Masters of Horror

Reviewed by:
Mike Connolly

Showtime's new anthology series brings together top horror directors such as John Carpenter (Halloween), Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep), and Tobe Hooper (the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre) for hour-long mayhem that puts your drunken IHOP jaunts to shame. The shorter format preserves all the gore and frights of great horror movies, but cuts the camp and filler that drags longer theatrical versions into the absurd. The first episode, "Incident on and off a Mountain Road," pits a deformed serial killer against a not-so-innocent girl on the run. Although similar to recent movies such as House of 1,000 Corpses and Wrong Turn, "Incident" far surpasses those amateur efforts with an intriguing backstory. For horror fans, this series is a 13-episode terror buffet. But for those less inclined toward blood-and-boob slash-fests, flip on over to TGIF—you aren't worthy of these masters' efforts.