Spooky season is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than by watching the works of the best of the best in the horror genre? Masters of Horror gives the audience a taste of horror done by some of the best directors that the industry has seen.
Masters of Horrors is an anthology series, where each episode is directed by a different person. From well-known names like John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, to international legends such as Dario Argento and Takashi Miike, the series brings to the screen some of the most bone-chilling content ever. Let’s take a closer look at some of the best episodes the series has to offer:
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6 The Black Cat (Season 2, Episode 11, 2007)
Showtime
Fans of Stuart Gordon’s work would know how fond the director is of H.P. Lovecraft’s work. Set in 1840s Philadelphia, The Black Cat follows Edgar Allan Poe, portrayed by Jeffrey Combs, as he grapples with writer’s block, alcoholism, and a seemingly evil black cat. Poe reads: “Is all we see or seem/but a dream within a dream?”. This dialogue offers a lot of foreshadowing for the audience. The audience can’t help but go back to the dialogue as they witness Poe’s wife die over and over and over again, struggling to decipher reality from dream.
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Perhaps some of the hardest scenes to watch in the entire series are the ones where Poe abuses the black feline. Together with the monochrome tone that contrasts with the striking red tones, Gordon weaves together a narrative that makes it hard for the audience to turn their eyes away from the screen.
5 Incident On and Off a Mountain Road (Season 1, Episode 1, 2005)
At first glance, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road might seem like a typical survival horror-thriller, but as the story begins to unveil, the audience is proven wrong about their assumptions. Directed by Don Coscarelli, the episode follows Ellen, portrayed by Bree Turner, who crashes her car into an abandoned car on the roadside and eventually finds herself facing a monstrous killer. As it is with other similar stories, one would expect a lot of running and chasing; however, Ellen takes the audience by surprise as she fights back.
Flashbacks into her past reveal that Ellen has been trained for worst-case scenario-type situations by her survivalist husband. As things remain grim and bloody in the present, the flashbacks also get grimmer, and it’s safe to assume that things did not end pretty for Ellen and her husband. Coscarelli does well to flip the final girl trope on its head and toy with the audience. The episode definitely has its share of gory scenes. Perhaps the most memorable one would be the one involving a drill into a victim’s eye socket.
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4 Sick Girl (Season 1, Episode 10, 2006)
Directed by Lucky McKee, Sick Girl is unique from other episodes in the anthology as it brings to screen a dark romantic comedy. The episode follows Ida, portrayed by Angela Bettis, an entomologist who receives an anonymous package containing an unknown insect. In an attempt to add the bug to her collection of creepy crawlies, Ida accidentally loses the insect. Eventually, the insect bit Ida’s girlfriend Misty, portrayed by Erin Brown. Slowly, as the episode progresses, Misty begins to transform into a horrific creature. Sick Girl is one of the best-constructed episodes in the anthology as it not only has the perfect pacing, but it does well to balance the comic and horror elements. The body horror in the episode is enough to leave the audience feeling gross and icky for days.
3 Pick Me Up (Season 1, Episode 11, 2006)
Larry Cohen’s Pick Me Up pits a killer who murders hitchhikers against a killer hitchhiker. The beginning of the episode shows a group of people that end up being stranded in the middle of nowhere after their bus breaks down. The group is divided into smaller fragments when some of the people end up hitchhiking with a truck driver, Wheeler, portrayed by Michael Moriarty. The hitchhikers end up falling victim to Wheeler, while the bus driver ends up being murdered by Walker, portrayed by Warren Kole, a hitchhiker killer. As the story progresses, the serial killers eventually find out that they have competition. This leads to a battle of wits and wills, as the two compete against one another. The episode has quite a lot of suspense and has a rather unexpected sick joke of an ending.
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2 Cigarette Burns (Season 1, Episode 8, 2005)
Directed by a legend in the industry, John Carpenter, Cigarette Burns is definitely one of the top episodes in the Master of Horror anthology. The episode follows Kirby Sweetman, portrayed by Norman Reedus, the owner of a retro-movie theater. Kirby has a talent for tracking down old, lost prints of films and is hired by a wealthy collector to retrieve a film named “La Fin Absolue Du Monde”, a film that had caused the entire audience to go mad when it premiered. As Kirby gets closer to tracking down the film, he begins to see twisted illusions and violence. The episode is rather Lovecraftian with the madness and horror that consumes it.
1 Imprint (Season 1, Episode 13, 2006)
Directed by Japanese director Takashi Miike, Imprint is the only episode in the Master of Horror anthology that was stricken from Showtime’s love broadcast for being too extreme, which in itself speaks for the horrors the episode holds. Based on a novel by Shimako Iwai, Imprint follows an American journalist who revisits Japan to reunite with his lost love, only to discover that she’s long been dead. The journalist implores the tale of his long love with a disfigured prostitute. The audience along with the journalist hear of the horrific tale that led to the demise of the woman. What makes Imprint so gruesome is the way it depicts a series of taboos including rape, murder, and incest, and even has scenes of prolonged torture. Miike’s work depicts a dream-like madness that will leave the audience laying awake for nights shivering in horror.
