I’ll buy that Superman can not be recognized as Clark Kent once he flips his S Curl, I’ll buy that Peter Parker can reveal himself to a crowded train and not be sold out by someone interested in making money, and hell, I’ll even buy that there’s some appeal in MTV, but I admittedly had a hard time buying that our character would trade his utterly gorgeous wife in for a run of the mill redheaded nurse who only sought out to cash in on him. But alas, “Right to Die” is a very good episode in spite of that lapse in logic. Martin Donovan (who you may remember from “Weeds”), is a man who has just witnessed his wife be burned alive after a horrible car accident and now is forced to face the consequences of such an incident. Burned from head toe, and comatose, Cliff struggles to fight off his mother in law who is attempting to keep him from pulling the plug on his wife, and after horrible dreams of her burned body coming to wreak havoc on him, he’s beginning to think his in-laws are not the only people he’ll have to battle.
“Right to Die” is a morbid and utterly gory entry into the series that I just enjoyed. And director Schmidt who helmed the guilty pleasure “Wrong Turn,” pulls off the ace direction like a pro, with the monster of Abby coming back to destroy those she feels have wronged her, and the rush to keep her alive, and discover what she wants. Nicotero and crew provide some excellent make up effects with a gruesome monster, and awfully sickening scenes of dissection and murder, but in the gory package, the plot takes an unexpected turn with a plot twist that will cause viewers to re-examine what they’ve just seen and they may be compelled to re-watch the episode. “Right to Die” is a sickening display of gore and dark comedy, and the moments of Abby’s monster wreaking havoc are some of the best blood soaked instances that bowled me over. It’s a fun episode. I’m a fan of political commentary, I mean one of the major advantages of the horror genre is that horror of any kind can be much more than just vampires, and zombies.
“Right to Die” attempts to practice that advantage and fails. Miserably. Painfully. Husband wants comatose vegetable wife put to rest, her family doesn’t, there’s a massive media storm and buzz about it. Ring familiar? It did with me, too. And all I could do the entire time was roll my eyes and await story progression as it should have been. Sometimes when Masters of Horror tackles a topic (“Homecoming”) it succeeds, and sometimes with episodes like this, it just tries too damn hard. And the political commentary, which was sharp and edgy a year ago just falls short of blatant, and manipulative. Attempts at political commentary are flat and deflated, but in spite of that caveat, “Right to Die” is a fun little entry with gruesome special effects, tight direction from Schmide, and a clever story with a surprise hook sure to please viewers.