DVD Release
I’m going to be honest here, when I originally watched this episode on Showtime I didn’t like it one damn bit. In my opinion Mick Garris, Tobe Hooper, Joe Dante and John Landis has the worst episodes in the series. Their episodes just didn’t float my boat; I’ve seen “Tales from the Darkside” episodes with more tension.
When I received this along with Lucky McKee’s episode I was just dreading watching this thing again but I’ll be damned if I didn’t like it better the second time around. Granted, this was still not scary. There were no social boundaries being pushed…no toes being stepped on…this is what I like to call, HORROR-LITE. It was funny, goofy and a little gory but nothing that forces the viewers into a mental fetal position. In a series of big ass hamburgers, this was a Big Mac; all filler with very little “meat”.
Detective Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben) is a burnt out cop assigned to the “animal attacks” department and “weird calls” desk where he fields such important cases as Monkey attacks. Things are about to change for Faraday though when he’s called to a crime scene by patrolman Reed (Anthony Griffith) after discovering a body in the parking lot of a Bar that resembled a trampling by an unidentified animal. Witnesses claim the victim was accompanied outside of the bar by a beautiful Native American woman (Cinthia Moura) but there’s no trace of the woman.
Unfortunately, Faraday is quickly yanked from the case and Detective Patterson (Alex Zahara) and his partner Fuchs (Don Thompson) are put in charge of what’s being called a “homicide”. Nothing seems to be adding up for Faraday though. All signs point to the murder weapon being deer hooves but no deer would be capable of that type of power. Not only are these victims piling up but they’re all aroused while being beaten to death.
Gentlemen, I don’t know about all of you but I ALMOST curled up into the fetal position when hottie morgue girl Dana (Sonja Bennett) explains that one victim’s penis was “snapped off” while he was being trampled. YOW!!
Anyhow, Faraday fights to get the case because all signs are pointing to an animal doing these killings and Chief Einhorn (Julian Christopher) finally gives in. Faraday sets out with Officer Reed to investigate but more and more clues are indicating that the murderer may be none other than a Native American myth involving a Deer Woman and her penchant for slaughtering men she’s lured into the forest.
Will Faraday stop this “Deer Woman” before she kills again? What motives might this woman have for killing men? Can we please see her tits one more time?
“Deer Woman” is a good episode but it’s not great. Yeah, I do like it far more than I originally did but I still wonder what exactly Landis’ feels is horror nowadays? Will his next MOH entry be as goofy as this one? Perhaps my hopes for this series were WAY too high due to the title but can you blame me? When you say “John Landis” I’m expecting something on par with An American Werewolf in London…not this…this…silly episode featuring Benben playing straight man to everybody including his own imagination!
By the way, sharp horror geeks out there will pick up Benben citing the events that occurred in An American Werewolf in London as “proof” of the possibility of an unknown biped running the streets killing people. I thought that was kind of cool.
“Deer Woman” doesn’t take itself very seriously, nor should you. We get some gore, beautiful breasts and some sketchy CG sequences but it was still better than Garris’ “Chocolate”. The acting was wonderful, though Anthony Griffith was a bit stiff. For me, the dialogue was a plus. It was packed with razor sharp wit and some damn pretty funny lines.
I’d say this DVD is definitely worth grabbing as long as you know ahead of time that this is not a “scary” episode; this BARELY has any tension at all. B-movie fans will probably love it though so rent first unless you plan to collect the entire series.
