Faye (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
said_scarlett) wrote2012-03-19 07:12 pm
said_scarlett) wrote2012-03-19 07:12 pm
Horror Anthologies!
As I've been stuck sick in bed for a few days, I've been sampling Netflix's offering of my favorite type of television program, the horror/supernatural anthology!
There are three I've been watching, and here are my impressions.
Fear Itself: My favorite, honestly. The first episode (Eater) is pretty gross, but that's the only one with a high 'ick' factor. And honestly, it's the film filters and atmosphere as much as the actual gore that's icky. So unless you really want to see Peggy from Mad Men reprising her role as a plucky female cop trying to make it in a boy's world and also deal with a misogynistic cannibal voodoo serial killer, you can skip it. But the rest were all damn good. The series is created by my own personal favorite horror director, Mick Garris. There are only about 13 episodes, each 50 minutes, and each from a different writer/director team. There are some very Twilight Zone-esque episodes, a few easy to guess endings, and a few spots of overacting, but really it's a nice little collection. I personally quite enjoyed 'Echoes' and 'The Sacrifice'.
And the last episode is based on the same short story that heavily inspired Alan Wake, so there's that.
Master's of Horror: Another Garris series! This one for nighttime cable, so it's kind of boobapalooza. It's the same concept as Fear Itself, but with a bigger budget and more well known directors/writers/actors. It's also severely hit or miss. And Netflix lists each episode as a single movie. And only titles half of them 'Masters of Horror: Title Here', so you have to know the exact title of the episode you're looking for. This makes watching it a bit of a pain. But they're all pretty graphic, and all over the map. The first episode I watched had an amazing female main character, and the next one made uncomfortable and wondering what sort of issues with women the writer had. :/
The Hunger: Showtime anthology that basically just tried to see how many different horror cliches/scenarios it could highly eroticize. The episodes are only half an hour each, and boast such guest stars as Daniel Craig, David Bowie and Collin Ferguson, and are presented in the narrator-box style. Again, extremely hit or miss. The first episode is rather 'meh', the second was creepy and skewed gender ideals and the third turned into a freaking live action hentai in the last five minutes. Also, the narrator parts are trying way, way too hard.
There are three I've been watching, and here are my impressions.
Fear Itself: My favorite, honestly. The first episode (Eater) is pretty gross, but that's the only one with a high 'ick' factor. And honestly, it's the film filters and atmosphere as much as the actual gore that's icky. So unless you really want to see Peggy from Mad Men reprising her role as a plucky female cop trying to make it in a boy's world and also deal with a misogynistic cannibal voodoo serial killer, you can skip it. But the rest were all damn good. The series is created by my own personal favorite horror director, Mick Garris. There are only about 13 episodes, each 50 minutes, and each from a different writer/director team. There are some very Twilight Zone-esque episodes, a few easy to guess endings, and a few spots of overacting, but really it's a nice little collection. I personally quite enjoyed 'Echoes' and 'The Sacrifice'.
And the last episode is based on the same short story that heavily inspired Alan Wake, so there's that.
Master's of Horror: Another Garris series! This one for nighttime cable, so it's kind of boobapalooza. It's the same concept as Fear Itself, but with a bigger budget and more well known directors/writers/actors. It's also severely hit or miss. And Netflix lists each episode as a single movie. And only titles half of them 'Masters of Horror: Title Here', so you have to know the exact title of the episode you're looking for. This makes watching it a bit of a pain. But they're all pretty graphic, and all over the map. The first episode I watched had an amazing female main character, and the next one made uncomfortable and wondering what sort of issues with women the writer had. :/
The Hunger: Showtime anthology that basically just tried to see how many different horror cliches/scenarios it could highly eroticize. The episodes are only half an hour each, and boast such guest stars as Daniel Craig, David Bowie and Collin Ferguson, and are presented in the narrator-box style. Again, extremely hit or miss. The first episode is rather 'meh', the second was creepy and skewed gender ideals and the third turned into a freaking live action hentai in the last five minutes. Also, the narrator parts are trying way, way too hard.