Dwight Faraday is a Detective that doesn't seem to be too happy with his job, maybe that's because he's the one getting all the weird calls, and handles the cases that involves animals. That's until one day when a series of bizarre murders happen. The murders grab Faraday's attention, since all the victim's seem to have been stomped to death with a massive force, and it looks like it couldn't have be the work of a normal human being. All the men killed were also in a state of sexual arousal, and one thing that they all seem to have in common is the fact that they were all last seen with a beautiful Native American woman. Could she have something to do with the murders?
Where Deer Woman fails as a horror movie, it picks up again due to its good comical timing. It's not a great flick, that may not be very original either, but it's for sure a very likable flick that is easy to get into, and that provides a few good laughs as well. Thing though is that I wouldn't call John Landis a master of horror since the guy haven't made too many horror flicks, but I guess he's famous for An American Werewolf in London so I guess that might be the reason to why he was asked to be in on the series.
And Deer Woman is really not a horror movie per se, it's more like a thriller with some humour in it. But I'm not too irritated by the fact that's it's not proper horror movie, instead I found it to be quite an intertaining piece of film with a likable Brian Benben in it who star as Detective Dwight Faraday. Basically, the movie has a really good feel to it, and even though it's super predictable, it was still enjoyable. The story is somewhat cool, but everything is a bit too obvious. You have the title that is Deer Woman, add to that a beautiful strange girl (well, a woman) who has been seen every time there has been a murder. And finally, the victim's all seem to have been stomped to death by some massive force that looks like it could've been caused by a animal of some kind (a deer perhaps?). Even so, it's still entertaining.
What Faraday eventually finds out after been investigating for some time, is an old Native American myth that is about half woman, half deer, that seduces men and then drags them to the woods to kill them. If the movie would not have had such a strong emphasis on comedy and just tried to be a horror flick all the way, it would so not have worked. Luckily that's not the case which makes it at least interesting enough to take a look at. Brian Benben's comical acting works really well, and I would say that he's the backbone of the whole movie. Without him, I bet it wouldn't have been half as ok as it now turned out to be.
Not really a proper horror movie, but more like a comical and sarcastic thriller which actually worked quite well. The story was not that special or interesting, but it was still entertaining, and the movie has an overall good pacing. Worth a look.
Back to Horror Review Archive
|
ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Deer Woman
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: John Landis
WRITING CREDITS: Max Landis, John Landis
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Brian Benben, Cinthia Moura, Sonja Bennett
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 57 min
RATING: 5/10
Masters of Horror (S01E07): Deer Woman Website/IMDB Click here
Masters of Horror (S01E07): Deer Woman Trailer Click here
|
