If only every entry in the MOH was as great as these first two. A group of friends and I were literally blown away by a double feature of them during a coveted Friday night Movie Night recently a big problem with MOH is that they have relied overly much on the old switcheroo ending instead of offering thematic follow through. These two stories not only follow through but they do so in confident Grand Guignol fashion. The Damed Thing? Well....darn....
There are all the usual extras we’ve come to expect from the MOH series including episode commentaries and featurettes on production, special FX etc. The demise of the Masters of Horror comes too early in my opinion. While producers have been a little cavalier in their bestowal of Master status and we never did get episodes from the likes of Wes Craven there’s also no doubt that many of the best episodes are in Season Two and it makes one wonder what a season three would have looked like. This is especially sad in light of the producers move and repackaging of the series for NBC. Can network limitations possibly be a good thing here? Again, in my opinion, a lot of the extreme stuff was superfluous and actually got in the way of the story telling, in fact without the extreme stuff a lot of MOH episodes basically have nothing to offer. Will limitations help contributors to ramp up the creativity?
Sounds Like is directed by Brad Anderson. One of the nicest guys I’ve ever interviewed, Anderson rarely if ever makes a major misstep when choosing a project. Session 9 and The Machinist stand very tall in the horror and psychological thriller genres and fans have a right to expect his MOH entry to be of similar quality. They won’t be disappointed. Sounds Like tells the story of a husband and father being quietly destroyed by his grief over the loss of his child. Haunted by a heightened sense of hearing in which the world grows increasingly cacophonous he becomes more and more desperate to escape. But is the world crowding in or is he trying to escape from the one thing he must face? The performances here are very good especially that of lead actor Chris Bauer who will be a new face to most viewers but has appeared in a number of high profile TV shows and films. But the real performance here is that of Anderson himself who brings the theme of alienation, loneliness and madness alive in a way that inspires and horror and empathy in equal parts. Equal parts Twilight Zone and Night gallery this is a haunting story in precisely the way that many lesser entries in MOH aren't eschewing extreme content except where it will serve best.
The Washingtonians is as different in tone as I can imagine from Sounds Like offering the blackest of black comedy up with aplomb, making viewers laugh even as they cringe. Adapted from a story by Bentley Little, a writer known for insanely violent twisted short fiction, The Washingtonians follows a family who learn that our founding fathers, particularly Washington himself, were raving cannibals- the ultimate metaphor of the power mad power abusing politician. This is an extremely gory entry in MOH that only the strongest of stomach will be able to watch. But it is one that has a lot of lighter moments and uses its bloody moments as a wickedly sharp satiric tool dismantling corruption across party lines. What's that stuck in your local alderman's teeth? It just might be you. While I wouldn't recommend whipping this episode out for your civics classes those who feel the most disenfranchised these days need to see this if only to have a good laugh. It's enough to make one think about becoming a political vegan.
Lastly The Damned Thing, offers impressive performances good special effects and a middling updating of a classic Ambrose Bierce story. The inhabitants of a small Texas town are infected with an unholy rage mysteriously connected to a tragedy involving their local sheriff. As the anniversary of the tragedy grows closer the rage builds threatening to destroy everyone. The metaphor works well even if it predictably leads to apocalypse. Hooper is smart in his decision make that apocalypse felt through making us helpless witnesses to characters individual fates rather than plying the situation for mere gory spectacle. Violence abounds but a cost is felt. Still there is no denying that as a cautionary tale The Damned Thing doesn’t have the oomph of moral authority behind it. There is no real counterbalance of good, no real hope. People go from mildly annoyed to homicidal far too quickly and with far too little reason to bring Bierces point home or render the situation believable as opposed to merely entertaining. This is exactly the sort of distance you don’t want between the audience and the screen. Ted Raimi missteps here as a crazy clergyman precisely because we never trust him to begin with. Perhaps this story would have been better without a monster at all.