I am not a subscriber to Showtime. In fact, I cut off my cable back in January when I realized that between Netflix and the Library I could totally get my fix of visual entertainments on DVD and not deal with nary a commercial or Kardashian while getting it. Therefore, I'm still chipping my way through the "Masters of Horror" series. Yes, I know, "Bad Fanboy!"
Well, I wish I could have watched one to blog about that was one of the highlights, like "Imprint" or "Cigarette Burns" or even just over the top gore (the nauseating "Pelts" and "Jenifer," anyone?) but instead I have a middle of the road selection for you.
"We All Scream For Ice Cream" feels more like an entry in the "Tales from the Crypt" series. The director for this entry is Tom Holland, who also gave us the classics "Fright Night" and "Child's Play," along with three "Tales," come to think of it. This particular episode is a morality play about a group of men who, as children, played a prank on a mentally disabled clown who drives an ice cream van that wound up killing him. Now, Buster the clown is back and feeding cursed popsicles to their children. When the kids bite them, these men dissolve into Neopolitan goo.
...and it is fabulous goo. Thick white and pink and brown, it looks just like melted ice cream... though filled with chunks of bone. There's a big melting scene that's also fabulously '80's with a skeleton bobbing around in a tub of water, dripping big viscous streams of the aforementioned man-ice-cream.
I really need to come up with a better term for that.
It's a bit of a two-fer since you have "Ice Cream Vans" and "Clowns" - a pair of easily corruptible childhood icons. While based on a John Farris short story that I have not read (he is an excellent author, though), as a TV program it feels very reminiscent of "It." Featuring William Forsythe as a sweet-natured clown doesn't help either. He works as the evil ghost clown, but it's William bloody Forsythe. I've never put him in the warm 'n' fuzzy category, personally. The other lead here is Lee Tergesen. He's playing a stoic dad part, but I've got him typecast from "Oz." When he confronts a bad seed type from their youth while the guys in his tub, I more'n half expect him to climb in.
So far I've never been bored by one of the "Masters of Horror" programs, and recommend them, this entry included. "Dance of the Dead" was long-winded, and both "Homecoming" and "Deer Woman" also felt like "Tales from the Crypt." Some entries are more genius, some are just good. This was a just good. Like "Right to Die," it's a perfectly passable hour I enjoyed immensely... but won't remember much of in another two.
Hmm, maybe I'll try another one for tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment