A young unpopular girl from Connecticut named Tara is run over one day after school and awakes to find herself being held hostage by a couple. She's thrown in to their basement and discovers a young boy hanging from a rope. She saves him and now the two hostages must find a way to get out of the basement before the monster awakens and eats them both. I'm not a fan of Petty basically because she always plays the same character in every movie, but here she's really good and provides a truly creepy performance as the menacing Judith who seeks to keep Tara locked up as long as it takes. Petty is at her most threatening looking like a vampiric Kathy Bates running the show and waiting for Tara to be killed. "Fair Haired Child" is a dread-filled installment with true suspense and mystery and the eventual surprise of what lies in the basement without her knowledge.

And when the beast finally emerges from the darkness, Nicotero sure doesn't skimp on the utterly surreal freaky effects exploring a scary and utterly odd monster who is merciless in his pursuit of her. And smartly, "Fair Haired Child" goes from a "Pumpkin Head" rip-off to a truly fractured fairy tale about the lengths people are willing to go to bring back the one's they've cherished, especially a lonely, and mentally imbalanced couple. Malone's installment is never afraid to be demented, and it relishes in doing just that with dream sequences, and a monster that looks as if it jumped out of a Lovecraft story. Lindsay Pulsipher and Jesse Hadock pull in good performances as the two stuck in the basement whom bond together, and basically discover the fascinating plot, and what's awaiting them as time runs out. In the spirit of "Tales from the Crypt", the climax is comedic, demented, and somehow whimsical.

Um, I'm sorry? Exqueeze me? William Malone is a master of horror? Because he's a horror director? Of some of the stupidest horror movies I've ever seen? A guy who directed "Feardotcom" is a master of horror? Wow, the admittance must be really easy in to this series. Hey, I've written short horror stories, can I come in and direct an episode? Well, in spite of that odd inclusion, "Fair Haired Girl" is hokey featuring repetitive dream sequences involving the events preceding the story. But the writers show the sequence alluding to what happened, and then show us what happened, so it's not only repetitive but sadly padding, because it feels so damn intentional. And I can think of a million ways that car hitting scene could have done better to a better effect. Tricky editing could have kept the effect without such a hokey special effect that only made me laugh. Meanwhile, could this episode have been any more predictable? The writing goes about itself attempting to hold mysteries but I knew what was up. The monster in the basement, Judith is really a psycho, I mean, give me something to keep me in suspense here.

Much like all of the episodes of the first season of "Masters of Horror", this newest episode, a return from the holiday break, isn't perfect, it isn't even scary, but damn is it ever bad-ass. With good performances, creepy special effects and a demented narrative, it sure is a lot of fun.