Deer Woman is the seventh episode of Masters of Horror, and is directed by John Landis, and written by his son Max Landis. John shares a cowriting credit because apparently Max refused to rewrite the ending and add a scene where the Deer Woman seduced a guy, so John did it anyways, which is pretty funny to me.
Can we talk for a minute about John Landis being included in this group of the "Masters of Horror" at all? I mean, I love An American Werewolf in London too, but other than that and a handful of others (a segment in Twilight Zone the Movie, Innocent Blood, and Burke and Hare) only one of which wasn't a horror comedy, how does he fit in this group? Most of the other directors either exclusively have made horror movies, or have only done other genres a handful of times. He just sticks out like a sore thumb, especially when sandwiched between Joe Dante and John Carpenter, two guys who actually are masters of the genre.
But I'm picking nits at this point, Deer Woman is a pretty straight forward monster movie. It's got all the hallmarks, a series of murders being investigated by a strung out detective, mistaking it for animal attacks, so on and so forth. This was Max Landis's first credit as a screenwriter, and it is a very by the numbers script. It's not bad, it's just very generic.
There are a couple of fun character moments that show some personality. The main detective gets a long monologue near the end of the film that is delivered wonderfully, and adds much needed personal connection to the character. I love the scene with old woman and her dog giving a witness statement, there's a dream sequence with a fake deer head that is so intentionally corny and awful that I can't help but love it, but for the most part, the story just plays the hits, and moves along.
The most unique element is, maybe obviously, the Deer Woman herself. Ascribed from Indigenous mythology, the Deer Woman is a half woman half deer siren who lures men to their death. She doesn't really have a motivation for doing so, but due to her half woman appearance, she is a more threatening monster than say a werewolf since she could feasibly go out and kill at any point.
(Oh and this character, which is supposed to be an Indigenous woman? Played by a Brazilian woman, thanks for playing!)
The problem is, and sing it with me if you know the words: she is the main female character and she has nothing to do. Damn, at this point it's comical at how few fully realized women have been in this series. I understand that the Deer Woman targets men, so having a lot of possible victims is good for the meat counter, but... I don't know then maybe shouldn't the character who takes her on be a woman? You know since she would be less likely to be targeted by the Deer Woman personally? I mean, there's the character of Dana who seems pretty interesting, but she's pretty much relegated to a couple of scenes where she just sort of exposits information.
What are the good things in this episode? Honestly none of it is really bad, and taken as a stand alone film, it's a fun way to spend an hour. It's all just very standard issue, and watching it in sequence with the rest of the episodes reduces the impact of the film on its own. I enjoyed watching it, even if I knew what was going to happen, sometimes even to the minute.
Can we talk for a minute about John Landis being included in this group of the "Masters of Horror" at all? I mean, I love An American Werewolf in London too, but other than that and a handful of others (a segment in Twilight Zone the Movie, Innocent Blood, and Burke and Hare) only one of which wasn't a horror comedy, how does he fit in this group? Most of the other directors either exclusively have made horror movies, or have only done other genres a handful of times. He just sticks out like a sore thumb, especially when sandwiched between Joe Dante and John Carpenter, two guys who actually are masters of the genre.
But I'm picking nits at this point, Deer Woman is a pretty straight forward monster movie. It's got all the hallmarks, a series of murders being investigated by a strung out detective, mistaking it for animal attacks, so on and so forth. This was Max Landis's first credit as a screenwriter, and it is a very by the numbers script. It's not bad, it's just very generic.
There are a couple of fun character moments that show some personality. The main detective gets a long monologue near the end of the film that is delivered wonderfully, and adds much needed personal connection to the character. I love the scene with old woman and her dog giving a witness statement, there's a dream sequence with a fake deer head that is so intentionally corny and awful that I can't help but love it, but for the most part, the story just plays the hits, and moves along.
The most unique element is, maybe obviously, the Deer Woman herself. Ascribed from Indigenous mythology, the Deer Woman is a half woman half deer siren who lures men to their death. She doesn't really have a motivation for doing so, but due to her half woman appearance, she is a more threatening monster than say a werewolf since she could feasibly go out and kill at any point.
(Oh and this character, which is supposed to be an Indigenous woman? Played by a Brazilian woman, thanks for playing!)
The problem is, and sing it with me if you know the words: she is the main female character and she has nothing to do. Damn, at this point it's comical at how few fully realized women have been in this series. I understand that the Deer Woman targets men, so having a lot of possible victims is good for the meat counter, but... I don't know then maybe shouldn't the character who takes her on be a woman? You know since she would be less likely to be targeted by the Deer Woman personally? I mean, there's the character of Dana who seems pretty interesting, but she's pretty much relegated to a couple of scenes where she just sort of exposits information.
What are the good things in this episode? Honestly none of it is really bad, and taken as a stand alone film, it's a fun way to spend an hour. It's all just very standard issue, and watching it in sequence with the rest of the episodes reduces the impact of the film on its own. I enjoyed watching it, even if I knew what was going to happen, sometimes even to the minute.