Incident on and Off a Mountain Road

Director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep) set the bar high with the first episode to be shown. While this tale adapted by the great though sadly relatively unsung author, Joe R. Lansdale, about a strong willed woman surviving a car accident that leads her to a unfortunate encounter with a vicious serial killer with the moniker of "Moonface" is not that original. It more than makes up for it with sheer tension. Pretty much a breathtaking chase sequence for much of the duration of the show (barring a few flashbacks), this episode was a sheer delight for me as a horror fan and made me crave the other episodes all the more. All the actors were spot on, with the amazingly great Angus Scrimm as an obvious stand-out.

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.

"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.

A young woman, Ellen (Bree Turner) hits a parked car on a mountain road and stumbles across a serial killer. With a survivor's instinct, she decides to fight back. Also, we gets glimpses of her past relationship with Bruce (Ethan Embry).

I skimmed a few reviews of this film, and the same words keep popping up: "predictable" and "derivative". Even my friend Jason, whom I respect as a master of horror, had warned me the film was quite predictable. Please allow me to address this with regards to "Incident on and off a Mountain Road".

Is it derivative to have a woman chased through the woods by a killer? Yes. Was the film predictable? For the most part, yes (though I was not entirely sure till the end which predictable ending they'd run with). But as someone who has seen more than his share of horror films, aren't most horror films derivative and predictable? You see one slasher, you've seen them all. And don't tell me you can't predict who will and won't survive after the first ten minutes? (Hint: the minority always dies first, the young female lead survives.) The point is this: you have to take the predictable and derivative, and put a new spin on it or do it as skillfully as possible, like no on else has done. This film accomplished that goal, which impressed me since I've seen the director's "Beastmaster" and would not say that it really stands out as movie genius.

The opening scene had me hooked: Don Coscarelli uses very tight shots of a dark road. Close-ups on Ellen's face, focusing on her eye. A hood's view of the road (rather than wide shot) to give us the impression of being trapped in the car. Obviously, I knew that something or someone was about to be hit, but I also knew with the angles used there was no way I could escape being right in the impact. If you've been in a serious accident, you don't want to relive it.

Also, the killer's lair was great. Sure, we often find abandoned shacks with corpses in horror films, but the police sirens and lights were a nice touch. Did he kill the cops? Was it a taunting, letting his victims know there was no escape? I really enjoyed that. And the drill press... so much more frightening than a hand drill.

Bree Turner was great as Ellen. Her past roles have apparently been all comedies, but she showed here she was more than capable of being a strong heroine in a tense role. And, personally, I want to say Bree Turner is one of the most beautiful women ever to appear in a horror film since the dawn of time. Strong, smart and attractive... the very perfect example of a "final girl".

I found Ethan Embry (best known for "Can't Hardly Wait") a little out of place, but he showed he could be dark and menacing and maybe I ought to give him some credit. I couldn't stop thinking "gee, he really looks like crap... he's gotten all pudgy and bald", but if I looked past that I might have found a good actor. Maybe. After listening to the commentary, I was able to better appreciate how seriously Embry took the role, allowing himself to actually be strangled and stabbed to get the part right. That's dedication.

Angus Scrimm was amazing. I have seen Coscarelli's "Phantasm", so I have seen Scrimm play "The Tall Man"... probably his best-known role for horror fans. (If someone wants to call blasphemy on me for not seeing the sequels, call it... I'm in the process of fixing this.) I did see Scrimm in "Satanic" and that role was so pointless, it could have been played by anyone old or young, male or female (see separate review). But here, oh my, he was such a well-devised character that I don't think anyone else could have given this film what he was able to do.

I have no complaints about this movie, other than wondering about Moonface's origin. He seems to have a very talented dentist and a unique knife dealer. But obviously the time simply did not permit that story to be told... maybe a flashback in a future season of "Masters of Horror". This episode, I'm pleased to say, was one of my favorites of Season One, and I'm glad they kicked off the show with it. Maybe I stand alone on that, but that's a chance I'm willing to take.

From what I've seen of the series thus far, I think I know the central problem with "Masters of Horror": all of the directors (save series creator Mick Garris) are more familiar with theatrical film-making; as a result of restricting them to a 60-minute timeframe, their efforts come off feeling underdeveloped. Such is the case with Don Coscarelli's 'Incident on and Off a Mountain Road,' which scores scores high on the ambition scale (as it interweaves 2 story lines with relative success), but feels like a generally toned-down thrill ride. Inspired by the Joe R. Lansdale short story, 'Incident' tells the tale of Ellen (Bree Turner), who is involved in an accident and is accosted by towering mutant 'Moonface' (John De Santis), who drills the eyes of his victims and transforms them into scarecrows; in the meantime, we get flashbacks to Ellen's turbulent marriage to screw-loose survivalist redneck Bruce (Ethan Embry, miles away from his "Can't Hardly Wait" image). Angus Scrimm (The Tall Man from "Phantasm") makes an effective cameo as one of Moonface's victims. The episode is passable entertainment, but one wishes that Coscarelli would have pushed the extremes a bit further.