The Good

There are some very interesting movies on this release.

The Bad

Again, I thought these releases would have more extras.

Masters of Horror: Season 1, Vol. 2 again offers us three films from three interesting directors. In this set we have Dario Argento, Lucky McKee and John Landis as our “Masters” and the films they have given us are:

  • Jenifer

  • Sick Girl

  • Deer Woman

Argento gives us an interest tale of obsession with Jenifer. This show looks at a police officer who will do anything to save a deformed woman that he rescued. In Sick Girl, Lucky McKee also tackles obsession but this time it has to do with a girl and the bugs that she studies. Lastly, in Deer Woman from John Landis, a detective on the trail of a beautiful killer soon realizes that she might not be human.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Again, the folks behind these Masters of Horror films manage to give us an eclectic mix of tones within the horror genre.

Features

I probably shouldn’t have watched all these Masters of Horror DVDs in a row, mainly because at about this point in my viewing of the films, all of the bonus features began to run together. This was a pretty by the numbers look at the making of this film. If you don’t wish to watch or listen to all the supplemental features, you would most likely be better off just watching this section as it will give you a thumbnail account of most of the extras contained herein.

Actors Brian Benben and Anthony Griffith (Officer Jacob Reed) sit back and discuss what it was like making this movie. These guys seem to get along really well and they also don’t take themselves too seriously. In fact it seems like making this movie was a bonding experience, as they discuss what’s happening on screen, the other actors, and of course John Landis.

Video

1.77 Anamorphic - 1080i AVC MPEG-4 transfer. With three very distinct directors we’re obviously going to be given three different styles. With Dario Argento he gives us a lot of dark colors and imagistic shots. John Landis does things a bit more straight forward which makes the supernatural moments stand out a lot more. Lastly, Lucky McKee seems to fall more in the Argento camp. These discs all looked really good even though they weren’t that much more amazing than their Standard counterparts.

Audio

Dolby Surround 5.1 - Uncompressed 5.1 PCM. The audio for all these films was good. I hardly think that Anchor Bay is going to put out these movies in the next generation format and not at least bump up the sound more. At the same time, since these movies were made for TV it isn’t like the audio was meant to put across the big screen experience. That said things sound really good here but truthfully I wasn’t blown away by any of it.

Package

This macabre looking black and red cover gives this whole Masters of Horror collection a very chilling feel. The back portion continues this motif giving us descriptions of the films, Bonus Features listings and system specs. I really liked how compact they have made this entire release as I feel it bodes well for this set.

Final Word

What I find the most interesting about Masters of Horror: Season 1, Vol. 2 is how they mix such eclectic names as Argento, Landis and McKee. Since McKee is obviously the newcomer in the group, it seems to say that the rules of who a “Master of Horror” is are really left open to interpretation. By this I mean, I think anybody who knows anything about the horror genre would consider Argento to be the legend here. Whereas Landis is considered a “Master” based on having made one landmark horror film (An American Werewolf in London). Now McKee is the wildcard but he seems to have a lot of potential so I guess we will have to wait and see. You can read more about this by reading my full reviews of the Deer Woman and Sick Girl DVDs.

All in all, I think it’s good that these releases are on Blu-ray disc, but I still think that Masters of Horror: Season 1, Vol. 2 has come out too quickly in relation to its Standard DVD counterparts.

Masters of Horror was released .