modern marvel's Review
Created Jul 01, 2009 09:12AM PST • Edited Jul 01, 2009 09:12AM PST
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Quality
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Great 4.0
In 2005, showtime aired an original broadcast of 1 hour short films playing to an anthology theme entitled “masters of horror”. The idea feels nearly foolproof: get 13 of the most famous (infamous?) Horror directors from the past few decades, give them a script and a couple million dollars apiece, and let captive audiences view the results. For the most part, the theme was a success. There were stories that simply did.l not work as well as others, but the first season introduced “masters of horror” to a welcoming audience, garnering awards and accolades. The 13 episodes (12 of which aired) are “incident on and off a mountain road”, “dreams in the witch house” “dance of the dead”, “jenifer”, “chocolate”, “the deer woman”, “cigarette burns” “homecoming”,“the fair haired child”n,“pick me up”, “sick girl”, “haeckels tale”, and “imprint”.
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Good 3.0
As is the usual, the acting ranges from very good in some episodes to very near dreadful in others…and it heavily depends on the film, to be perfectly honest. For instance, bree turner turned in a terrific performance in “incident on and off a mountain road” alongside angus scrimm, but in the same episode ethan embry’s intensity came across as a bit over the top. As far as acting accolades go depending on film, “cigarette burns”, “dreams in the witch house” “the deer woman”, and “sick girl” have fantastic performances from their casts, and often from actors or actresses that are unexpected (misti mundae, legendary cinemax porn actress, turns in a subtly adorable performance for “sick girl”, before turning…well, sick). There are opposing ideas for the better acted episodes I’m sure, but these episodes specifically have fantastic acting and performing in them. The most over the top and delirious is definitely bill drago in “imprint”, directed by takashi miike. Then again, drago is a bit delirious and over the top anyway…
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Male Stars Good 3.0
“Cigarette burns” contains one of the best nuanced performances in norman reedus as “kirby speedman”, seeker of legendary lost film prints. I’ve missed his protrayals since boondock saints and blade 2. Udo kier is in that episode as well, as creepy as ever. “The deer woman” contains brian benben (dream on) and it feels like forever since his subtle brand of humor had graced the screens. “Chocolate” may be considered one of the weaker episodes, but it does have a fine performance by henry thomas (forever elliot in e.t.). There are many fine performances throughout, and bad ones as well. The aformentioned ethan embry (who was good but hammy) and billy drago, the entire cast of “haeckels tale” (which is a good film by the way), robert england in "dance of the dead (it hurt to type that too), jonathon tucker in “dance of the dead”, and many more. It is hit or miss, to be honest.
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Female Stars Good 3.0
Horror is specifically dominated by men (personally female killer movies make more money from where I see…), so instead of flip-flopping between episodes highlighting bad performances and good ones, I’m simply going to mention names of those who did a good job. Bree turner-“incident on and off a mountain road”, lori petty-“the fair haired child”, angela bettis-“sick girl”, misti mundae-“sick girl”. There are more but these are the ones really worth watching.
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Female Costars Good 3.0
Optional Commentary…
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Male Costars Good 3.0
Optional Commentary…
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Great 4.0
This is difficult to do as an anthology series, so they will each receive personalized ratings on a 5 point scale. “Incident on and off a mountain road”-4. “Dreams in the witch house”-4, “dance of the dead”-2.5, “jenifer”-4.5, “chocolate”-2.5, “the deer woman”-4, “cigarette burns”-5, “homecoming”-4, “the fair haired child”-4, “pick me up”-3.5, “sick girl”-3.5, “haeckels tale”-3, “imprint”-4.5. These are personal opinions of course, and this is a paraphrased order of the episodes listing order, but the gist of the the film quality falls about in line with that numerical code. The stated facts about the series say that it was filmed in vancouver and each episode cost in the neighborhood of 2 million dollars, and with that some of these episodes turned out to be phenomenal. with directors such as don coscarelli, john carpenter, takashi miike, stuart gordon, john landis, joe dante, and dario argento…well suffice it to say there was genre credibility and talent featured in the series and it shows.
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Direction Great 4.0
Optional Commentary…
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Play Great 4.0
Optional Commentary…
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Music Great 4.0
Optional Commentary…
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Visuals Great 4.0
Optional Commentary…
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Content
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Sordid 3.5
this is a horror anthology series, and the inaugural season at that, so any boundaries that dare be pushed needed to be at that line…just in case there was no season 2 (there was a season 2, by the way). The levels of nudity were brought to many viewers attention, but the psychological nightmares, violent outbursts, and levels of gore should be more focused upon. the episode “jenifer” features a woman eating a young man, and a little girl. “Cigarette burns” features a brutal decapitation. “imprint” shows a torture scene upon a geisha, and an aborted fetus. “Deer woman” showcases toplessness quite often and death by deer hoof (you gotta watch to understand). "Sick Girl’ has a heavy focus on lesbianism. “dreams in the witch house” has a heavy occult element to it. These are only a few of many taboos of average television that masters of horror managed to get away with, and do so in a way that technically served the story and series as a whole. Is it too much in places? the answer is yes, but that is the point of horror. If somebody isn’t offended, then the genre itself isn’t accomplishing what it sets out to do. Does masters of horror shock and offend? why, yes it does.
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Sex Erotic 3.4
Optional Commentary…
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Violence Savage 3.9
Optional Commentary…
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Rudeness Profane 3.2
Optional Commentary…
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Surreal 2.3
Monsters in the woods? witches living in parallel planes of existence? haunted films? zombies of military soldiers coming back to life? deer women? possessed children? serial killers arguing pver who gets to kill who in a tragic accident? electronically charging the dead back to life for amusement? sex with the potentially undead? psychopathic conjoined twins? if you answered yes to any of this then i will update the review to make it more realistic but as it stands, horror is a pretty far fetched genre at times anyway and a lot of tese episodes stretch reality to the brink for only one reaason—entertainment. and it works in spades.
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Circumstantial Supernatural 3.6
Optional Commentary…
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Biological Supernatural 3.3
Optional Commentary…
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Physical Surreal 2.2
Optional Commentary…
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