Monday, January 10, 2011

Masters Of Horror: Deer Woman - 4/5

Director: John Landis (known for "An American Werewolf In London", "Blues Brothers", and (only for the strong willed) "Beverly Hills Cop III")

A struggling and sarcastic detective Faraday (Benben) finally finds himself an interesting case on 'Animal Attacks' duty. A body has shown up beaten into Spam by what appears to be hooves. Deer hooves. Although its ruled as a murder, since the clues make it look like a person did it too, he has to underhandedly find a way to solve the case. This leads him down a rather odd theory that the killer is the Native American myth 'The Deer Woman' who seduces men and tramples them to death with her deer legs. As the bodies pile up, Faraday has to quickly find a way to find her and then also find a way to kill her.

Although "Deer Woman" rarely feels to be a horror episode (sans some of its nudity and gore), this one is a fucking riot. Definitely ranks up there with some of the best in this first season, its ability to be oddly logical in its approach to story and insanely funny with loads of dark humor that just piles up is worth making it a watch. Landis did it with a bit more subtlety on "Werewolf In London", which is mentioned in this episode mind you, but the combination proves to be a worthy one still and he shows he still has it. The performances are hit or miss, our lead is charming and solid but his partner is TV cameo crap, but with its ridiculously fun story and rather well unraveled plot its hard to go wrong with this one.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

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