Tag Archives: TV Show

Masters of Horror: Pro-Life

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I love Ron Perlman. Whether as the bad ass demon ass kicker “Hellboy,” or in a long-winded turkey like “Desperation,” there are not many instances where he can lose with me. In “Pro-Life” his performance is powerful, and I utterly loved him as the anti-abortion terrorist doing anything to get his daughter back from the clinic. He’s the highlight, here. “Pro-Life” drops down on a reality where abortion clinics have armed guards and fences that keep out protestors. Apparently, this is the near future but nonetheless, the whole concept of Carpenter’s installment is to somewhat paint the pro/anti-abortion issue into a more horrific light.

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Masters of Horror: Sounds Like

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The new installment “Sounds Like” is not so much a horror story with blood and guts, but an examination of a man who has special hearing. Special hearing that serves as a great service to his company, and a curse. As all gifts are. He can hear when a service rep at his software company is about to become angered at a customer, and he fires them upon this instinct, yet he was also able to hear the defect in his son’s heart before his death. Brad Anderson’s installment is a solid character study, a facet of the horror genre he’s strived in with “Session 9,” and the excellent “The Machinist.”

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Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Fifth Season (DVD)

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012569753938Yar, “Tales from the Crypt” season five is now out on DVD, and boy what a set it is. Season Five is considerably hit or miss, as was the entire series, but there are also some genuine twists and turns with some rather fantastic episodes. Season five reaches around the home stretch, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to take from it. The humor is still as demented, and the crypt keeper is still a bastard. Gore flies, and the monsters are still rather horrifying with episodes that feature a possessive hypnotist keeping his assistant under his control, a controlling man trying to ship his wife in pieces in a trunk, a real estate salesman who comes across a family of freaks, and, my personal favorite episode of the season, “House of Horror.”

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Masters of Horror: Family

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So far, the second season seems to be attempting to make up for the mistakes the first season made, and the two directors with the worst episodes of the first season, end up creating better episodes this time around. Landis whose episode, “Deer Woman” was basically a lightweight horror effort, makes up for it with the excellent installment “Family.” Harold Thompson loves his family. He lives in his large house in the middle of a bright suburb, and he keeps his family closely guarded and drawn away from human eyes, and there’s a good reason for that.

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Masters of Horror: The Damned Thing

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What do you know, after a long break, “Masters of Horror” returns. With a season of ups and downs, and mostly downs, the premiere is backed by the one and only Tobe Hooper whose last entry “Dance of the Dead” left much to be desired in terms of intelligence, coherency, and all around entertainment value. “Masters of Horror” was a season of safe scares, and that’s a shame. Is this season premiere any better? Yes. Yes it really is. “The Damned Thing” has everything that was missing from the first season. There is a substantial amount of engrossing story, wonderful characterization, a stern tone, and cogent direction a la Hooper who rebounds from the abysmal “Dance of the Dead.” After his father goes on a violent fit of rage suddenly, killing his mother on his birthday, Kevin Reddle, now a sheriff, is preparing for “the damned thing” to come, but how prepared is he?

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Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain, Volume 1 (DVD)

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If you’re a child of the nineties, you’ll remember that back then, animated series had texture. They weren’t like today where it was colorful and filled with characters with no basic coherent storyline. Back then animated series had stories, arcs, brains, and influence. Gems like “Talespin”, “Captain Planet”, and “Mighty Max” were what made animation so incredible. But they were intimidating, and that’s why networks sought out to bring them down and cancel them.

Such is the case for “Animaniacs”, which was so influential, the network sought out to sabotage its presence by dumbing down its clever and sharp gags and historical references, and forcing it to include educational interludes that never fit with the program and talked down to its audience.

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Psych

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PsychShawn Preston is excellent at noticing clues and hints to a crime. He’s so excellent, he’s practically a psychic. And now you know what the basic plot is. Preston, taught to point out clues and heighten his intuition since he was a boy, thanks to his demanding officer father (Corbin Bernsen), can solve many crimes by just watching a news report then calls, reports information and collects on the reward money, and it’s gotten him into hot water. To prove he didn’t commit the crimes, he pretends to be psychic. And then it gets interesting.

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