Ellen: Hell of a night... eh, Moonface?

The pilot episode of "Masters of Horror" pretty much brings to the table what I was expecting. Gore, good acting, and plot twists. and it's just what I got, thank god. The story, compacted within a fifty minute window, is smart enough and well written enough that it doesn't feel rushed. The plot for the pilot is simple enough to be squeezed in to a small segment, yet manages to give us enough character depth and subtext we would desire. Not to mention some brutally gruesome images of torture that make the viewing all worth it.

Bree Turner (I think I'm in love) gives a good performance as Ellen, a young woman who crashes in to a deserted car in the middle of a road. In an attempt to help, she discovers the inside of the car doused with blood and ends up in a game of cat and mouse with a mangled psychotic killer named Moon Face (John DeSantis). So we switch simultaneously between flashbacks of Ellen and her new husband and the chase at hand. What we learn in the small period is that Ellen fell in love with a soldier named Bruce (Ethan Embry) and discovered slowly he was a paranoid psychotic who relied on teaching her how to survive, and inevitably became her worst enemy, but the skills he taught her come to good use against the relentless murderer as she sets up booby traps around the forest using every weapon at her disposal and suddenly Moonface has met his match.

Surprisingly, there is enough atmosphere and plot to keep the audience hooked, and thankfully there are no commercials so it keeps your attention. Coscarelli gives some beautiful direction capturing the tension and sheer urgency of our main character's predicament, and her struggle to survive at all costs. Moonface is a great villain with a scarred pale mug, and silver teeth, and ends up becoming an allegory for Ellen's inner demons which she must confront or die. Angus Scrimm is sublime as a hostage of Moonface's who has basically gone insane and guides Ellen to use her strength to fight Moonface, meanwhile Bree Turner gives a great performance pulling off the right amount of horror, and bravery that make her an admirable anti-hero. The episode comes to a twisted finish as the final plot twist unfolds, thus giving us a new perspective on the story we've just seen.

"Incident" will essentially be an episode where you'll have to dispel some sense of logic and sheer common sense. It's interesting that Ellen is trained by her husband to survive, but it gets ridiculous when she can suddenly find the right elements to help her build weaponry. Like Rambo, in a flash she can find the resources to make booby traps and
they work pretty well. How convenient. No one is that good. Not to mention the film rides on a moral of "You go girl! Girl power!" message which is essentially trite and very nauseating in the end.

In spite of truly cheesy elements, and a trite moral, this is a great start to a potentially great series that will put its masters on display. Great story, beautiful gore, and great performances from the cast make this a bang up start.