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DVD Review: Masters of Horror - Family

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By: DThompson | in: Movies |

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Though John Landis has made only a few horror movies, and really just one great one; that one great movie, An American Werewolf in London, is SO great it turned out to be the movie he’s best known for. Thus, his inclusion as a “master” of horror when he’s probably better at comedies like The Blues Brothers, Animal House and Amazon Women on the Moon. Despite his less than lengthy horror pedigree, last year Landis turned in one of the best episodes of the season, Deer Woman. That episode was about a totally HOT Indian woman who also happened to be half deer from the waist down, and a murderous deer at that! So, as you can imagine, I was expecting something very good from Family.

The movie opens with iconic images of suburban life, cherry blossoms flutter before a clear blue sky, kids ride by on their bikes, the mailman makes his rounds, boys play catch. But, this is Masters of Horror, so you know that can’t last. This Blue Velvet inspired opening soon gives way to up tempo gospel music and a long tracking shot through a pleasant suburban home down into the basement. Here suburban home becomes suburban hell. A man pours acid over the body of an older man dissolving him in fully gory detail and exposing his skeleton. Continuing the tradition of unusual casting choices begun by Dario Argento with Meatloaf, our main character, crazy as a belfry full of bats, is played by George “What hath Norm wrought?” Wendt who acquits himself well as an outwardly friendly yet inwardly bonkers guy next door. He’s killed at least three people in an effort to create a family for himself, one that consists of wired skeletons playing dress up, yet in his mind they’re all quite alive and he talks and sometimes even argues with them. It’s sort of funny and pretty creepy all at the same time and I hereby promise not to make any “family of stiffs” jokes for the remainder of the review. Fear and suspense come into full bloom as he decides his pretty new neighbor would make a great addition to the “family”.

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Man! What is it about comedians that makes them such effective monsters? Rodney Dangerfield put in a chilling performance in Natural Born Killers and Robin Williams was supremely creepy in One Hour Photo. It’s enough to make you think twice about inviting internationally famous comics over for dinner and a beer.

In the end, and disappointingly, Family is a relatively straightforward tale of a crazy guy menacing his neighbors. The movie does contain a neat twist at the very end, which, instead of being terribly thrilling, transforms the whole story into an extended shaggy dog joke. Unlike the much better Deer Woman, which plays with multiple clichés like the Native American monster, the washed up detective who’s partners keep dying and the gorgeous yet deadly (and possibly supernatural) woman to great effect, Family just gives you a crazy guy. Not entirely without wit, as when Wendt ends an (imagined) argument with his long dead skeleton of a wife by shouting at her “That’s just crazy!”, the plot is still mostly a serious one. Deer Woman spread its humor throughout the story instead of saving it up for a punch line at the end. As such, it’s Deer Woman I recommend you rent and suggest you leave Family on the shelf.

VERDICT: Deer Woman kicks Family’s, well, you know.

[Buy Family on Amazon]

More: DVD Review: Masters of Horror - Pelts


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Posted on May 19, 2007

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