Sunday, December 25, 2005

Review: Joe Dante's Homecoming (Masters of Horror)

absolutely brilliant, this episode alone justifies the series, funny, touching, and with *a point* other than just "hey look sex & violence!".

the show is the first to really make use of its tv medium, with lots of mock news reports and studio footage, not trying to make a cinematic film on a tv budget, but this doesnt prevent some incredibly eery scenes, the sight of dead bodies stirring underneath american flags is highly creepy and effective. 2 fantastic performances from the "ann coulter"-style right-wing bitch, and the snide presidential advisor played by the star trek guy, raise this one to a level above previous efforts from argento and gordon, they bring extra depth to their characters other than what is written in the script. and did i mention its laugh-out-loud funny? the evangelist claiming the dead are a "blessing from heaven", then after they vote democrat, that they are "demons from hell" is priceless! equally hilarious: "why dont they just *do* something? munch someones brains or something?".

dante piles in the references to other films in his classic style ( graveyards marked "john gilling" etc) and hammers home the real-life current events parallelling the on-screen action in a way that is both thoughtful and stirring, and never condescending and preachy.

joe dante proves he still has the magic he last conjured up 15 years ago in gremlins 2. his episode blows aways gordon & argento's efforts, and its equally unlikely that carpenter or miike will be able to get anywhere near close.

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