Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

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

This is yet another mixed bag of episodes, but they appear on the best looking disc yet of the series.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 26, 2007

Sometimes the lie is better.

Volume IV of the Showtime series Masters of Horror features four episodes: Takashi Miike's Imprint, Joe Dante's Homecoming, John McNaughton's Haeckel's Tale, and Mick Garris' Chocolate. Like Volumes I, II, and III, these episodes are not compiled by original air date; they are episodes 13, 6, 12, and 5, respectively. I have found Masters of Horror to be a mixed bag so far. I've really enjoyed a few of the episodes, I've hated a few of them, and I've been rather indifferent towards a few of them. It stands to reason, then, that volume IV will ultimately cement my final feelings towards the first season of Showtime's hit series. Below are my synopses and comments on these final four episodes.

Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?

Imprint

Takashi Miike's Imprint is the story of an American named Christopher (Billy Drago, The Hills Have Eyes) on a journey to find a woman named Komomo (Michie Itô in her film debut) whom he once met and promised to return to take her to the United Stated with him. Upon arrival to an island inhabited by prostitutes, Christopher is told by a mysterious and unnamed woman (Youki Kudoh, Rush Hour 3) that Komomo is dead. A dejected Christopher asks the woman to tell him exactly what happened to Komomo. She tells him a harrowing tale of Komomo's torture over a stolen ring that belonged to the madam ruling over her women (Japanese actress Toshie Negishi). Christopher does not buy the woman's story, believing there to be more to the tale. He pushes the woman to reveal the truth, and as she does, she unravels a harrowing and horrifying tale that will end with Christopher learning the woman's dark secret about herself, the ring, and Komomo.

This is the episode that never aired on Showtime. Executives deemed it too disturbing to show to their viewers. Does it live up to its reputation as something so horrifying that it was never aired on television? Yes and no. The torture scenes are more gut-wrenching and stomach-churning than they are graphic. We see Komomo having her armpits burned and needles stuck under her fingernails and gums. We also see aborted fetuses, some gore, and a fairly disturbing "thing" that relates to the woman's secret. While I certainly cringed a few times at what I was seeing, I have to say that the most cringe-worthy aspect of Imprint was that it became more and more ridiculous as the film moved along. Not only was Billy Drago's acting horrendous, the Japanese women speaking English was a turn-off for me too. I think I could have taken the episode much more seriously had they been speaking Japanese with English subtitles. Their English sounded forced and phony and it was difficult to take it seriously. The story, especially after the woman's "secret" is revealed (for a hint, think of the secret of one of the characters in Total Recall), came off as completely ludicrous, aiming more for shock value than a taut story line. The idea of torturing poor Kimomo and the sub polt of the ring and who really stole it was intriguing, but resorting to the kind of nonsense on display in the episode's final 15 or 20 minutes proved to be a deal breaker. The episode had me for 2/3 of the way through, even with Drago's acting and the poor accents from the Japanese characters, but it lost me completely when Manos showed up. This one is still worth a watch, however. I didn't find it overly disturbing visually but any intellectually stimulating aspect the episode may have garnered partway through was lost by the end.

Homecoming

The first thing that struck me about Homecoming was that it stared Robert Picardo of Star Trek: Voyager fame. I thought to myself that anything the good doctor starred in couldn't be that bad, right? Wrong! Like the entire series, I knew nothing about this episode going in, and when I found out it would involve aspects of two of my favorite genres (war and zombies), I thought to myself that anything that combined these two elements couldn't be that bad, right? Wrong! Homecoming is the most politically charged movie I have reviewed to date, surpassing even Weeds: Season Two. David Murch (John Tenney, The Closer) is a campaign speechwriter and Jane Cleaver (Thea Gill, Seed) is an author who has written a book about the left taking over cable news, in the vein of Ann Coulter. Appearing together on a television talk show, David says that if the deceased soldiers fighting overseas could come back from the dead, they would say that the war is a good thing. The problem is, the dead soldiers really are coming back to life! Instead of coming back and saying how they died for a good cause, the dead soldiers are coming back to vote against the President and the war.

Joe Dante, Master or Horror? His horror credentials, like several of the other "masters" of horror, are suspect at best. He's got Gremlins under his belt, and the only person I know that was truly frightened by that film was my wife. Dante' biggest hits include Small Soldiers, Innerspace, and Matinee. He does have a couple of lesser known horror flicks to slap onto his resumé, including Piranha and The Howling. It sure does seem like entertainment is becoming more and more politically charged these days. I was tremendously disappointed with this episode. As I mentioned, I thought that that Homecoming would be right up my alley. I’m a huge fan of both zombie flicks and war pics, but this was just plain silly. Not only did I find the episode to be a dull, overlong mess with sloppy direction, poor pacing, and bad writing, but I also felt the episode ultimately failed as political satire and as political message because it was just too blatantly obvious that the entire point was to berate those persons and events that Dante disapproves of in real life. I feel that a subdued message with strong underlying tones rather than an overt rant would have been more effective in communicating his criticism of present day events. As such, this episode was a complete turn-off for me. The "beat the viewer over the head" approach of the episode completely failed to engender any sort of critical thinking on the subject on my end, resulting only in a "here we go again" general groan from my sofa as the episode played out.

Haeckel’s Tale

Haeckel’s Tale is a twisted story of love's enduring power. When a man wants his late wife resurrected, he visits a necromancer for help in performing the ritual that will bring her back. She agrees to raise his wife from the dead on one condition: he must hear a tale of a previous raising of the dead and decide if he still wants the dark magic performed at the end of the story. The bulk of the episode is the telling of this tale, a tale of a man named Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil, Pasadena), a heathen medical student who claims to be able to resurrect the dead. He fails to raise the corpse of a woman before an audience of his classmates and professor. Haeckel sets out to prove his theory correct and eventually meets "The Great Montesquino," a man who claims to be able to raise the dead, performing the act on a dog for crowds and offering his services for pay to raise the dead for his clientele. Haeckel eventually meets Walter Wolfram (Tom McBeath, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem) and his wife Elise (Leela Savasta, Black Christmas), with whom he spends the night. Haeckel begins to fall in love with Elise, but a very dark and horrific secret will validate his theories on reanimation, confirm Montesquino's powers and, ultimately, leads him towards a fate that he may not be able to escape.

This is yet another tale of the dead rising, but unlike Homecoming, I enjoyed this episode a great deal. This is perhaps the most bizarre episode of Masters of Horror, but the setting and mood of the episode intrigued me a great deal, and as a result the episode, which clocks in at just under an hour, felt much shorter as I was sucked into the story and lost my sense of time. The episode engenders an odd sense of fascination with what happens. Some may find it romantic, others may find it horrifically disgusting, but regardless, there is no denying that what happens in Haeckel's Tale is unique in film, something I have certainly never seen on such a scale. It's bold and risqué and mostly shocking, but the end of the episode played out exactly as I guessed it would as events led to the two not-so-surprising twists at the end. Still, a solid effort here, and one of the best of the first season of the show.

Chocolate

Jamie (Henry Thomas, Fire in the Sky) is a man who creates artificial flavorings for the food industry. Despite working around tasty foods, Jamie only eats "rabbit food" until he meets a woman at the supermarket. The two spend the night together and overeat on junk food. Jamie soon begins tasting chocolate in his mouth, despite not having consumed any. He shrugs the odd sensation off, but when he begins to see another person's life through his own eyes and feeling what she feels, he begins to lose his sanity and starts a desperate search for the person whose life he is witnessing. The search intensifies when he witnesses a murder committed by this individual, and he ultimately confronts her, resulting in a life-and-death struggle for the truth about who she is and why Jamie is seeing her life before his eyes.

Expectations were high for Chocolate. The episode was directed by the creator of Masters of Horror, Mick Garris. Unfortunately, this is rather average stuff here, and I don't think I would even classify it as "horror." Perhaps "psychological thriller" would be the proper classification here. I found it difficult to get into the spirit of this episode. It's certainly not the worst the series has to offer (see Sick Girl), but it failed to live up to its billing as "horror." Not once was it scary, gory, or tense. I did not have a problem with the concept of the story, the direction, the acting, or anything of the sort. Chocolate simply failed to speak to me in any way, shape, or form. If it spoke to me at all, all it said was "so what?" Although not the worst episode, it's utterly forgettable, so much so that writing this recap proved to be a challenge. Chocolate is neither sweet nor tasty, but it's certainly a cavity in this series.

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

Yup, you guessed it. This is yet another compilation of Masters of Horror presented in 1080i. Fortunately, this is the best looking disc of the bunch. The image is much more detail oriented. Skin tones are surprisingly accurate in appearance. The image is sharp with a clarity, depth, and three dimensionality that was lacking in the first three discs. The image also sports rich, vibrant colors along with excellent black level reproduction; blacks only waver ever so slightly to the too dark or too light sides of the scale only a handful of times. The detail is astounding, even in areas where less detail would be expected and probably accepted (read: more than just close-ups of faces). Noise is evident here and there, but it's never distracting. This is a solid effort from Starz, and I hope this quality continues into season two of Masters of Horror.

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

Masters of Horror: Season One, Volume IV is presented in uncompressed PCM @ 4.6 Mbps. I felt that the opening theme music which I like so much sounded fuller and more detailed this go- round. Dialogue is reproduced with clarity and it never becomes lost. There are subtle details in the sound, such as rushing water, creeks in floorboards, and echoes that are all reproduced faithfully to an extent that leaves the viewer feeling like he or she is standing in the raging waters, walking on the floorboards, or hearing a real-life echo. Gun shots in Homecoming sound powerful, really kicking in the LFE to add that "impact" that one would expect to feel during scenes featuring the discharging of firearms. Like the video, I would rate this as the best listening experience yet across the first season's worth of discs.

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

As usual, the only supplements to be found volume IV of Masters of Horror are commentary tracks. This time, there are four total tracks, one for each episode. The track accompanying Imprint features author, musician, and American Cinematheque programer Chris D. and writer Wyatt Doyle of NewTexture.com. I've never heard of their website before, but it's obvious they really know their stuff when it comes to cinema history and lure, and they both come across as intelligent and articulate. It turns out they share my feelings about the episode being in English rather than Japanese. This is a fantastic commentary track and well worth a listen regardless of your feelings towards the episode.

The track for Homecoming features writer Sam Hamm. Hamm admits he and Dante set out to make a politically motivated episode as they are both self-proclaimed "news junkies." Joe Dante has said that this really a horror movie because "all of the characters are Republicans." He claims any resemblance to real people is coincidental, but anyone that follows politics and watches this episode knows this is not the case, so I'm assuming Hamm's tongue is firmly planted in-cheek with this comment. Hamm allows dead air to pop up here and there, but he nevertheless provides some good background about the story, motivations, and making the show.

Director John McNaughton is the lone participant on Haeckel's Tale. This is a very basic nuts and bolts track with too much dead air that describes the action on-screen in between anecdotes about casting, the origins of the story, costuming, and the like. Unless you really loved this episode and just need to know as much about it as possible, I'd pass on listening to this one.

Writer/Director Mick Garris and DVD producer and frequent Starz commentator Perry Martin provide the commentary for Chocolate. It's no surprise that the two discuss the series more than the episode, but that's fine. Since every disc lacks any sort of extras rather than scene specific commentary tracks, it's a welcome addition to finally get some real background information on the show as a whole.

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

Masters of Horror: Season One, Volume IV is perhaps the oddest of the four volumes yet on Blu-ray. Only Haeckel's Tale stood out, and only because it dared to be risky and original. Imprint delivered big time until the final third of the show and completely fell apart as the story became far too odd. I found nothing terribly good or bad about Chocolate, but I certainly question including such an episode in a series that invokes the horror genre. Homecoming is political commentary wrapped in the guise of horror, and it's sure to polarize viewers rather than scare them. As a whole, this collection of episodes was a disappointment, and now that I have seen the entire first season of the show, I'd classify it as a good idea with a few gems in need of more episodes that are scarier with better writing to really live up to its namesake. Technically, this disc represents the pinnacle of the series. Both the audio and visual aspects are very good, finally measuring up to what I expect form the Blu-ray format. Again, more supplements would be welcome, but the commentary tracks are a great addition. Recommended for fans of the series.