Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Masters of Horror: Season One, Volume III Blu-ray Movie Review

The best disc yet of the Masters of Horror series has arrived.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 14, 2007

I believe anything can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Volume III of the Showtime series Masters of Horror features three episodes: Don Coscarelli's Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, Tobe Hooper's Dance of the Dead, and Larry Cohen's Pick Me Up. Like Volumes I and II, these episodes are not compiled by original air date; they are episodes 1, 3, and 11, respectively. I wasn't terribly fond of Volume I, but Volume II redeemed the series for me. How did Volume III fare? Read on below.

Definitely not the best way to end up.

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road

It was a dark and stormy night. Really! Ellen (Bree Turner) crashes her car on a desolate mountain road during a horrific thunderstorm. She wakes in a daze, noticing a blood trail leading from her car to the side of the road. She approaches cautiously and is suddenly confronted by Moonface (John De Santis), a large, crazed, pale-skinned killer who captures young women, returns them to his home, removes their eyes with a drill press, and crucifies and displays his victims in his yard. Sarah must rely on the teachings of her husband Bruce (Ethan Embry) to survive. Bruce is a survivalist, an expert in weapons of all types, and is an especially skilled marksman with his 1911 style pistol. Through a series of flashbacks, we see his influence on Ellen as he attempts to teach her self-reliance, survival skills, and discipline. Ellen is largely turned off by the constant barrage of criticism and hard work Bruce puts her through, but she soon realizes the value of the training as she uses it to fight against Moonface and for her freedom.

This episode is more of a 50 minute action sequence with horror elements mixed in rather than being straight horror, and it is easily my favorite episode of Masters of Horror to date. Director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep) has crafted a tense, riveting, and action packed episode with a good life lesson of the value of self-reliance and discipline mixed in. Incident On and Off a Mountain Road was the premier episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, and it's an odd choice for such a distinction. It's a fabulous episode but not pure horror, possibly disappointing horror fans. Coscarelli is a good director (Bubba Ho-Tep is fabulous), but one would think that leading off the series with an episode from a bigger name horror director such as John Carpenter or Dario Argento would have made more sense. Someone at Showtime, however, obviously saw that this episode stands toe to toe with the best the series has to offer and recognized the high quality of the episode from the directing, the acting, and the story. It's a really good episode, worthy of repeat viewings, and a great way to kick off Volume III of the series.

Dance of the Dead

The setting for Dance of the Dead is a post-apocalyptic America where 9 million people have died as a result of war and terrorism. This is a world where drugged out, mean spirited teenagers rob elderly couples not of money or jewels but of their very life source--blood. The blood is sold to "The M.C." (Robert Englund of Nightmare on Elm Street fame), the owner of the hard rock night club "The Doom Room," who injects the blood into the corpses of terror victims of "the Blizz." The methodology is a bit complicated, but suffice to say that injecting these victims with fresh blood causes them to dance when provoked with an electric shock.

Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) is a 17 year old waitress whose sister and father have both fallen victim to the ravages of war and terror. She meets Jak (Jonathan Tucker), one of the misguided youths who steals the blood. He's much more level headed and caring than his friends, a quality Peggy instantly recognizes. She goes out with him and ends up at "The Doom Room" along with Jak's friend Boxx (Ryan McDonald) where she soon discovers a terrible secret about one of the unfortunate souls forced to preform the "dance of the dead." In a mad scramble to reveal the truth, Peggy and Jak must come to terms with issues from their past and confront them head on in the present.

Films set in a post-apocalyptic world always intrigue me. From excellent films like The Road Warrior and Miracle Mile to the cheesy yet fun Cyborg, I usually find myself drawn in and entertained, but Dance of the Dead failed to impress. It's dull and in many ways predictable. There aren't many scares here and very little gore, most of which was added in post-production CGI that looked rather fake. Director Tobe Hooper is somewhat of an enigma. He burst onto the horror scene with his classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but has done little since to realize the potential demonstrated in that classic film. This film is no different. It is short on scares, slow on pace, and absent of replay value. This is not the worst of the series, but it is certainly near the bottom. Robert Englund, as expected, is the lone bright spot of the show and is its only redeeming quality.

Pick Me Up

As the story begins, a bus with only a few passengers breaks down in the middle of nowhere. A trucker named Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) pulls over to help out and offers to take some of the stranded passengers to “The Trading Post” several miles down the road where, they assume, all will be well. Someone ought to remind them that they are in a horror picture! Wheeler's modus operandi is simple: kill anyone who hitches a ride with him. The bus driver remains behind and is murdered by a drifter/hitchhiker named, aptly, Walker (Warren Kole), whose M.O. is to kill anyone who picks him up. The trucker and drifter are in competition with one another, seemingly at odds over who should kill their latest victim, Stacia (Fairuza Balk). The trio end up at a motel, at first unbeknownst to one another, where the killers face off. This leads to their final confrontation at the end of the film when Wheeler picks up Walker with Stacia already in the cab of the truck. The episode ends with a spectacularly good, out of left field ending. It’s an ending we’ve seen before, but it came as a surprise here and allowed the fun to continue right to the very last frame of the episode.

I liked this episode quite a bit. Neither spine-tingling scary nor gratuitously violent (though this is the goriest entry on this disc based solely on one sequence), Pick Me Up is a dark comedy that is over the top in its acting and storytelling, and its a fun ride from beginning to end. Director Larry Cohen is one of the lesser "masters of horror." Looking over his directing credits, I don't believe I have seen anything this filmmaker has done. Nevertheless, this is a good entry into the series and showcases Cohen's natural ability as a storyteller, and I'll be checking out some more of his work in the future.

Masters of Horror: Season One, Volume III Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Starz presents yet another disc in the Masters of Horror series in 1080i, the same way it aired on Showtime. The image across the three episodes, as a whole, fared better than its two predecessors. Incident On and Off a Mountain Road impressed me a great deal. Luscious greens permeate some of the daylight outdoor scenes and the nighttime and darker scenes are excellent. Black levels appear to be spot on throughout this and the other two episodes. One problem that was evident in the first two volumes--skin tones--rears its ugly head once again here, and Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is the primary victim. Skin tones look more natural as the disc progresses, with Pick Me Up looking the best in this regard. Like Incident, Dance of the Dead is an overly dark episode with very few daylight scenes. The episode handles the challenges such a look presents as well as one would expect for a television series. Noise was a minor issue in each episode, but only in the most challenging of scenes. Overall, this is a pleasant transfer that will satisfy most viewers.

Masters of Horror: Season One, Volume III Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Starz has included both a Dolby Digital 5.1 track alongside a PCM uncompressed 5.1 offering. I've said it in every review I have written for this series, but it bears mentioning each time. The opening credits score sounds terrific. Not only does it drown the room in a chilling sonic experience, it's a well-written piece that fits in perfectly with the theme of the series. It's a joy to listen to and it is what I most look forward to when I start a new episode. There are some good effects throughout each episode. I thought Incident sounded the best, if only because there was more activity and ambience to be heard in this episode. Falling rain, thunder, and overlaid popular music sounded great, the latter emanating primarily from the right and left front speakers. I much prefer this to having it come from only the center channel, as is the case with the vast majority of movie soundtracks out there. Pick Me Up featured quite a bit of good, distortion-free bass, as did the club scenes in Dance of the Dead. Dialogue is never an issue throughout the disc, and surrounds are more active than they have been in any of the other volumes of this series. This is the best sonic experience yet on any Masters of Horror Blu-ray discs and rates as respectable.

Masters of Horror: Season One, Volume III Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Masters of Horror Season 1: Volume III sports five audio commentaries: two each for Incident On and Off a Mountain Road and Dance of the Dead and one for Pick Me Up. First up is a track overlaying Incident On and Off a Mountain Road featuring Don Coscarelli, writer Stephen Romano, and DVD producer Perry Martin. The trio goes very in-depth about the background of securing the rights to Joe Lansdale's original story, the director's fondness for Lansdale's work, working as part of the Masters of Horror team, and your basic stories behind the making of the episode. The second track features Coscarelli with author Joe R. Lansdale. They discuss the author's roots, changes made to the story for the film, and thoughts about the meaning of some of the more thought-provoking aspects of the film. Both are fine commentaries and compliment a great episode well.

Tobe Hooper and Perry Martin appear on the first track featured on Dance of the Dead. Hooper discusses how he and other "masters of horror" got together to come up with the idea of the series, working in an anthology, and his thoughts regarding the possibility of a future such as the one depicted in the film becoming a reality. Hooper is rather dull, but he provides some good information that fans of his will enjoy. The second track features writer Richard Christian Matheson who penned the teleplay for this film. Matheson dives right into the track, discussing his rewrites to make the story flow better and make more sense. He also breaks the story down and sometimes falls into the trap of discussing the happenings on screen.

The final commentary track on the disc features director Larry Cohen discussing Pick Me Up. He seems a little nervous, but he's very passionate about the film he has made. Interestingly, this is the first film he has directed that he did not himself write. Cohen discusses the cast and crew, who he thinks we will see more of in the future, and some fun anecdotes behind the making of the episode. This is a good one to listen to.

Masters of Horror: Season One, Volume III Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Masters of Horror Season 1: Volume III is the best of the three volumes released by Starz to date. Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is particularly good, though gore fans will be disappointed as there is little onscreen carnage to be seen here. The same can be said of the other two episodes as well. None were particularly scary but two of the episodes are well worth your time. Audio and video quality are improved over volumes I and II. The inclusion of five commentaries is great, but some other material would have been welcomed. I'm recommending volume III of Masters of Horror as a good starting point to the series.