Masters of Horror: Malone & McNaughton (DVD)

William Malone's Fair-Haired Child and John McNaughton's Haeckle's Tale are the two most-recent DVDs from Masters of Horror Season One, and the timing could not be more perfect. With Masters of Horror Season Two on holidays hiatus (the series returns in late December), it's a great time to revisit two of the best episodes from last year and learn a lot more about their directors.

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The Fair-Haired Child:

Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher) is a blonde and beautiful, but she’s far from popular at her high school. She’s a bit of a nerd — she daydreams about comic bookish superheroes in class, she’s painfully shy, and out of style. One afternoon while taking a shortcut home through the woods her inattention gets the better of her; she’s snatched by a madman, thrown into the back of a van, and held prisoner in an isolated mansion.

Tara’s troubles double after she’s thrown headlong into the disheveled basement and she quickly encounters a suicidal young man. Johnny (Jesse Haddock) seems to know more about her predicament than he lets on. Not that he can do much about his caginess — he can’t speak. The unnerved teen communicates as best he can, but still, he can’t stop the hellish, cellar-dwelling creature from coming for Tara’s blood.

Just who is this creature? That's the mystery, but the suspense and horror hits much closer to home.

The commentary on this DVD is great, because it features both the director and the writer (Matt Greenberg) of The Fair-Haired Child; it's genuinely interesting to learn about the evolution of the horror tale, and how circumstances while shooting the episode changed the story in ways that became, in Malone's words, "happy accidents." This is truly the most visually unique of the Masters of Horror series, and some of the secrets are revealed as to how the most spectacular shots came about.

The motion of the monster is truly chilling, and in the commentary Malone and Greenberg discuss how "when the creature looked more scared, the more scary he becomes." That is an interesting observation, as everyone knows, instinctively, that a cornered, frightened animal is at its most dangerous — so by making the monster scared, it speaks to the audience's hard-wired, prehistoric intuition.

It's too bad Anchor Bay didn't add closed-captioning for the hearing-impaired, but the story has little dialogue anyway, so it's easy enough to follow along while listening to the commentary. They are to be commended for going the extra mile on the other features!

The featurettes reveal how one of the most shocking scenes, Tara getting hit by a van, was done, and I must say it's brilliant. (When the episode was originally sent to me in screener format, I rewound it to watch it again twice!) I never would have guessed how it was done.

Finally, it's fascinating to learn about Malone's origins in monster movies (interviews with film historian Bob Burns, actor Jeffrey Combs, and cinematographer Christian Sebaldt reveal some intriguing tidbits about the visually-driven director), and so much more.

DVD Features:

• Commentary by Director William Malone and Writer Matt Greenberg
• "The Face Of Fear: An Interview with William Malone" featurette
• "Working With A Master: William Malone" featurette
• "Behind The Scenes: The Making of Fair Haired Child" featurette
• On Set: An Interview with Jesse Haddock
• On Set: An Interview with Lori Petty
• On Set: An Interview with Lindsay Pulsipher
• On Set: An Interview with William Samples
• Scene from William Malone's first short film
• Trailers
• Still Gallery
• William Malone Bio
• Screenplay (DVD-ROM)
• Screensaver (DVD-ROM)

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Haeckel's Tale:

The story begins as many classic tales of terror do: in front of a crackling fire. Warming her old bones is an all-seeing crone, Miz Carnation (Micki Maunsell). Soon at her side is a bereaved husband, desperately looking for a way to bring his young wife back from the dead. Rocking in her chair, the gnarled woman recounts Haeckel's Tale.

Decades ago, a man of science called Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil) ran afoul of a necromancer known as The Great Montesquino (Jon Polito) — both were as different from the other as could be, but they did share one common belief: Yes, it is somehow possible to reanimate the dead.

DVD Features:

• Commentary by director John McNaughton
• "Breaking Taboos: An Interview with John McNaughton" featurette
• "Working With A Master: John McNaughton" featurette
• "Behind The Scenes: The Making of Haeckel's Tale" featurette
• On Set: An Interview with Leela Savasta
• On Set: An Interview with Jon Polito
• On Set: An Interview with Derek Cecil
• Script To Screen: Haeckel’s Tale
• Trailers
• Still Gallery
• John McNaughton Bio
• Screenplay (DVD-ROM)
• Screensaver (DVD-ROM)