Didn't see the new episode yet, but that Stephen King series looks to be better than Masters of Horror. I can't wait!

Homecoming is the best episode so far. All you need to know is that it has zombies and its the funniest episode so far
I probably rate it an A

Boy, this show loves its sex. Just started watching "Homecoming" (got a little behind in episodes). I enjoy that they basically all but said that Bush was the president, when most fictional shows go for a ficticious president.

What the fuck? I guess that was a "so absurd, it's a classic" episode. Still puzzled. "Homecoming", of course. I normally hate when TV shows start doing political spiels, but this was one big political episode. And a big zombie episode. And a big hilarious episode. And...

Just watched "Deer Woman". Can someone let me know when exactly "Masters of Horror" became "Masters of Comedy"?

Deer Woman was hilarious. I couldnt tell by the commercials itself. But as you said Mr X, it has become masters of comedy. Last Night's episode is somewhat reminicent of the Ring. It was pretty grotesque when the guy used his own entrails as a movie projector film

1. Incident On and Off a Mountain Road - B
2. Dreams in the Witch House - C
3. Dance of the Dead - D
4. Jenifer - B-
5. Chocolate - C+
6. Homecoming - B (for being purposely an oddball episode)
7. Deer Woman - B
8. Cigarette Burns - C

I thought Cigarette Burns was really blah, and not gripping at all. Aside from basically being based upon "The Ring" completely, the only real great parts were the bloody ones. The guy's entrails on the projector, the other guy clawing his eyes out. Pretty gory stuff. But, that's not really enough to say it was a good episode. Just blah.

So far, my favorites are "Incident", "Homecoming" and "Deer Woman". The more I think about Deer Woman, the more I think I liked it. It wasn't scary (obviously), it was just really another oddball episode, like "Homecoming", and I accept that they were going for oddball and not scary. Overall, the show isn't great, but I still continue to watch in hopes of finding a really, really good episode.

And I stand by my opinion that the opening of this show is the creepiest opening for any TV show, and certainly the creepiest thing to come out of all eight episodes of the series so far.

Not a single A-worthy episode yet?

Well, I know Loyal loved Chocolate and Homecoming, but I don't think either are A-worthy. "Homecoming" and "Deer Woman" were far more comedy than horror, which sucks because this is "Masters of Horror" not "Masters of Comedy". I surely don't mind a little light-hearted humor with my horror, but "Deer Woman" was almost a full-blown comedy, while "Homecoming" never intended to be taken seriously whatsoever.

"Cigarette Burns" blatantly rips off The Ring, but even rip-offs can be good. The episode is not. The best part is the grotesque and gory scenes.

"Chocolate" was basically just a character study.

"Jenifer" is creepy, and filled with lots of blood 'n' guts, but its predictability weakens the story.

"Dance of the Dead"... less said about it, the better.

"Dreams in the Witch House" reminded me of a lame episode of Goosebumps.

And "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was my favorite so far. It had some tense moments and overall was enjoyable. That was closest to A-quality for me, but not quite.

Come to think of it, "Homecoming" and "Deer Woman" were incredibly similar to episodes you would see on Tales From the Crypt. If someone told me that they were Crypt-episodes, I would believe them.

I like most of the episodes. It depends on the taste of the posters. The show is very similiar to Tales From the Crypt and if you love that show you should love this

Plus Mr X loves Family Guy and Alias so dont take his bad taste seriously

The last two eps are sitting on my DVR, I'll get to them today.

I'm relieved at the reaction to Cigarette Burns. I had a strong feeling Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan got the job because of AICN and not necessarily their skill set.

Yeah, I'm jealous.

Ok...

Deer Woman was good. I enjoyed Landis' nod to American Werewolf in London.

C+

Cigarette Burns, at least, earned the gore rating.

C+

I like most of the episodes too, but I wouldn't say that I love them or anything. It seems that whatever problem an episode has, it's a rather big issue (cheesy villain in "Deer Woman"; boredom in "Cigarette Burns"; the fakest looking rat with a human face ever in "Dreams in the Witch House"). If they could work on an actual horror episode that was creepy and enthralling, and only used a hint of comedy, I'd be happy. But the episodes are either just dark, just gory, or just funny. There's no episode that has the perfect blend, and I'm waiting for it.

Plus, El_Masked adores King of the Hill, while everyone else thinks it's just okay, so don't take his bad taste seriously. But, he does like Deadwood, so I gotta forgive him.

Only a few eps left I guess:

Lucky Mckee's Sick Girl
Takashi Miike's Imprint
John McNaughton's Haeckel's Tale
William Malone's Fair Haired Child
Larry Cohen's Pick Me Up (looking forward to this one the most)

i caught the episode of the mouse with the human face and the chck with the messed up face. this show is laughably bad.

Speaking of the rat with a human face. I think the santa whore with a male face needs a complete makeover since the holidays are over.

Ohhh... I didn't see this thread. Thanks Roid. Here's my grades...

Incident On And Off A Mountain Road - B
Dreams In The Witch House - C+
Dance Of The Dead - C
Jenifer - B-
Chocolate - D+
Homecoming - B
Deer Woman - B
Cigarette Burns - B
Fair Haired Child - B-
Sick Girl - B+

Like I said, pretty disappointing thus far. I'm shocked to see all the praise for Chocolate here. I'm not sure how that could even be considered horror. Someone mentioned it being like an Outer Limits episode... I completely agree, and I hated Outer Limits. Sick Girl has been the best thus far. Great direction, good screenplay, good acting, some great gore, and a nice little twist ending. Fair Haired Child was absolutely fantastic for about forty minutes (even though the creature design was a total Rubber Johnny ripoff), but the ending was a joke. In fact, that kind of seems to be a theme (bad endings). Deer Woman and Cigarette Burns both suffered from that.

I've seen some talk about Miike's episode. Apparently it's been pulled:

"The New York Times writes:

Showtime cable network says that the broadcast of "Imprint," the penultimate episode of its 13-part anthology series "Masters of Horror," has been cancelled. Through a spokesman, the network declined further comment.

Originally scheduled to have its premiere on Jan. 27, "Imprint," directed by the renegade Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, will be replaced by "Haeckel's Tale," an adaptation of a short story by Clive Barker directed by John McNaughton ("Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"). All references to "Imprint" were removed from the Showtime Web site, though a trailer for the episode remains on mastersofhorror.net, the site sponsored by the series's production company, IDT Entertainment.

The concept behind "Masters of Horror" was to give carte blanche to a group of respected horror film directors, both veterans like John Carpenter, Joe Dante and John Landis and newcomers like Lucky McKee ("May") and William Malone ("Fear Dot Com"). The filmmakers would be given their choice of material and freedom from corporate censorship in exchange for creating their work on a tight budget and short schedule.

Mr. Miike, 45, is a deliberately and spectacularly transgressive director whose work is lionized by a substantial share of the young generation of Internet critics and horror film fans, while routinely rejected as repulsively sadistic by much of the mainstream media. To date, his most notorious film has been "Audition" (2000), a cautionary tale about a middle-aged man who holds a fake audition for a movie role to search for a bride, only to be caught in his own game of cruelty when one of the candidates, a seemingly demure young woman, turns the tables on him and subjects him to a prolonged session of graphic torture.

"Imprint" may go even further, and clearly represents something more than Showtime bargained for. "I think it's amazing, but it's even hard for me to watch," said Mick Garris, the creator and executive producer of the series. "It's definitely the most disturbing film I've ever seen." It will now be released directly to the DVD market through IDT's home video subsidiary, Anchor Bay Entertainment, along with the rest of the episodes in the series. No date has been announced.

Mr. Miike, who speaks no English and is rushing to complete his latest theatrical feature, "Waru: Final," for release in Japan on Feb. 25, was not available for comment.

"Imprint," which has a much more polished look than most of Mr. Miike's work, plays like an infernal variation on "Memoirs of a Geisha." In mid-19th-century Japan, an American journalist (the genre stalwart Billy Drago) goes in search of the prostitute he has fallen in love with but was forced to abandon.

The American's quest leads him to a mysterious island zoned exclusively for dimly lighted brothels, where one procurer, a syphilitic midget, introduces him to a relatively sympathetic prostitute (Youki Kudoh, who also appears in "Memoirs of a Geisha"). Hideously deformed, the right side of her face pulled into a permanent rictus, the nameless woman tells the American the terrible story of what happened to his lover, throwing in at no extra charge the story of her own hideous childhood as the daughter of impoverished outcasts.

As the woman's story continues, her revelations, scrupulously visualized, become more and more outlandish, and her descriptions of the violence done to the missing prostitute, who was suspected of stealing a ring from the brothel's madam, become more cruelly imaginative and difficult to stomach. But the most shocking imagery is yet to come, as the nameless woman describes her collaboration in her mother's work as an abortionist.

"Imprint" was filmed in Japan under the aegis of Mr. Miike's regular production company, rather than in Vancouver, where the series is based and most of its other episodes were shot. "Definitely, at the script stage we made comments about the aborted fetuses," Mr. Garris said. "We made it clear that we were going on American pay cable television, and even though there wasn't as much control over content, there still were concerns. And then when we got the first cut, it was very, very strong stuff, and we made some suggestions on what might help before we showed it to Showtime. The Japanese made the changes they were comfortable with, and eventually we arrived at a film that he was happy with and we're all happy with. But Showtime felt it was not something they were comfortable putting out on the airwaves."

"Imprint," Mr. Garris suggested, was not the sort of film that could be trimmed a bit here and there to make it more acceptable. "It is what it is," he said.

"It really was, let's try and not hack this up," Mr. Garris concluded. "Let's all just agree to release it in its complete form on the DVD, and hopefully its audience will be able to find it that way."

You know, i'm thinking about Showtime pulling Miike's episode, and it just makes me mad. I mean, wasn't this the point of the series? To let the directors push the limits of horror and do whatever they want without the limits of the MPAA? I can't believe they're pulling the one episode that is actually doing what the show was created to do. Ridiculous. It just shows that in America, you can never truly release an uncompromised vision if it doesn't agree with someone's standards.

thanks for the above info.

That makes no sense. It's pay cable. Seymour Butts can go on and on about sex on Showtime but show graphic violence, it's an issue? Considering what AICN is posting about the Cigarette Burns boys and their follow-up, I'm concerned about self imposed censorship now.

Heh. It's almost the opposite of what the MPAA allows.

Do you have a link to that Cigarette Burns follow-up story?

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22223

AICN West Coast editor “Moriarty” tells me McWeeny and Swan finished a draft of their as-yet-untitled teleplay, which deals with the abortion issue. Vengeful fetuses, one gathers.
Other directors now confirmed to return for season two include Mick Garris (“Chocolate”), John Landis (“Deer Woman”), Stuart Gordon (“Dreams in the Witch-House”), Joe Dante (“Homecoming”) and Tobe Hooper (“Dance of the Dead”). Brad Anderson (“The Machinist”) is also aboard for season two.

http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5422

January 18: MASTERS OF HORROR season two update

We all knew it was inevitable that there would be a season two of IDT Entertainment’s MASTERS OF HORROR, following its successful debut run on Showtime. But who will the next round of MASTERS be? A mix of the old and new, Fango has learned. Creator/executive producer Mick Garris confirms that John Landis, Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter and himself will be back to helm more segments of the critically praised anthology.

Regarding directorial newcomers, “Brad Anderson [pictured] is one of the new faces on board this time,” Garris reveals. “I’m a huge fan of his SESSION 9 and THE MACHINIST. We’re trying to lock up several others, but schedules this year are increasingly difficult to coordinate. We hope to have Guillermo del Toro and Rob Zombie on board as well.” Both del Toro and Zombie could not squeeze in MASTERS gigs last time.

Of season two’s writers, PICK ME UP’s David J. Schow just completed his adaptation of the John Farris story “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream,” while CIGARETTE BURNS’ Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan will collaborate on a new teleplay for Carpenter again. Horror author Graham (THE MANITOU) Masterton’s “Anti-Claus” has also been optioned (see previous item here), while DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE’s Stuart Gordon and fellow H.P. Lovecraft scholar/co-author Dennis Paoli have another classic author in mind for their MASTERS follow-up. “We are doing THE BLACK CAT,” Gordon tells Fango, “ideally with Jeffrey Combs playing Poe! We are excited to be back, as MASTERS OF HORROR is a groundbreaking show.”

And the news gets even better. “Clive Barker is writing an original screen treatment, which I will adapt and possibly direct,” adds Garris, who tackled Barker’s “Haeckel’s Tale” to close out the first batch of MASTERS episodes. “I also wrote another script called THE V WORD, which is an original.” Regarding MASTERS OF HORROR’s future, Garris concludes, “All we really want to do is give voice to the best people in the horror genre and make the best fright films possible. We truly want to continue to stretch the envelope and do the kinds of things that go beyond the commonplace mall-cinema fare.”

Wow. How funny that it deals with the exact topic Showtime is apparently so upset with - abortion. I'd be surprised if this one made it past the script stage. Maybe they should think abot shopping it around to another network? HBO, maybe? Showtime clearly doesn't have the guts to truly make this series what it should be. This is the second time we've heard of them forcing cuts. Argento's episode (Jenifer) had to trim quite a bit of gore to make it on the air. Especially from that penis munching scene.

Thats a damn shame. I was really looking forward to Miike's episode the most to mostly what people are suggesting the most "the gore factor". Couldn't they just at least cut some of the more gory scenes like they did for "Jenifer" and air it while putting the uncut version on dvd?

According to Mick Garris, to get it to what Showtime would accept, they would have to completely gut the episode. Honestly, it's probably better this way, but still incredibly disappointing. Unless these next two episodes are amazing (which i'm seriously doubting with the two directors involved), I think we can officially call this season a disappointment. Most people I know were holding out hope that the Miike episode would save it, and we all know that's not happening now.

Wow, that's really a shame. Miike's could easily be the best of the bunch. I am not a huge fan of his, mind you, but the guy has style, distinct style and an addition to the (apparently lackluster) Masters of Horror by him would have been great.