The Fair Haired Child

When a high school student finds herself kidnapped, spirited away to far-off place, and locked in the basement of old, defunct music academy with a suicidal young man and an evil demon, her troubles are just beginning.

Fair-Haired Child only has one recognizable name actor in it — Lori Petty — but the entire small cast is top-notch. Director William Malone does a good job in the one-hour format bringing together the threads of a story that span 15 years and culminate in a single night of unspeakable evil.

The attention to detail in Fair-Haired Child — from the elegant décor of the stately mansion inside, to the bony wind chimes that gruesomely clink in the night outside — is breathtaking, and the cinematography is sumptuous. The music, too, plays an important role.

The Masters of Horror anthology series has done a great job so far of not following a theme; while all of the episodes are horror, they're not zingers ala Twilight Zone, or morality yarns ala Tales From the Crypt. Malone's entry is more along the lines of a traditional supernatural horror story, and it's got some good scares and fun visuals. It's a far better than "fair" addition to the scary series!

The Fair-Haired Child is the ninth episode of Masters of Horror, written by Matt Greenburg and directed by William Malone, and boy howdy have we already run out of "Masters"? No disrespect intended towards William Malone, but it's hard to follow Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Joe Dante, and Dario Argento. I mean, come on: Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, and David Cronenberg said no? They didn't have ten days free to shoot an episode? You know, maybe they were, maybe they just didn't have any interest or time, but it's just such a sad downward spiral of names. They probably should have scattered the bigger names throughout, rather than front loading the whole series with them. Because here's the thing, the main attraction that I felt when I wanted to watch this series was seeing these huge name directors work on a smaller scale with the restrictions of mid 2000s tv. My interest was already waning before because of the similar problems each episode (with the exception of Cigarette Burns) had with their characterization and production, but I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold on after we are officially out of the legends part of the season.

With that said, (I'm so sorry William Malone), Fair-Haired Child is a pretty good episode! Not great, and coming off of Cigarette Burns it's got a tough act to follow, but a really solid piece of horror fiction that is creepy, and unique from the other episodes. The story follows Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher) who is kidnapped by a couple (Lori Petty and William Samples) and is held captive in their basement alongside a boy named Johnny (Jesse Haddock). The thing about this episode which separates itse.f from the others is that everyone is given very sympathetic reasons for doing what they're doing. The parents have a completely logical (to them at least) reason for what they're doing. Told through these truly haunting black and white sequences, you're given a true look into their tragedy that led them here.

Lindsay Pulsipher as Tara is pretty good, she doesn't have much to do other than play victim, but she does that incredibly well. The real showcase performances though are Lori Petty and William Samples. They both get pretty hammy, but Petty especially plays off the snap in her psyche that happened to put these events in place.

The Fair Haired Child, the monster that eventually appears, is a unique enough design, and moves with this eerie almost stop motion quality that makes it an effective creature.

If I had one main gripe with the film, it's that the emotional resolution at the end feels somewhat hollow. Maybe it's that I just wanted something different, but it does seem to end in a very cheap, everything wraps up neatly, way. Still, I was sort of dreading this episode, since I was so familiar with the filmmaker's work, and was pleasantly surprised.

William Malone isn't an obvious choice for "Masters of Horror". His big-screen efforts have been hit-and-miss efforts at best. However, as co-creator of the series, it was an obvious move for him to have a shot at directing an episode.

"The Fair-Haired Child" is a surprisingly good instalment, although it's far from being the best tale. Malone creates a suitably creepy and dark atmosphere for the proceedings. Great acting from the cast and truly hair-raising effects result in a gripping episode. Walter ("Dr. Satan") Phelan plays a nightmare character and one that will remain in the viewer's memory for a long time.

It's always great to see Lori Petty and in this "Masters of Horror" story she delivers a memorably sinister performance as Judith. William Samples is excellent as her on-the-edge husband and "partner-in-crime".

It's the young cast members who really carry this piece, though. Lindsay Pulsipher plays the loner, Tara, who is kidnapped and thrown into the basement from hell. Jesse Haddock plays the mysterious Johnny whose fate is soon to become linked with that of fellow prisoner Tara.

Recommended viewing. A strong 7 out of 10.

The other reviewer must have watched a different version than I did? Also the obvious bias against the director is more than obvious! Most people don't give a hoot, or will even know or care that the director did "Fear.Com!" Taken as an installment in the Masters of Horror series, I consider this to be one of the best! I watch every horror/sci-fi/fantasy flick that comes out and this episode actually had me scared! The use of early silent era (Nosferatu, etc.,) skip-frame technique (that jerky movement: every 5th-6th frame) really works here and lends a superb atmosphere of the 'supernatural' to the object in question! The other reviewer had issues with this director being called a "Master of Horror"? Look at the bulk of work by the other directors in this series!! Yikes! Not what I call a brilliant body of work!! That doesn't mean they can't make a good short feature! I think some of the other directors best works are part of this series! I saw it on cable first..then bought it! A must see!!!

Based on what he achieved until now, William Malone doesn't really deserve to be called a "Master" of horror. "House on the Haunted Hill" and particularly "FeardotCom" annoyed the hell out of many devoted genre fans (yours truly included) and his 80's movies ("Creature" and "Scared to Death") are the total definition of cheesy garbage. I guess if it were up to the public to select the directors for the "Masters of Horror" project, Malone would never have made the list. But I bet no one is complaining about Malone's contribution to the series now, as his little movie is one of the absolute highlights of the first season and unquestionably his best work to date! "The Fair-Haired Child" is a macabre fairy-tale that offers a constantly unsettling atmosphere as well as several genuine shock-moments and great visual effects! The desperate couple Judith (a splendid Lori Petty) and Anton made a pact with the devil to bring their teenage son back from the dead after a terrible accident. The service in return, however, demands that no less than 12 innocent have to die before Johnny is his old self again. The plot follows the last victim Tara, as she's abducted by Anton and locked up in the cellar with Johnny still in his "monstrous"-phase. Unlike, say, Tobe Hooper's segment, "The Fair-Haired Child" is both genuinely creepy AND bloody and the story is also a lot more coherent and easier to follow. Malone puts a lot of effort into the character drawings and it pays off, as Tara is a truly likable heroine and even the motives of the "evil" parents are understandable. The "Child" is an engaging monster creation, sinister & nightmarish yet not overly grotesque or ridiculous. The acting is superb (who is this adorable Lindsay Pulsipher and why isn't she a major star yet?) and Malone's directing is skillful like that of a true master. Great horror!