Editorials
“Masters of Horror”: 5 Must-See Episodes to Stream on Screambox Now!
Almost every horror anthology, be it a movie or a TV series, has a gimmick. Some are attached to certain authors for their source material (Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected, The Ray Bradbury Theater) while others are holiday-themed (Trick ‘r Treat, Into the Dark). The motifs are numerous. An anthology concept that stands out to this day is the one that defines Showtime’s Masters of Horror. This two-season collection of self-contained stories still haunts fans’ memories.
Masters of Horror, a Mick Garris passion project inspired by a dinner for him and his fellow horror auteurs, had a simple design; every episode was directed by a notable name in the horror genre: Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Joe Dante, Stuart Gordon, and Tobe Hooper to name a few.
With Masters of Horror now streaming in high-definition on Screambox, now is the perfect time to revisit the series. And these five memorable episodes are a good place to start.
Imprint
Thanks to the J-horror wave of the 2000s, Takashi Miike was getting recognized more and more outside of Japan. The filmmaker was invited to Masters of Horror after notable acclaim for his existing output, including The Happiness of the Katakuris, Ichi the Killer, and One Missed Call. Although his contribution, “Imprint“, was set to close out the first season, Showtime ended up not airing it due to concerns over its content. Mind you, Masters was already taking full advantage of its license for gore and sex. So the fact that “Imprint” was singled out as too disturbing says something.
In Miike’s episode, set during the 19th century, an American (Billy Drago) visits Japan in search of his lost love, Komomo (Michié). After learning of her passing, another woman recounts a story about the harsh fate that befell Komomo.
After having seen “Imprint”, it’s not hard to understand why Showtime was so wary in the first place; this is the most graphic episode of the entire series. What it lacks in Miike’s typical dark intellect it makes up for in utter shock value and gruesome delights.
Jenifer
Dario Argento needs little introduction, and it was certainly a no-brainer to cast him as a director. Argento, however, didn’t write either of his two entries because the directors didn’t usually have a hand in the scripts. There were of course exceptions to the rule, but handling “Jenifer” on paper was the episode’s very own star, Steven Weber. The story itself is from the mind of Bruce Jones.
In “Jenifer”, a disaffected cop (Weber) happens upon a man trying to kill the episode’s namesake (Carrie Anne Fleming). He saves her only to then discover she isn’t like any other woman he’s ever met. The cop soon falls under Jenifer’s spell and starts to craves her touch. Unfortunately for him and those who come in contact, Jenifer also has her own unique cravings.
Even though Argento didn’t write this, he injects as much of his directorial style as possible. “Jenifer” still ends up being a compelling if not mysterious tale of obsession. It’s a depraved story with a lot of bite.
Sick Girl
At the time, Lucky McKee wasn’t so recognizable. He had previously helmed the exceptional movie May, but other than that, McKee came to Masters with little horror under his belt. Knowing that, “Sick Girl” wound up being a favorite for many of the series’ fans.
In “Sick Girl”, an awkward entomologist (Angela Bettis) starts dating an eccentric artist (Erin Brown). At first Bettis’ character fears her career in bugs will scare her date away, but the revelation only causes the opposite reaction. At the same time, someone has directly delivered a rare — and very dangerous — specimen that will put the women’s new relationship to the test.
Queer horror was not very common to see back when “Sick Girl” first aired, but this episode was a breath of fresh air. Of all the stories, this one has plenty of room for critical analysis. For example, homophobia pops up in the form of a curmudgeonly neighbor whose evident dislike of the lesbian protagonists is filtered through an intense aversion to insects. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to dissect here.
Cigarette Burns
John Carpenter‘s first episode is deemed one of the series’ absolute best. The story touches on a favorable subject in horror; cursed objects. In this case, the ill-fated item is a film.
According to lore, the sought after movie in “Cigarette Burns” was screened only once because it drove audiences to fits of violence. Norman Reedus‘ character is then hired by a cinephile, played by Udo Kier, to track down the missing film. His doing so only leads him down a path of no return.
As with Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, “Cigarette Burns” imagines what might happen if someone’s work of art is so dangerously influential. There are caveats to consider when assessing this episode, but the minds at work have tapped into something both unsettling and insightful about why film matters so much to us.
Sounds Like
Brad Anderson might not be the first name to come to mind when recalling masters of horror, but his movie Session 9 has a large following. That achievement in suspense alone is likely why he was enlisted for the second season. And “Sounds Like” feels like an anomaly when put up against the other episodes.
In “Sounds Like”, a father and husband (Chris Bauer) drowns himself in work to avoid thinking about his grief. He also has an uncanny ability after losing his son; he has a heightened sense of hearing. In time, though, the racket in his head becomes too much and he must find a way to quell the noise.
Upon its original release, “Sounds Like” was dismissed as not scary. The truth is, Anderson’s episode really feels like something from The Twilight Zone. The horror climate has changed a lot since the series was on the air, so audiences today might better appreciate this unusual and rather sad story about grief.
If you like these episodes, check out the rest of Masters of Horror on Streambox.
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The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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