Deer Woman

After spending far too long making comedies, another genre for which he is well known, John Landis makes a bit of a comeback with this amusing entry in the popular Masters Of Horror series. Deer Woman is definitely a Landis horror flick. Much in the same way that An American Werewolf In London did almost 30 years ago, Deer Woman mixes a steady helping of humour in with its horror. Its kinda nifty to see a native American legend that perhaps was not the easy route to take make an appearance as the monster for this episode. It would have been much easier for the writer (Landis's son, Max) to just make it a werewolf or vampire. Brian Benben is hilarious as the cop who always seems to get the weird cases. He is put upon but still has his dignity. Fans will get a kick out of a reference to American Werewolf's key setpiece. While certainly not the scariest entry, Deer Woman makes for a fun one and a welcome return for Landis.

John Landis has a fair amount of comedy credits to his name; Blues Brothers, Animal House, Kentucky Fried Movie. But his horror credits are kind of limited, mostly the video for Thriller, and An American Werewolf In London. This sums up the way that this episode runs. Deer Woman deals with a cop and his new partner working on a case involving a few guys who have been killed in a very violent trampling manner. They eventually learn that it's a half deer-half woman creature, a Native American myth.

The entire movie runs exactly like an episode of The X-Files. Rather, any of the funny episodes of The X-Files. It's very fun, but it's not very horrific. I think there was one good jump scare, but it was mostly just a lot of good quips. Very little else to say about it.

When I first heard that John Landis had directed this episode I didn't really know why because compared to the other directors, he isn't really a Master of HORROR. But then I remembered the classic horror/comedy An American Werewolf in London which has earned him this title. Deer Woman is much the same, a great blending of comedy and horror.

The plot focuses on a policeman (Brian Benben) who is investigating a series of bizarre murders where the victims are trampled to death. This leads him to believe that an Indian folklore might be true and a "Deer Woman" (Cinthia Moura) is seducing and killing men.

Brian Benben is hilarious as burned-out policemen Dwight Faraday. In one particularly amusing scene, he imagines all the possible ways of death by deer. If it weren't for his acting that scene would not have been as funny. Cinthia Moura is perfect as the Deer Woman, she didn't need to speak but her facial expressions and perfect body made the character.

John Landis' direction is pretty much perfect as he is suited to horror/comedies. Although there is more comic elements to the movie, there is a nice amount of horror in it and it is suitably gory and gross.

4/5.

It's campy and sort of lame, but I was entertained, and that's all I could ask for! Made me laugh a few times too! And the lead actress is just drop dead gorgeous! Stunningly so! Fun aside, Landis references at least two of his other films - "An American Werewolf in London" and also "The Blues Brothers", specifically Murph and the Magic Tones!

I'm quickly becoming a massive fan of the "Masters of Horror"-series, despite this only being the third episode that I've watched. What can I say? So far, they all delivered a good story, a fair amount of tension and plenty of gory situations and hence I see absolutely no reason to be negative about this TV-initiative...This installment was directed and co-written by John Landis; a filmmaker who already deserves to be called a "master" in the genre if it were only for that one immortal classic "An American Werewolf in London". Landis also directed the very adequate "Innocent Blood" and "Shlock", but those are lesser known movies and belong more in the cult section. "Deer Woman" is a very nifty variation on the premise of urban legends/campfire tales/mythological stories that turn out frighteningly real and revolves on a stunning Indian beauty who seduces random guys and then tramples them to death with her deer legs. It takes quite a few dead bodies before fatigue police detective Faraday and officer Reed unofficially discover that the murders are committed exactly like it's described in an ancient Native American myth. The characters in "Deer Woman" are likable and there seems to be a much deeper story behind each and every one of them. The 60 minutes screenplay also preserves more than enough time for humor, witty dialogues and a truly priceless reference to the aforementioned "American Werewolf". Brian Benben is very adequate in his role of tormented copper and the unknown Cinthia Moura (the deer woman herself) is magnificent eye-candy. She hasn't got any lines but her natural charisma and gorgeous smile definitely did the job. Recommended!