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Movies and TV series have all sorts of unusual origins, but the anthology MASTERS OF HORROR may be the first born of a dinner party.

"Well, it kind of was and kind of wasn't," says Mick Garris, the driving force behind the anthology series that will debut in the U.S. on Showtime, followed by Anchor Bay DVD releases. The installments will be directed by horrormeisters including Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Roger Corman, Don Coscarelli (pictured on our front page), Joe Dante, Stuart Gordon, Tobe Hooper, John Landis, George Romero and Garris himself; writers include Garris, David J. Schow (adapting his short story "Pick Me Up") and Richard Christian Matheson (adapting his father's tale "Dance of the Dead").

"So many of us know each other," Garris continues, "and we would always say, 'Oh, wouldn't it be fun to get a bunch of us together and have a dinner or a lunch or something.' I decided to take it in hand and organize [a dinner] a couple of years ago. It took me several weeks to get everybody's schedules together to where we could agree on a night and meet at a restaurant out in the [San Fernando] Valley. There were 12 of us at that first one: Landis, Guillermo [del Toro], Carpenter, Hooper, Stuart Gordon, Bill Malone. When we did our second one, it took me a couple of hours to arrange it rather than several weeks, because everybody had a really great time."

Cohen says that he never imagined the camaraderie of the dinner parties would become the basis for a work situation. "The whole idea of it was just low-key," the IT'S ALIVE creator recalls. "Nobody brought any wives or girlfriends, there was no press; it was all just done to have a good time and revel in each other's company. It became a Frankenstein monster—look what happened!"

"We certainly realized the value in all of us getting together and sharing our ideas and feelings and seeing each other's new works," adds Hooper. "But now there's a reality to it."

"I was invited to one of those dinners, and it was quite an eye-opener," Coscarelli recalls, "because these guys were all such nice, kind, intelligent gentlemen. I hadn't met a lot of them [previously]. We always had a great time hanging out, and one day Mick came to us with this plan and everybody liked it."

"A lot of us had thought about doing an anthology before," Garris recalls. "We kind of got close to raising interest now and then. It was when everybody started talking about the idea of it and I actually spoke about it to the guys at [Garris' agents] CAA and at Industry [Garris' managers] that I made it official. You can't ask people to commit to a project unless there's a project to commit to, and you can't ask anybody to commit financing to a project unless you have the project. So this is not the kind of thing you could do a pilot for. But I just went boldly ahead and said, 'Do you guys want to do it?' I didn't do it at the dinners; I talked to each of them individually about it, so that nobody had any kind of pressure."

Showtime president Bob Greenblatt sounds stoked about the project: "Keith Addis [executive producer on MASTERS with Garris and Andrew Deane] called and told me he had put together all the filmmakers with Mick Garris, and he said, 'I have the perfect series for Showtime. It's going to be an amazing show, and do you guys want to do it?' We said, 'Absolutely.' It's great, because we get to have a group of filmmakers making their [individual] one-hour movies. You can't do something that unique on [an episodic] series, so it's exciting. These guys truly are the masters of horror."

Some directors are more candid than others about what they'll be doing. "Mine is based on a short story, 'Incident On and Off a Mountain Road,' by Texas writer Joe Lansdale," says Coscarelli, whose cult hit BUBBA HO-TEP was inspired by Lansdale's work. "I collaborated with another Texas writer, Stephen Romano [also attached to Coscarelli's new PHANTASM films for New Line], adapting Joe's story." The project will reunite Coscarelli with PHANTASM star Angus Scrimm: "We're lucky to have Angus included in a very cool role that's very different from the Tall Man character," the director says. "It's something the fans are really going to like, because it's really bizarre and out there." Scrimm says he's delighted to be involved: "It's a perfect role. Don's idea is that my character might offer some light comedy relief to what is a very frightening story."

Hooper won't offer specifics on what he'll be doing, other than to promise, "It's going to be scary as hell, and it's going to be fun having the kind of freedom you have with cable television," an environment in which he previously helmed the likes of TALES FROM THE CRYPT and BODY BAGS. "I'm going to definitely push the limit on what I can do—and that doesn't mean gore, it means psychological manipulation."

Don't worry, there will be plenty of grue too, says KNB's Greg Nicotero, who will supervise the makeup FX. "It's a lot of fun," he says, "because I've [previously] worked with every single director, except for Larry Cohen. To me, it's really delightful to get to talk to these guys whom I've sort of built my career working with. Don Coscarelli's episode is very detailed, very in-depth, a lot of effects. Mick's episode is very minimal, barely has [any special makeup], and then you have John Landis', which has kind of a comic slant to it. So each segment is different, which creates challenges for us, because the themes for each show are very different."

KNB is a choice that makes Garris especially happy: "I've known Greg for over 10 years, just as a friend, and I'd never worked with KNB until RIDING THE BULLET. They did a great job on that, and I knew they could do all of what we needed [on MASTERS] and that they could do it on a budget that would be tight, because it's television. They were excited about doing it, and so many of the filmmakers had worked with them before that it was an easy fit."

Garris, who is adapting his own short story "Chocolate" for the series, reports that the MASTERS directors will have almost entirely free rein: "The guidelines are, 10 days of shooting, smart and scary, and we don't want them at all alike. We want John Carpenter's episode to look like a John Carpenter film; we want Joe Dante's episode to look like a Joe Dante film; [we want] everyone to just work within their own style and make the movie they want. This is, more than any show I've ever seen, director-driven. The series exists because of the filmmakers, and so we want them to have as much freedom as possible.

"My greatest fear is, how could it possibly live up to expectations when you've got the greatest directors in the world?" Garris continues with a laugh. "I hope it's going to be the greatest horror series ever. It's certainly got the potential of being a horror geek's greatest wet dream. I know it's mine."

Ovo bi moglo da uspe...
...kada bi  navedeni imali po 30 godina i 2-3 filma iza sebe!

Ovako: 'em je to previse mali format za tako velike autore (TV serija?! Wtf?) 'em je cela koncepcija verovatno isuvise neobavezna da bi mi ocekivali neka velika ostvarenja...

So, ...  

PS

Obozavam ove topike bazirane na copy/paste tehnici...
Vrlo kreativno...
Nesumnjivo!

Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris told Fango at the Weekend of Horrors that Rutger Hauer will star in Takashi Miike's entry in the IDT Entertainment horror series.

The Audition bad boy's tale will be an 18th-century ghost story filmed in Japan. Aside from Hauer, the cast will be all-Japanese (though the episode will be shot in English). Garris also reports that he recently spoke to Lucky (The Woods) McKee and that he's the happiest director alive, shooting his segment Sick Girl.

Mark, pa ti si se vratio!

Sweet jeebus...

Joco, je l' gledaš ti datume postova? Imaš gore pri vrhu.

Sad si mi pokvario veče.

Ne boj se vratice se mozda su ga negde pojeli kanibali

хауер ипак неће играти код миикеа, али зато предивна скрајнута дива, ФАИРУЗА БАЛК, игра код ларија коена, у истом овом серијалз мајстора орора.

ево:

Fairuza Balk, the bitch witch from THE CRAFT, will be starring in Larry Cohen's segment PICK ME UP.

Written by David J. Schow (THE CROW), Balk plays this young chick who's caught between a competition of two battling seriel killers.

first still from John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns. Brutal, ain't it? Once again we're back to bring you a series of exclusive stills from Showtime's Masters of Horror (airdate: October 28th).

Scripted by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan, Burns is a twisted investigative thriller in the vein of Chinatown. The story concerns Jimmy Sweetman, a fella known for tracking down obscure film prints, who is one day hired by an employer to find a reel of celluloid called Le Fin du Monde. The one and only audience to have seen this film was driven into a murderous rage.

UH! koja dobra fotka  

OBAVEZNO VIDITE TREJLERE! samo tri komada. http://www.mastersofhorror.net/  kliknite na movies,malo je zeznuto puno flesha lakse je ako imate brzi iternet.
Konacno videh Argenta "Jenifer" sjajno! odusevljen sam!sumnjam da mu je najludji Argentov freak film,zatim"Deerwoman"konacno John Landisa ,deluje nesto poput Gingera :!:uauuuu! dok budemo gledali picemo jelen pivo..
"incident on and off a mountain road"ovo je najbolje sto sam video od Dona Coscarelija ako volite Jeepersa creepersa i teksaskog masakra.
Ovo najbolje od svega sto sam video nestrpljivo cekam

Fair Haired Child, u reziji Vilijama Malouna. Izgldea interesantno. Mogu da se kladim da ce Karpentera i Hupera ostaviti za kraj.

Damn, you folks are fucking harsh! When I sent in my review of 'Cigarette Burns' the other day, I made a point of saying I really wasn't familiar with AICN bigwig Moriarty's work. Honest guys, I don't know the man, never met him, not even sure if I've ever had an e-mail from Mister M. At the moment, he's not even on my good side, after I sent in an interview with Corpse Bride co-director Mike Johnson and he never even bothered to post it. So when I claim a tiny speck of objectivity, please don't waste endless bandwidth talking about how we're all best buds. Obviously I can't speak for the other contributors to this site, but I only check in once in a while I've got something that I think you guys might be interested in.

Like today for example. Having just come back from another day covering the Chiller Theatre convention here in New Jersey, I was fortunate enough to sit in on a Masters of Horror panel, as well as a special night-time screening of 'Dreams in the Witch House,' hosted by the master of Lovecraftian creepitude himself, Stuart Gordon. I'll get to my review of the episode shortly, as well as a few highlights from the post-screening Q&A, but first, a few highlights from the MOH panel.

The Masters of Horror

While several thousand die-hard horror fans eagerly lined up at this year's Chiller Theatre convention to plunk down twenty bucks for George Romero's autograph, not to mention that of several dozen minor celebrities, pro wrestlers and c-list reality bottom-feeders like Tonya Harding and Jerri Manthey, the best-kept secret of the weekend was that Anchor Bay was sponsoring a panel to unveil Showtime's new Masters of Horror series. On hand were directors John Landis (American Werewolf in London), Stuart Gordon (Re-animator, Dagon), Gordon's frequent writing collaborator Dennis Paoli, and new kid on the block, Lucky McKee (May, The Woods). Despite some audio-visual problems, and the fact that Chiller hadn't done all that much to publicize the event, for the small group of fans that attended (which included Raiders of the Lost Ark actress Karen Allen and Animal House's Mark Metcalf), it was a highlight of the weekend.

The panel opened with a clip from each director's contribution, starting with McKee's 'Sick Girl.' "My episode is about two girls that fall in love," he explained cryptically, "and a bug that gets in-between them." Unfortunately, the director proved to be anything but Lucky, as the clip came up in black and white, followed by an on-screen menu as the AV guys struggled to fix it, accompanied by a few sardonic comments from Landis. "This is Lucky's first experience watching his stuff fucked up!" he joked. "William Friedkin said, 'The projectionist is the only one with final cut.'

As the DVD projector was getting fixed, the subject moved on to casting, with Landis pointing out that he had cast former 'Dream On' star Brian Benben as the lead in his episode, 'Deer Woman. "And a drop-dead gorgeous Brazilian model named Cynthia Mora who plays the Deer Woman. She's one-quarter Amazonian Indian and gorgeous!"

Gordon was able to bring in 'Dagon's Ezra Godden to star in 'Dreams in the Witch House,' which is based on another H.P. Lovecraft story. "It was a story we had trouble doing before," adds Paoli, "because of the subject matter, so it was great that they let us do it. That was the other thing: they us say what we wanted to say and do the stories we wanted to do, so that was pretty amazing."

Regarding the show's Vancouver shoot, Landis refuted a rumor that Dario Argento's episode had gone way over budget. "No, that's John Carpenter causing trouble! It's not true. Everyone did fine. All the FX work id done by a CG guy in Toronto, who did really interesting stuff, and KNB (Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger) did the prosthetic FX, and there are lots of them!"

In terms of securing the rights for various stories, Gordon pointed out that Lovecraft was in the public domain. "But I know they got the rights to Joe Lansdale's story for Don Coscarelli."

"And Dario's is based on an EC Comic," adds Landis.

Although the directors were pretty much able to make their episodes as graphic as they wanted (thank you Showtime!), Landis noted that there is one notable cut in Argento's episode 'Jenifer,' which will eventually be restored for the DVD. "It involves some cannibalism of a phallus that is a little severe. I remember when I saw it, Dario is a very sweet guy and we were all watching it on the AVID going, 'Jesus Christ!' So it will be implied on Showtime but it will be explicit on the DVD."

Landis also explained that McKee joined the roster of MOH directors after Roger Corman had to drop out to health reasons and Romero had a last-minute conflict and were replaced by McKee and John McNaughton. "They gave me three scripts," recalls McKee, "and I thought I could take that one in a direction that fit my sensibility and just rewrote the thing like crazy for a month and a half before storyboarding it and tried to make it fit my style. The original script was about a guy and a girl that fall in love, and I changed it to two girls because I wanted Angela [Bettis] to be my lead again. Anyway, two girls is much better!"

Each of the panelists went on to point out how different each episode was in terms of style and story. Landis expressed some jealousy for Joe Dante's episode 'Homecoming,' which is outrageously pointed and topical. "It's about the war in Iraq and our president, and it's excellent. I think the wackiest one is probably Dario's. it's the one that you watch and think, 'What the fuck am I seeing?' McKee said Tobe Hooper's episode 'Dance of the Dead' blew his mind. "It's like, made by a kid that's not even born yet; it's so visually breathtaking."

"Tobe was so excited," continues Landis, "because they used this new kind of gel for the first time, that does flame FX, so you have a burning person, but it does it on your skin in a way that can't burn you, so of course Tobe put it on three naked girls being thrown into a dumpster! Now that I think about this show, we're in deep shit!"

With that, the AV guys finally had the projector up and running, so they ran McKee's clip again, this time in color, followed by Landis' and Gordon's. "When you see on TV," promised Landis, "it will be in focus." Another quick round of questioning followed, with McKee talking about how excited (and overwhelmed) he was to be joining this group of directors, Gordon talked about the baby in jeopardy from his episode (which we'll get to in the review), and Landis confirmed that a second season is already in the works. And asked about any films in their career that they regretted turning down, Landis cited Men in Black, which he originally considered 'Ghostbusters dressed as the Blues Brothers,' and Gordon revealed that he had passed on In the Mouth of Madness,' which had been sent to him by a young writer named Michael DeLuca. "And he ended up running New Line, so big mistake!"

That wrapped up the Masters of Horror panel. Obviously not an awful lot revealed in terms of news and information, but I hope I was able to give you a sense of the easy give and take between the four of them. And now onward to our second event... -------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Dreams in the Witch House'
Written by Dennis Paoli
Directed by Stuart Gordon
(Spoilers follow: don't say I didn't warn you!)

There is a scene in the movie Crazy People where Dudley Moore's stressed-out advertising executive describes an upcoming horror film with a tagline that goes something like 'This movie will not just scare you; it will fuck you up for life!' I couldn't help thinking about that warning during the screening of 'Dreams in the Witch House,' adapted from a story by H.P. Lovecraft. There are a few images in the episode that are not only extremely disturbing, but they will also linger in your subconscious long after the closing credits roll.

Gordon and Paoli have collaborated on Lovecraft adaptations several times in the past, including Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986) and Dagon (2001). Although they've often taken liberties with the original source material, they've have more success in bringing Lovecraft to the big screen than just about anybody else I can think of.

It seems hard to believe though, that Paoli and Gordon's best adaptation to date may be 'Dreams in the Witch House,' which airs as the second episode in Showtime's Masters of Horror series. Although there are some key differences with the original 1933 story published in Weird Tales, the spirit of Lovecraft come through in delightfully chilling fashion.

Walter Gilman (played by Dagon's Ezra Godden) is a grad student at Miskatonic University, where he's studying 'string theory,' which is based on the theory that different universes intersect at certain points, and by finding the places where the inter-dimensional membranes are thinnest, one can pass back and forth between them. Strapped for cash, Walter moves into a fleabag apartment, which isn't all that pleasant. There are strange noises in the walls, the chanting derelict downstairs keeps giving him the skunk eye, and Frankie (Chelah Horsdal), the single mom down the hall and her infant son Danny are attacked by an overly-aggressive rat looking for- quite literally- a late night snack of baby food. Even stranger, Walter begins to notice that the configuration of his bedroom walls is looking suspiciously like some of the physical structures in his string theory research.

When the downstairs neighbor hears about the rat, he buttonholes Walter in the hallway and asks if the rat had a human face. Just a crazy drunk, Walter thinks, until he wakes up one night to find the rat sitting on his chest, and sure enough, his face looks like an even nastier version of Tim Spall's character in the Harry Potter films. 'Walter, she's coming for you!' the rat warns, before scurrying back into the wall.

It turns out that a witch has her eye on Walter, and she's using the inter-dimensional membrane to cross between her world and the apartment. One night she appears to Walter as Frankie (in a wonderfully gratuitous moment of full-frontal nudity) and when he begins to make love to her, 'Frankie' turns back into the witch, clawing bloody furrows into Walter's back. Thank God it's only a dream- except for those nasty back wounds.

Waking up from another dream a few days later, Walter finds himself half-dressed in the rare book department of the Miskatonic University library, where he discovers a book called (you guessed it!) The Necronomicon. It reveals that the witch is planning on sacrificing baby Danny, using Walter as the instrument of sacrifice. Needless to say, when Walter tries to get Frankie to pack up her baby and move out, she thinks he's some sort of lunatic child molester and refuses to leave. Honestly, why doesn't anybody ever believe crazy student dressed in bloodstained clothing? Are the witch and her nasty-ass rat familiar just figments of Walter's fevered imagination? Not according to the neighbor downstairs, who crossed paths with the witch decades earlier and has the scars on his back to prove it. Instead of moving out, he spends all of his time trying to keep her at bay with prayer and a wall covered with crucifix.

When Walter finally tears through the wall of his room, he discovers the nexus between dimensions is even close than he thought, and fighting his way through a nightmarish crawlspace filled with tiny moldering skeletons. When he emerges in the witch's workshop, he discovers that sure enough, she's already got baby Danny caged and ready for sacrificing. And guess who's going to do the honors?

I don't want to spoil the final ten minutes or so of the episode, but they are easily as chilling as just about anything that Gordon has ever put on film. And while the disturbing coda may not fuck you up for life, you probably won't forget it any time soon.

'Dreams in the Witch House' is a thoroughly chilling piece of work. There were a number of times when I thought, 'There's no way that Gordon is going to go through with it!' but thankfully, he never wimps out. There are a couple of sequences that rival the decapitated head molestation scene in Re-Animator or half a dozen scenes in From Beyond, but I'd rather let all of you discover them for yourselves.

Performance-wise, Ezra Godden does a capable job of playing the grad student slowly dragged into a world of madness. Like his character in Dagon, he could probably haul ass out of town just about any time and the story would be over, but he's trapped like a deer in the headlights of a fast-approaching 18-wheeler. More importantly, he really doesn't want to leave, because he wants to know all the answers, however horrific they are in the end.

After the lights came up at the Chiller Theatre screening, Gordon grinned at the enthusiastic crowd. 'Happy Halloween!' he dead-panned, sitting down with Paoli to answer a few questions. The biggest change they made in Lovecraft's original story was to change the Frank the neighbor into Frankie the single mom, giving more immediacy to the baby-in-jeopardy storyline. And one of the highlights for both Gordon and Paoli was the opportunity to create the human-faced rat Brown Jenkins, one of their favorite Lovecraft characters. As Gordon recalls, Showtime had been pressuring them to lose the rat, figuring the creature would have to be done using expensive digital technology. Instead, the director decided to use an old-school approach, enlisting a Ukrainian magician/mime friend and putting him in a surprisingly simple KNB makeup. "One of the reasons we always wanted to do the story," notes Paoli, "was to bring Brown Jenkins into it."

So that's our visit with the Masters of Horror. Hope it whets your appetite for some of the upcoming episodes, particularly 'Dreams in the Witch House,' which airs this coming weekend. Thanks to the good folks at Anchor Bay for arranging the event, and to Paoli, Landis, Gordon and McKee for being so generous with their time.

Submitted with even more plant-like enthusiasm by
Gaspode
(Who still doesn't know Moriarty, or Brown Jenkins for that matter)

Masters of Horror: 'Cigarette Burns'
Written by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan
Directed by John Carpenter

While Showtime was debuting their Masters of Horrors series with 'Incident on and off a Mountain Road,' a small group of diehard fans at New Jersey's Chiller Theatre convention. The folks at Anchor Bay screened a copy of John Carpenter's 'Cigarette Burns,' apparently the first time the finished episode had been seen anywhere. Whether or not this is true I have no idea, but my curiosity had already been piqued by the fact that I don't get Showtime and would probably have to wait months to see it on DVD; and AICN's own Moriarty had already reported on the making of 'Cigarette Burns' a couple of months ago, so I was interested to see what he had been fussing about.

Before I go any further, I have to make a couple of admissions here. Number one, even though I know this is Mori's baby, I really wasn't hadn't seen any of the work he'd done with Scott Swan in the past. So I honestly couldn't care less if the episode was any good or not. In fact, if 'Cigarette Burns' sucked big-time, I would have happily cut it to pieces and dared AICN to print the review. After all, the name of this series was MASTERS of Horror and if Mori/Drew couldn't run with the big dogs, he really should have known better than to try.

Secondly, although I'm a long-time John Carpenter fan, I haven't been all that impressed by his work in recent years, such as Ghosts of Mars, Vampires or Escape from LA. Was his latest effort going to be just as underwhelming?

I needn't have worried. 'Cigarette Burns' is a stunning piece of television, Carpenter's best work in years. The direction is slick and atmospheric, the music is moody but never intrusive, and the script is well-paced, always moving towards a chilling conclusion. There are lots of genre references scattered throughout the episode, but never in a beat-you-over-the-head, aren't-we-cleverer-than-all-of you self-referential way. The structure is so nicely laid out that 'Cigarette Burns' could easily have worked as a full length feature, albeit with a few extra character beats and maybe an extended first act.

For those who aren't familiar with the episode yet, Kirby Sweetman (Norman Reedus) is the kind of guy who can track down even the most difficult-to-find films for collectors. He runs an aging revival house theater, but he's in hock up to his eyeballs, and his father-in law, a nasty son-of bitch is waiting for the $200,000 he's still owed and would happily tear the place down given the chance. You see, Kirby's wife Annie committed suicide in the bathtub under circumstances that we're not told, but there's obviously bad blood between the two men.

Enter Ballinger (Udo Kier) an obsessive film collector, who hires Kirby to track down the holy grail of avant garde cinema, La Fin Absolue Du Monde (translation: The Absolute End of the World). Only shown once at a festival 30 years earlier, the film sparked an orgy of death and destruction in the theater where it aired. The projectionist, now a film archivist acquaintance of Kirby, barely survived, but his left hand is now a fused lump of flesh. Virtually everybody who worked on the film is now dead, as is just about everybody who's tried to track down the single existing print.

Are all of these stories merely some kind of cinematic urban legend? Not according to Ballinger, whose mansion houses the biggest collection of La Fin Absolue Du Monde memorabilia in the world, including an emaciated angel that he keeps chained in the study (the pitiful creature's wings have been chopped off and are proudly displayed on the wall behind Ballinger's desk). And when the collector offers Kirby- wait for it- two hundred grand to find the print and bring it back, the offer is too good to turn down.

But as Kirby begins to discover, there's a reason that La Fin Absolue Du Monde has remained in hiding all these years. Nasty things have happened to all who come in contact with the film. The only critic at that original screening has spent the past three decades trying to write the perfect review. A French filmmaker influenced by the film hogties Kirby and decapitates an unfortunate female cab driver in front of his eyes, all in the name of art. The director's widow, who watched her husband go insane, unsuccessfully cutting her throat and his own successfully, is glad to hand the print over to Kirby, who's been experiencing some nasty hallucinations of his own. And when Kirby finally hands the film over to an anxious Ballinger, La Fin Absolue Du Monde is finally screened again, with quite literally gut-wrenching results.

As an episode, 'Cigarette Burns' references everything from classic noir, to Argento, to the new wave of Japanese horror. Reedus does a great job of playing the hapless Kirby, who appears to start out with the best of intentions, but finds himself getting caught up in Ballinger's obsession. Udo Kier is as creepy as I've ever seen him, with those watery eyes that remind you of a latter-day Peter Lorre as much as anyone else. And I'm afraid I didn't catch the name of the actor who plays the fallen angel (listed in the credits as a 'willowy being') but every moment he's on screen is mesmerizing, particularly his final line to Kirby at the end.

Finally, I have to mention the work on KNB, who contributed the makeup FX for the episode. The series is called Masters of Horror, and KNB's work is certainly that. I don't want to give too much away, but gore-hounds won't be disappointed by the graphic decapitations, gouging, gashing and assorted nastiness, all accompanied by appropriately squelchy sound effects. My personal favorite is a scene in which Kirby confronts Ballinger after the collector has just screened the film for himself. Half-hidden behind a projection booth, it's obvious by the horrible sounds that something fairly disgusting has happened to the collector but we still can't see what it is. The scene goes on and on, with Carpenter ratcheting up the suspense, and when he finally pays it off, it's a gruesome shot to the guts.

In the end, 'Cigarette Burns' is an amazing achievement. If the episode had aired first in the Masters of Horror line-up, I suspect it would have set the bar awfully high for installments to follow. As it is, Carpenter fans have something to look forward to in a few month's time, because the director has more than lived up to the show's title.

Oh, and on Saturday, Anchor Bay is hosting a panel at Chiller with Masters of Horror directors John Landis, Stuart Gordon and Lucky McKee, screening Gordon's episode 'Dreams in the Witch House.' Should be interesting to see what he comes up with.

Submitted with plant-like enthusiasm by
Gaspode

Hello, saw the interest in Masters of Horror at Coax and thought I'd share my thoughts on the Dario Argento episode "Jenifer", which I saw tonight instead of the Gordon piece (which i really wanted to see). I was out when it aired, so I watched it On Demand when I got home. Somehow, I didn't get Witch House unlocked, I got Jenifer. I don't know if everyone with On Demand can watch it as well, or for how long, or what the deal is. For all I know, the Gordon one didn't air and everyone saw the Argento piece, but it feels like a mistake, so I thought I'd run the risk of being redundant and give you my opinion.

I am a big horror movie fan, and it therefore pains me to admit I have ony seen the second half of Suspiria and no other Argento anything. I know his reputation, but despite knowing I would probably really dig him, I haven't taken the initiative to watch anything he made. I see now I am pretty much gonna have to watch as much as I can find, becase, goddamn, he made one fucked up little film here.

On the Showtime website, the description makes it sound like some sort of Body Heat/femme fatale thing, with a supernatural twist. Not quite. It's more like the Jodie Foster movie Nell directed by Satan. The basic plot is this: A cop played by Steven Weber sees a man dragging a woman in the woods by rope while brandishing a butcher knife. Weber saves her by shooting the killer (who lingers, and gets to scream "You don't know what she is!" before expiring), only to discover she is hideously deformed, and mute. Argento doesn't let us see what's wrong with her face for a little while, giving just tantalizing glimpses off eyes that are too big and too deep, or fucked up teeth, and this is effective. It sets up some pretty high expectations. The makeup, when you finally see it, looks kind of like makeup, but this is not to say it isn't a creepy and unsettling design. I'm getting ahead of myself. Weber becomes fixated on this "poor retarded woman" and allows his desire to protect (and fuck) her control (and ruin) his life.

That's the short version. The truth is, the plot is fairly silly, with a weak narrative that kind of fails with one central conceit. The woman looks like a fucking demon, and yet the Weber character is obsessed with her above all other things. Some attention is given to a cut she gives him at the rescue, and I guess the inference is that he is now cursed to protect her or something, but that is inconsistant as well. The alternative is that he's simply the stupidest idiot on the face of the earth. I mean, she is CLEARLY not just retarded. She has enormous black demon eyes, for christ's sake. She looks about as human as Pumpkinhead. Eventually, we kind of just assume he's cursed, as the alternative would be a deal breaker. That's about the twenty-five minute mark.

However--none of that matters ultimately, because the approach to the material is so good and so unexpected. It's scary. It's very unpleasant. Horrific violence springs forth out of nowhere. Every time you think Argento wouldn't do something, he does, as graphically as possible. It may be the recent glut of PG-13 horror films out there, but the willingness to just pour the buckets of blood really stands out here. There are lots of intestines. There's about six or so red money shots. I think I know where the excised penis bit referred to in your recent MoH coverage would have gone, and if it was meant to go where I think it was, it would have been quite the coup-de-gras, making an already horrific moment damn nea unbearable. Speaking of which, there is also a whole lot of sex, shot graphically, like you might see in porn. Except the nudity is that unsettling and uncomfortable kind, like Jennifer Connelly in Requiem For a Dream, perhaps, in that Jenifer might have a killer body, but she retains her retarded gargoyle's face. And worse. The actress playing Jenifer is pretty good too, creating a fairly believable feral creature, and Weber is surpisingly decent, especially considering the character's lack of development. The score is great, with a scary singing child theme song, and weird electronica in some scenes. And even though the plot is odd and meandering, it isn't predictable.

Well, until the end. The end is disappointing, as it is EXACTLY, down to the last word, what I guessed it would be from the beginning. And in addition, it's completely at logical odds with the entire episode up until that point. It's a typical Tales From the Crypt ending, and if you are even a slight fan of the genre, you'll see it coming. So know now that Argento isn't going to blow your minds with the last 60 seconds and enjoy the weird and nonsensical turns, the sex, the gore, and the craftsmanship, because what this episode ultimately does is display a director doing everything he can to get under your skin, and in this, he succeeds. What I remember of Suspiria-from the blood to the performances to the music, feels very much like the same artist. I'm loving MoH so far. Can't wait for the next one (and Witch House, damn it).

Call me Harris K Telemacher, if you use this.

PREDIVNO!

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!

Upravo sam pogledao 'Incident On and Off a Mountain Road' i prilično sam zadovoljan. Good shit! Imam zamerki, naravno, ali u celini - veoma solidna horor priča, zapravo - jedna produžena scena potere u trajanju od 50ak minuta (sa kraćim, ali veoma važnim, flashback pauzama). Angus Scrimm je odličan: uloga je mala, ali se matori dobro snašao.

Jedva čekam Arđenta i Karpentera!

Veceras - druga MoH epizoda - Stu Gordon u akciji! Upravo se spremam da sednem i odgledam...

Gordonova epizoda mi je bas legla. Kratko ali jebitacno!

gledali ste epizode ,ako je toliko kratak nadam se da ce da izbace na dvd-u duzu verziju..

Quote from: "Plissken"Gordonova epizoda mi je bas legla. Kratko ali jebitacno!

e bote koja par stravicnih scena,kako to su usudili da nesto tako urade , ali kad bi bilo duze,voleo bi da su uneli vise price u film,na pr. sta se dogadjalo u proslosti..Nisam citao tu Lavkraftovu pricu..

Pa pročitaj je onda... Požuri!!!

Jel neko mozda nasao engleske titlove za prve tri epizode.

U petak je Argentova "Jenifer"!!!!

jel se pojavila treca,gde?
Gledo sam Koskarelija svidja mi se,super!
Titlovi makar nashi prevodi sumnjam da ce brzo pojaviti kod nas..Mozda krene serija na pinku hihi ,mozda ce pre otkupiti Robert Nemecek za rts., zamislite da krene serija na tv-u..

...za RTS jos postoji i nada u ovom sluchaju jer je Nemechek nedavno potpisao ugovor sa SHOWTIME,koji distribuira MOH serijal...there is hope,we are hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote from: "WARLOCK"jel se pojavila treca,gde?

Vec u subotu ujutru imas na torent sajtovima epizodu koja se prethodni dan emitovala u americi.

Treca epizoda moze da se skine u dve varijante:

- sa 5.1 zvukom i ta je oko 700 mb

- sa 2.1 zvukom i ta je oko 350 mb

Veoma sam zadovoljan sa kvalitetom prve 4 epizode - nije bilo kolosalnih promasaja, svi filmovi se lepo uklapaju u opus reditelja koji su ih potpisali... Huperova & Gordonova epizoda su nesto slabije, ali je zato Ardjento isporucio fenomenalnih sat vremena horor zabave + Koskareli me je prijatno iznenadio: Incident je najbolja stvar koju ima u svom dosadasnjem rezimeu.

"jenifer" najbolje do sada koji sam video,previshe creva i seksa,zavolecete Dzenifer  konacno Argento u dobroj formi  

odakle ih skidate...imal neki spefcijalizirani toprent kao za simsone

evo ja skidam jeniferku    ali ide sporo iako je verzija od 350 MB

Trubo, zar u Federaciji Dzenifer nije musko ime?

pojma nemam ali znam da nema torrenta tojest nema seedova za 2 epizodu    

hm... naložio sam se na ovu seriju odmah poslije prve epizode        hoćemo još

inače ne mogu ući na oficijelnu stranicu    fali mi neki mali programčić  

Kako ne mozes? moze svako ako koristish iternet mozzilu,u isto vreme koristim burst i bittorent programcic..joj nikako da stignem da odgledam"cigarete" Tobyja Hupera,jel jos neko gledao??

Quote from: "WARLOCK"Kako ne mozes? moze svako ako koristish iternet mozzilu,u isto vreme koristim burst i bittorent programcic..joj nikako da stignem da odgledam"cigarete" Tobyja Hupera,jel jos neko gledao??

Cigare su karpenterove – misliš na DANCE OF THE DEAD?

ILI SU SE MOŽDA I CIGARE POJAVILE? NJEGA JEDVA ČEKAM, TAJ BI MOGAO DA ISPADNE NAJBOLJI, uz Dantea koga takođe mnogo hvale...

Verovatno ostavljaju najbolje za kraj.

Hooperova epizoda je odlicna i bolja je od prve dve. Aegenta jos nisam pogledao, ali sam cuo od nekoga ko je epizodu gledao tri (i vise puta) da je sjajna. Kako god, cuvena scena odsecanja i konzumiranja muskog polnog organa nas ocekuje na dvdu.

Quote from: "Plissken"Verovatno ostavljaju najbolje za kraj.

U petak je bila epizoda "Chocolate" koju je rezirao Mick Garris. Pogledacu je u toku danasnjeg dana. Vec je skinuta.

Quote from: "Plissken"...cuvena scena odsecanja i konzumiranja muskog polnog organa nas ocekuje na dvdu.

Mislim da m.p.o. u pitanju nije bio odsečen, vec odgrižen tokom čina oralnog seksa. I pored cenzorskog reza, ta sporna scena je i dalje veoma eksplicitna.

Quote from: "Pennywise"U petak je bila epizoda "Chocolate" koju je rezirao Mick Garris.

Ova epizoda je dobila sjane kritike. Ipak ja se penalim na ono što dolazi...

Rapored preostalih epizoda:

06 - Homecoming - Joe Dante
07 - Deer Woman - John Landis
08 - Cigarette Burns - John Carpenter
09 - Fair Haired Child - William Malone
10 - Pick me Up! - Larry Cohen
11 - Haeckel's Tale - John McNaughton
12 - Imprint - Takashi Miike
13 - Sick Girl - Lucky McKee

Quote from: "Ghoul"

Quote from: "WARLOCK"Kako ne mozes? moze svako ako koristish iternet mozzilu,u isto vreme koristim burst i bittorent programcic..joj nikako da stignem da odgledam"cigarete" Tobyja Hupera,jel jos neko gledao??

Cigare su karpenterove – misliš na DANCE OF THE DEAD?

ILI SU SE MOŽDA I CIGARE POJAVILE? NJEGA JEDVA ČEKAM, TAJ BI MOGAO DA ISPADNE NAJBOLJI, uz Dantea koga takođe mnogo hvale...

Jeste "Dance of dead" Huperova nesto sam zbrko  
cekamo cigarete dok nam se upale

Fala Kuncu, odgledah prve 4 epizode: sve u svemu, prilično dobro je to sve, a konkretno - ovako (in order of goodness):

DANCE OF THE DEAD (3+)
Od ove sam najmanje očekivao, a ono... ispade najbolja, za sada.
Najpametniji scenario, najživahnija režija (Hooper ubedljivo glumi napaljenog angry young debutanta – mada malkice preteruje sa strobovima i zumovima i udvajanjima slike, ali OK, u kontextu ove priče ne smeta mnogo), najbolja gluma, Englund u možda najboljoj svojoj ulozi posle Freddyja, najbolji soundtrack, najviše različitih parova sisa (odličnog kvaliteta, iako većina pripada mrtvim curama)... Super uhvaćena dekadencija sjebane Amerike – postapokaliptične, kad bi se zezali, a zapravo vrlo današnje, kurentne.
Ako bi cepidlačili, ovo je mnogo više SF nego horror – ali dobar film u svakom slučaju.
Znači, Hooper još ima dobrih filmova u sebi... Bring 'em on!

INCIDENT (3)
Zabavan horror rollercoaster, sa solidnim flashbackovima. Rudimentarna priča, ali efektno odrađena. Možda malkice staromodno (naročito sa svim tim grmljavinama i sevanjem po potrebi), ali u ovom slučaju, to je cepidlačenje. Recimo da je i Moonface mogao da bude malo opakiji: cura ga šamara od samog starta pa je osećaj pretnje bitno umanjen. Takođe, nemam pojma čemu je služio čiča u podrumu, sem da Koska nepotizuje 'posao' svom starom Tall Manu.
Prijatan tek – za fanove.

DREAMS IN WITCH HOUSE (3-)
Ehhh... Gordon je uzeo samo najkonvencionalnije deonice iz inače odlične i groundbreaking HPL priče, i onda ih nakitio sa još više klišea, a izbacio ono najbolje – međudimenzionalna putovanja i bizarne pre-LSD kosmičke vizije i glimpseve neslućenih svetova koje niko pre Lavkrafta nije ni sanjao – za razliku od veštica i banalnih žrtvovanja, koja su opšta mesta žanra. E, sad – kad izbaciš skoro sve te momente vezane za modernu fiziku i baciš se samo na uprošćenu žvaku o veštici – oseti se poveća rupa... Lepo je sve ovo odrađeno, ali previše konvencionalno ne samo za HPL-a nego i za Gordona. Lepo je što beba najebe na kraju, ali to nije dovoljno: od Gordona, naročito posle KING OF THE ANTS, očekivao sam više edge-a, više smelosti, najzad – više Lavkrafta...

JENIFER (3-)
Posle KARTAŠA sve je uspon i napredak, pa tako i ova napadno besmislena i neubedljiva pričica, sa više rupa u zapletu i nemotivisanih, nelogičnih postupaka i preokreta nego u bilo koja 3 nasumice odabrana giallo filma. Ne znam kako Argentu uvek uspeva, ko god mu bio scenarista, da zaplet bude detinjasto neubedljiv i pun besmislica. Pa opet, ako nekako uspemo da pobedimo suspension of disbelief (a to će trebati na svakih 10 minuta, ili češće), ovo je sasvim enjoyable, nasty, gooey, sexy (in a perverted way).

Inače, soundtrack je apsolutno odvratan, sa hordom anonimnih would-be-metal, would-be-rock, would-be-grunge bendova.
Buka, ali prazna, površna, zaslađena, kao sa fabričke trake, sve liči jedno na drugo, a sve zajedno – ništavilo.

Quote from: "Ghoul"
Inače, soundtrack je apsolutno odvratan, sa hordom anonimnih would-be-metal, would-be-rock, would-be-grunge bendova.
Buka, ali prazna, površna, zaslađena, kao sa fabričke trake, sve liči jedno na drugo, a sve zajedno – ništavilo.

Da li muzika makar ide uz scene, ili je opet napravio papazjaniju kao sa Phenomenom?[/i]

meni muzika klasika je bila ok! bas sam se pitao da nisu radili "Goblini"??

na svu sreću, ta (pretežno) bezvezna muzika se čuje kao 'dijegetska muzika', dakle, kao muzika koju čuju i likovi u filmu (pajkan sluša u autu, sin sluša u svojoj sobi, bend svira u living-dead klubu...);
kao što rekoh, najbolje stvari se čuju u Huperovoj epizodi.

Quote from: "WARLOCK"meni muzika klasika je bila ok! bas sam se pitao da nisu radili "Goblini"??

Za Jenifer muziku je radio Claudio Simonetti stari Argentov saradnik i jedan od članova Goblina.
Ghoul je mislio na OST čitave serije koji se sastoji od 20-ak vrištećih hard rock/HM pesama koje, tako na gomili, zaista zvuče uznemirujuće.

mda.
što se tiče filmske muzike, ona drži vodu ali nije preterano upečatljiva – izuzev u Arđentovom filmu, gde oscilira između morikoneovskih 'uspavanki' i hermanovskih hičkokizama...

Quote from: "Ghoul"mda.
što se tiče filmske muzike, ona drži vodu ali nije preterano upečatljiva – izuzev u Arđentovom filmu, gde oscilira između morikoneovskih 'uspavanki' i hermanovskih hičkokizama...

Muzika u Arđentovom filmu je odlična... Kao, uostalom, i film u celini.

Pogledao sam ČOKOLADU večeras. Definitivno najlošija epizoda GOSPODARA do sada.

Gledljiva je, ali to je sve.

Geris je, u inače veoma beskrvnu (u svakom smislu) epizodu, uspeo da ubaci jednu izuzetno eksplicitnu trbosek scenu (verujte mi: izuuuzeeetno eksplicitnu) i nešto golotinje, ali to nije znatno popravilo utisak.

Šteta. Osnovna ideja nije bila loša.

P.S. Konačno jedna epizoda da prođe bez mrtvog deteta!

Ko je to pa Geris, pa da se od njega ocekuje nesto posebno dobro? Najslabiji reditelj iz cele postave.

džennifer je solidna priča    he he postao sam veliki obažavatelj ovog serijala  

elem oćel mi ko dati link na nešto na stranici masters of horor da preskočim to uvodno njesra što mi se neće učitati    

uh jedva upadoh na sajt    sajt je odlično urađen ali
fali mi neki programčić...flash il neki slični fol sigurno

elem najviše očekujem od onih autostopera    he he

...dupli post...