GG
Giuliano Giacomelli
•A series of bizarre murders shakes the law enforcement of a quiet mountain town; the victims are all men, found mutilated and crushed to the bone. The case is immediately entrusted to Dwight Faraday, a demoted detective on the verge of depression who, while investigating the crime scenes, will discover that all the clues found lead to a mythological figure of Native Americans, a monstrous creature half woman and half deer.
«Deer Woman» (rebaptized for the Italian market with the anonymous title «Killer Legend») is the sixth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror and to complete this work, John Landis, a director best known to the public for making comedies with more or less demented tones, was hired. However, from time to time, he has not hesitated to venture into our favorite genre, even managing to offer excellent products capable of marking the annals of the genre. To him, we owe the existence of notable comedies, now true milestones among comic films, such as «Animal House», «Blues Brothers», and «Trading Places», but as already mentioned, Landis has wanted, on more than one occasion, to have his say in the horror landscape by directing films of a certain caliber such as the beautiful «An American Werewolf in London», like «Innocent Blood», and one could also cite the famous music video «Thriller» of Michael Jackson's pop-rock song. In short, although he does not have many horror titles to his credit, John Landis does not stand out among the small circle of Masters of Horror.
With «Deer Woman», John Landis realizes a work worthy of bearing his name thanks to a simple, original story, and capable of entertaining the viewer by making them laugh from the first to the last minute of this short but effective tale. Once again, Landis does not disappoint and as a good fanatic of the coarse comedy, he makes an episode of Masters of Horror continuously balancing between horror and humor, an episode capable of fully expressing his personality and of carrying his signature not only through the opening credits.
Consequently, we find ourselves with an episode not strictly horror that prefers to sacrifice the scare in favor of laughter, but it should be highlighted that the comedy component is inserted into the story in a very skillful way, naturally, without ever falling excessively into the absurd or worse into the ridiculous (with the exception of an irresistible sequence in which the protagonist imagines how the murder of a truck driver could have occurred). In addition to this successful blend of horror and comedy (in which Landis proves to be a true master), it should be said that «Deer Woman» works very well in all its other components. The plot at the base of the project turns out to be quite intriguing because it addresses, in an original way, a theme little exploited by horror cinema by examining Native American mythology constantly intent on communicating the predominance that nature exercises over the human race.
Worthy of praise is the screenplay, written by John Landis himself and Max Landis, endowed with a great rhythm, excellent fast and irreverent dialogues (capable of provoking more than a few laughs) and great interest in characterizing the various characters, interesting and capable of playing with the most widespread stereotypes without ever falling into the banal or the already seen.
The only flaw that, perhaps, can be identified within the screenplay can be found in the elaboration of the ending a bit too rushed and lacking a real climax.
The cast also performs very well, but special attention is deserved by the likable Brian Benben, perfectly cast as the detective protagonist, and the young Cinthia Moura in the role of the sexy and captivating deer woman.
It will not certainly be the most horror episode of the first series of Masters of Horror but it certainly appears as one of the most successful and interesting works of this first season. John Landis continues to assert a certain familiarity behind the camera; it would be interesting to see him more often dealing with products akin to the horror genre.