeckel to venture out into the darkened wilderness, where he is soon confronted with sickening orgy of the undead. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
