Incident on and Off a Mountain Road

This first instalment of "Masters of Horror" is an entertaining affair. Featuring the "MOH" trademarks (beautiful actress, gore, suspense and impressive cinematography), this episode is a terrific way to while away an hour.

Don ("Phantasm") Coscarelli's adaptation of Joe Lansdale's short story is simple but hits all the right marks - it's an effective horror tale.

Bree Turner is delightful as the stranded woman who has to fight for survival against a bizarre killer, Moonface.

Angus Scrimm is the icing on the cake as the crazy Buddy.

As with some other "Masters of Horror" tales, "Incident" pushes the boundaries of what you'd expect to see on television. It's powerful stuff and delivered with polish and style.

In a word, "Superb".

As far as Masters of Horror goes, there have been better episodes that could have kickstarted the series than this one. The plot is a standard stalk and slash thriller, which seems odd coming from the man who gave us Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep. This is really new territory for him and as such it is certainly better than most of its brethren, but still far from the genius one comes to expect of Coscarelli. Granted, the killer is a gruesomely twisted vision and Angus Scrimm delivers a truly kooky performance but none of this really makes a difference in the long run as we get a chase through the mountains juxtaposed with scenes of the heroine and her abusive survivalist husband. All in all, this is a real letdown from the Coscarelli.

"Phantasm" and "The Beastmaster" director Don Coscarelli adapts genre author Joe R. Lansdale's short story as a somewhat uninspired premiere episode for Mick Garris's exciting new series that demonstrates little promise for the show and none of the genius the writer and director would develop with their later collaboration on "Bubba Ho-Tep".

Bree Turner makes for a cute enough scream queen but fails to generate any sexual chemistry with survival freak Ethan Embry whilst long-term director favourite Angus Scrimm proves a misplaced annoyance and John D. Santis is far too cartoonesque to generate any real fear as the dreadfully monikered Moonface.

The master employs the incredibly overly familiar set-up of an accident on lonely mountain road to lead into a run-of-the-mill slasher in the woods story that quickly degenerates into splat pack style gore soaked torture porn and sadly fails to take its own advice to do the unexpected.

It comes in through your eyes.

I must say I very much enjoyed this episode. Angus scrimm and Ethan Embry were both a delight in their roles. Though she seemed to struggle from time to time, the female lead was still able to hold her own, though in the future others may be hesitant to cast her as a lead. The scare factor was great and suspense was always there from start to finish. The director has an excellent talent of being unpredictable, which he executed with the greatest of ease. Just as you think everything is okay, WHAM! Something hits you again. The end of this film left me with my mouth hanging open, followed by a smile of delight. Wonderful start to the season.

On a secluded mountain road, Ellen (Bree Turner) loses control of her vehicle following a commentary distraction causing her to collide with an abandoned car. Checking the surroundings Ellen encounters a deformed albino serial killer named Moonface (John DeSantis) whom she must now elude. Intercut with Ellen's harrowing struggle for survival are flashbacks to her relationship with a crazed survivalist named Bruce (Ethan Embry) and the events that drove her to this point.

The inaugural episode of Mick Harris' Masters of Horror anthology program, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is directed by Don Coscarelli noted director of The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep, and the Phantasm series and written by noted writer Joe R. Lansdale and based on Lansdale's short story of the same name. This marks Coscarelli and Lansdale's second collaboration following their previous project, cult horror-comedy Bubba Ho-Tep. While the story is effective, it definitely feels like something that's been stretched from a short story and I wasn't a fan of the resolution.

Bree Turner as Ellen is really good in the lead role of Ellen and sells it both in the present day settings using her acquired survivalist skills to outfox Moonface and also project vulnerability and optimism in the flashback scenes with Ethan Embry's Bruce that are gradually eroded over time and replaced with a hard edged cynicism. Moonface was admittedly not a point I liked, while the make-up is good and DeSantis is clearly giving his all, the character design just comes off as really silly looking with his silver teeth and bright white skin, especially in his introduction shot where he jumps into the air in front of the full moon. While the story is well told, I found a lot of the flashbacks tended to undercut the tension of Moonface stalking Ellen and probably would've preferred a "less is more approach". While I understand the episode had to fill 50 minutes, the episode feels like something that could have gotten away with a 30 minute runtime. I also wasn't a big fan of the ending where the movie almost seems to imply that Ellen has now become similar to Bruce or Moonface and it just kind of makes a head scratching not to go out on.

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is just okay. It's got a good lead in Bree Turner and some nice intensity and supporting performances, but it's also clearly stretched from a short story and has an ending that I didn't care for. Not peak Don Coscarelli or Joe R. Lansdale, but not an embarrassment either. Very much middle of this "Mountain Road"