Country and Year: USA (2005)
Director: Don Coscarelli
Starring: Bree Turner, Ethan Embry, Angus Scrimm, John De Santis

Review By: David Austin
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars (average)

It’s Halloween - time to review some horror movies! Charlie and I watched a couple of silly ones - the amusingly inept and gross Slugs and completely off-the-wall Battle Heater, but for now I’ll take a look at the new Showtime anthology series, Masters of Horror. Showtime has enlisted quite a distinguished group of horror directors (which naturally leads to the following question: what do you call of group of horror film artists? A murder, like crows?). Among them are John Carpenter, Dario Argento, Takashi Miike, Larry Cohen, Joe Dante, and John Landis. Each has produced a short film of roughly an hour in length. Basically the old Tales from the Crypt, Bodybags format with prestige directors attached.

The first entry is directed by Don Coscarelli of Phantasm, Beastmaster, and Bubba Ho-Tep fame. I find that Coscarelli is a director whose work may not always be good, but is always worth watching. He has a way of working in quirky touches and light, effective humor that always helps to distinguish his films from the pack. For those who’ve never had the pleasure, I highly recommend the first two Phantasm movies.

The strange thing about this episode, Incident On and Off A Mountain Road, is that except for the presence of Coscarelli regular Angus Scrimm (The Tall Man of Phantasm fame), you’d never know you were watching a Coscarelli film. The direction is simultaneously slicker and more professional (Hollywood, if you will) than Coscarelli’s usual fare, and lacking in the idiosyncratic touches that usually make Coscarelli’s work such a pleasure. (Click Here To Read More…)