• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Masters of Horror: The TV Series

sherbetbizarre said:
Good News - Bravo are to show the series from Friday 13th at 11pm.

http://www.bravo.co.uk/mastersofhorror/

(My TV guide says the 13th, but the website says 27th!)

Website now says 13th. Its worth pointing out that their info is wrong as Roger Corman and George Romero had to back out. See the first post of this thread (which I've been updating) for the actual lits of directors and the running order.

---------------
Oh and the UK DVD is set for release from Anchor Bay on 13th March 2006.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Oh and the UK DVD is set for release from Anchor Bay on 13th March 2006.

Masters of Horror Vol.1 (R2) in March

Anchor Bay have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of Masters of Horror Volume 1 for 13th March 2006 priced at £19.99. Representing a major television event in the US when it began broadcasting on Showtime in October 2005, the MASTERS OF HORROR series is the brainchild of director Mick Garris (The Stand; The Shining). To direct the series of 13 brand-new, one-hour films, Garris has gathered together an astonishing roster of major names from the horror genre – names that include John Carpenter (The Fog; Halloween), Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep; the Phantasm series), Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Dario Argento (Suspiria; Tenebrae), Joe Dante (Gremlins; The Howling), John Landis (Innocent Blood; An American Werewolf In London), Stuart Gordon (From Beyond; Re-Animator), Larry Cohen (Q: The Winged Serpent; It's Alive), Lucky McKee (The Woods; May), John McNaughton (Wild Things; Henry; Portrait Of A Serial Killer), William Malone (FeardotCom; House On Haunted Hill), Takashi Miike (One Missed Call; Ichi The Killer) and Garris himself.

Scheduled to be released on a monthly basis beginning in March 2006, each volume will be a two-disc edition featuring two films from the series, both packed with a host of exclusive extra features including interviews with the directors, audio commentaries, behind the scenes featurettes and much more.

The first MASTERS OF HORROR release will include John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, a supernatural chiller that looks at the dark power and influence of cinema, and Stuart Gordon's Dream In The Witch House, a diabolical tale of madness based on a short story by legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.

As Executive Producer of MASTERS OF HORROR, it was Garris's intention to provide the opportunity for the world's leading horror directors to make the films they wanted to make, on their own terms, with no artistic restrictions and no studio interference. The results speak for themselves, with a cutting-edge horror series that pulls no punches when it comes to graphic imagery and edge-of-the-seat terror.

British horror fans will get their first chance to witness this groundbreaking horror series when Bravo Television hosts an exclusive premier UK broadcast of the show every Friday at 11 p.m beginning, appropriately, on Friday, 13th January.

www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=59927
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
sherbetbizarre said:
Good News - Bravo are to show the series from Friday 13th at 11pm.

http://www.bravo.co.uk/mastersofhorror/

(My TV guide says the 13th, but the website says 27th!)

Website now says 13th. Its worth pointing out that their info is wrong as Roger Corman and George Romero had to back out. See the first post of this thread (which I've been updating) for the actual lits of directors and the running order.

Just a nudge to remind everyone this starts tonight after the New Night Stalker:
www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20875
 
The opening episode was ”Incident On And Off A Mountain Road,” dir. Don Coscarelli - I enjoyed it, good stuff.
 
Yep I watched it again as I enjoyed it so much.

I really enjoyed Angus Scrimm's Buddy. Really nice playing against type.

Interesting it is rather spoiled by the need for ads - Showtime doesn't have them and can keep it at a tight continuous hour but Bravo had to have it at an hour and 10 and the last break came at rather a crucial juncture in proceedings (I wonder if anyone thought it was over on the hour and switched over?).

Make sure you check out the one next week too - the series starts with a strong one two but things go rather off the boil in the middle (although Jenifer is also as good as these early two). Running order (and reviews as they go online) are in the first post of this thread.
 
I finally caught Carpenter's Cigarette Burns and I think it's the best that I've seen of the series so far. I still haven't seen Coscarelli's entry though. I can't believe Cigarette Burns was written by 2 of the guys behind Aint-it-cool-news.com.
 
This could be very bad news - I thought it was odd there had been no details out there:

January 15, 2006

Has Miike Been Dropped From Masters of Horror?

(Posted In Horror TV )

It isn't one hundred percent confirmed, but the rumblings are that Takashi Miike's Imprint has been dropped from Showtime's Masters of Horror. I've had a pair of emails about this today and a bit of poking around seems to bear it out.

The entire series is currently in the midst of screening at the Vancouver International Film Centre - with a handful of special guests, so if you can go you really should - but the Vancouver folks have dropped Miike's entry from their lineup. According to the official VIFC website the Miike screening was cancelled due to copyright issues. This is more than a little puzzling considering that the copyright would be held entirely by Showtime, just as the rest of the series is, so this really doesn't seem to wash. How can screening the rest of the episodes - even the ones that haven't yet aired - be okay and screening the Miike not be? Odd.

A quick scan of the TV Guide website turns up more bad news ... while they still have some skeletal information on the episode - little more than acknowledgement that it exists, really - it is the only episode in the series to not have an air date listed, meaning that there currently isn't an airing scheduled.

And while Showtime has their website regionally blocked - you can't read it without a US based IP address - I'm told that their page for the series has removed any mentions of Miike and Imprint entirely.

So what's the story? Has Miike gone far enough to offend a cable network, is it simply not very good, or is there some other explanation?

Thanks to Aaron and Ken for the heads up.

www.twitchfilm.net/archives/004800.html
 
It seems like it might get an airing at YIFF (always reminds me of that episode of CSI!!!):

January 16, 2006

YIFFF: Takashi Miike's MASTERS OF HORROR: IMPRINT, starring Youki Kudoh, Billy Drago, Michie Itô, Toshie Negishi, and Shimako Iwai

(Posted In Asia Film News Horror Random Festival News TV USA and Canada )

Takashi Miike's Masters of Horror: Imprint is scheduled to be screened at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2006 (Yûbari Kokusai Fantasutikku Eigasai 2006) - "YIFFF" for short - in Hokkaido, Japan on February 25th at 11:00 p.m. (23:00).

The screenplay for Masters of Horror: Imprint was written by Daisuke Tengan, based on the novel Bokkê, kyôtê (the title of which is in the Okayama dialect of Japanese) by Shimako Iwai. The (made-for-TV) movie apparently stars Youki Kudoh (Kudô Yûki), Billy Drago, Michie Itô, Toshie Negishi, and (Shimako) Iwai. Yûichi Matsui was responsible for its special make-up effects.

Here's a synopsis for Masters of Horror: Imprint from this page for the movie on TV.com:

"An American journalist in 19th century Japan is hoping to find the love he left behind. His long search leads him to a dark island where the only sanctuary is a brothel. He ends up spending the night with an interesting woman where he learns that some things are better off left in the past."

For more information on Masters of Horror: Imprint, see the January 15th Twitch article "Has Miike Been Dropped From Masters of Horror?".

Miike's other upcoming movies include Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (46-okunen no koi) and Waru: Final.

YIFFF: Masters of Horror: Imprint (English)
YIFFF: Masters of Horror: Imprint (Japanese)

www.twitchfilm.net/archives/004806.html

Soooooo it will be shown in some palces - will it make it to TV? Is it just bloody awful or has Miike pushed the envelope too far? Considering his past work the question that arises is: What could he do that would push the envelope that far?
 
From fangoria.com:
In a season full of envelope-pushing themes and acts of violence, there’s one episode of MASTERS OF HORROR you won’t be finding on Showtime after all. Confirming rumors circulating throughout the web and rumblings heard over here at Fango, The New York Times reports that Takashi Miike’s contribution, IMPRINT, will not be airing on its originally announced January 27 time slot. As a matter of fact, it won’t be airing on the cable station at all; instead, the episode will make its debut via DVD when Anchor Bay Entertainment releases it on an undetermined date."


"IMPRINT tells the story of an American (played by Billy Drago, pictured on set with Miike and soon to be seen in Alexandre Aja’s THE HILLS HAVE EYES) who travels to Japan to reunite with a prostitute he fell in love with. However, when he reaches his final destination, he is told a graphic tale of his lover’s fate. Naturally, this all unfolds under Miike’s uncompromising leadership and viewers are subjected to intense sequences of torture (including a setpiece involving a dwarf, a bound prostitute and a handful of burning incense)."


"According to a number of sources, IMPRINT was screened before a group of Showtime execs recently and was met with a reaction of disgust, to say the least. Discussions quickly began as a decision had to be made: air Miike’s episode in a time slot where it would likely go unseen by the casual viewer (such as in the early morning) or remove it from the slate altogether and leave it in the hands of Anchor Bay to distribute. They opted for the latter in an effort to preserve Miike’s vision."

[“What I can say is it’s one of the most unrelenting, intense films I’ve ever seen,” series creator/executive producer Mick Garris tells Fango. “It may be even more intense than AUDITION, and you know that that’s saying something. It takes quite a bit of intestinal fortitude to watch IMPRINT. It’s incredibly powerful."

http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5428
 
More news on series two:

January 18: MASTERS OF HORROR season two update

We all knew it was inevitable that there would be a season two of IDT Entertainment’s MASTERS OF HORROR, following its successful debut run on Showtime. But who will the next round of MASTERS be? A mix of the old and new, Fango has learned. Creator/executive producer Mick Garris confirms that John Landis, Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter and himself will be back to helm more segments of the critically praised anthology.

Regarding directorial newcomers, “Brad Anderson [pictured] is one of the new faces on board this time,” Garris reveals. “I’m a huge fan of his SESSION 9 and THE MACHINIST. We’re trying to lock up several others, but schedules this year are increasingly difficult to coordinate. We hope to have Guillermo del Toro and Rob Zombie on board as well.” Both del Toro and Zombie could not squeeze in MASTERS gigs last time.

Of season two’s writers, PICK ME UP’s David J. Schow just completed his adaptation of the John Farris story “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream,” while CIGARETTE BURNS’ Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan will collaborate on a new teleplay for Carpenter again. Horror author Graham (THE MANITOU) Masterton’s “Anti-Claus” has also been optioned (see previous item here), while DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE’s Stuart Gordon and fellow H.P. Lovecraft scholar/co-author Dennis Paoli have another classic author in mind for their MASTERS follow-up. “We are doing THE BLACK CAT,” Gordon tells Fango, “ideally with Jeffrey Combs playing Poe! We are excited to be back, as MASTERS OF HORROR is a groundbreaking show.”

And the news gets even better. “Clive Barker is writing an original screen treatment, which I will adapt and possibly direct,” adds Garris, who tackled Barker’s “Haeckel’s Tale” to close out the first batch of MASTERS episodes. “I also wrote another script called THE V WORD, which is an original.” Regarding MASTERS OF HORROR’s future, Garris concludes, “All we really want to do is give voice to the best people in the horror genre and make the best fright films possible. We truly want to continue to stretch the envelope and do the kinds of things that go beyond the commonplace mall-cinema fare.”

Check out FANGORIA’s ongoing MASTERS OF HORROR coverage in issues #249-251 (on sale through March), and watch this site for exclusive chats with Schow and HAECKEL’S TALE director John (HENRY) McNaughton soon. —Tony Timpone

www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5422

Some really good stuff there!!
 
More on Miike:

January 20: Miike talks MASTERS’ IMPRINT; DVD plans

Anchor Bay Entertainment is already hatching plans for its DVD release of IMPRINT, Takashi Miike’s controversial stab at the MASTERS OF HORROR series. Although the episode was deemed too graphic for Showtime and officially yanked from the schedule about a week before its debut (read about that here), Anchor Bay, which owns the home-video rights, is promising to load up its IMPRINT disc with juicy bonus material. Specifics aren’t in just yet, but we can expect behind-the-scenes footage, stills and trailers. The company is aiming to get the episode on DVD this fall.

In a recent press release regarding the disc, Miike (pictured)—who until now has not been heard from since Showtime’s decision was made—had this to say: “To tell you the truth, I was not surprised to hear that IMPRINT would not air. Through the experience of directing this episode, I have discovered that while humor can have its limits, fear has no limits. I could not suppress the volume of terror that this film conveys.”

The first of the MASTERS OF HORROR DVDs are scheduled for release March 28: CIGARETTE BURNS and DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE, by John Carpenter and Stuart Gordon, respectively. Go here for details on those. —Ryan Rotten

www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5443

See also;

www.twitchfilm.net/archives/004873.html
 
A good big feature on the last in the series:

John McNaughton Rejoins the MASTERS

By NICANOR LORETI

Most genre fans know John McNaughton best for his impressive directing debut HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, which set a new standard for horror and true-murder films two decades ago. HENRY was a breath of fresh air for the genre back then and made a star of his main actor, Michael Rooker. After THE BORROWER, his next fright opus, McNaughton kept on applying his personal touch to different genres, turning out a series of interesting and sometimes thought-provoking films. Now, on the 20th anniversary of the production of the film which gave him his big break, he’s returning to the genre with HAECKEL’S TALE, the last episode of the first season of MASTERS OF HORROR (premiering Friday, January 27 on Showtime).

The director says that helming HAECKEL’S TALE couldn’t have been more rewarding, even if he came on board at the last minute to replace none other than Roger Corman. “The experience was very good,” McNaughton recalls. “I talked to some of the other directors, and they all had wonderful experiences too. Tobe Hooper, Larry Cohen and Stuart Gordon all told me that they were very happy. It was really a director’s show—the kind of experience that you normally have in features as opposed to working on television.”

Helping to keep him excited throughout the process was the free hand he was given in directing his episode, which was scripted by MASTERS creator/executive producer Mick Garris from a story by Clive Barker. The tale follows a man named Ernest Haeckel as he takes shelter in a cabin in the New England woods, and is given one warning: No matter what, he should not venture outside. When he disobeys the order to investigate the cries of an unseen baby, he finds himself confronting the living dead. “We had 98 percent creative freedom, which is as much as you can get on this kind of thing,” McNaughton says. “Because of it being a cable-network show, there were a couple of things that we could not do. For example, children being killed or killing other children. Aside from that, we could do whatever we wanted.”

Even if he was a last-minute addition to the MASTERS lineup, McNaughton had enough time to make this particular segment his own. “When they called me in, the story was already chosen,” he recalls. “Clive Barker had written the short story and gave it to Mick Garris, who wrote the screenplay. I made some notes on the script and there were a few minor changes, but it was already in good shape. I chose the actors; in fact, I brought in two actors I had worked with before. Because we shot in Vancouver, most of the cast came from Canada, and my episode was in fact the last one shot there; the other one [Takashi Miike’s IMPRINT, recently dropped from the Showtime lineup] was filmed in Japan.”

Having also directed thrillers like MAD DOG AND GLORY with Robert De Niro and Uma Thurman and WILD THINGS with Matt Dillon and Neve Campbell, McNaughton insists that the basis for a solid movie starts with the screenplay, whatever type it is. “To me, a good story is a good story,” he says. “I try very hard not to get stuck in any genre, which can happen easily in Hollywood. When I read a script that works, it doesn’t matter to me what genre it is. I do my work and I work in it when I get a good screenplay. But I enjoy drama, I like characters very much. So to me, finding a good script within this genre is the key to me doing it.”

The director acknowledges that that can be hard give the genre remake-happy climate in Hollywood. “It gets more and more difficult,” he says. “Every once in a while I think I have to make a more commercial movie to keep everybody happy and continue being a name. Like in the case of WILD THINGS, which was the most commercial thing I’ve done. But I had a lot of fun with that movie. I enjoyed making it very much; it was a very clever script. It also combined a lot of sex, violence, greed, money… But it gets increasingly difficult to get an interesting project approved. I have several going on right now. There’s one that’s a lot like WILD THINGS, a very commercial, very dark noir picture. I’ve got a second one, which is also a very commercial noir picture [laughs]. But you have to keep many projects going, because it gets very difficult to find the financing for them.”

With its quick, down-and-dirty shoot, McNaughton positively compares his MASTERS stint with the filming of the independent HENRY all those years ago. “I had to watch HENRY recently for the 20th-anniversary DVD [released last year by Dark Sky Films], because it had to be remastered and color-corrected. They did a great job with that. The case of HENRY is very special. Sometimes when you make a movie, your luck is good and everything happens the way you hope it will. HENRY kind of worked like that. But sometimes everything goes wrong, and in those cases you think, ‘Oh my God, I hope this or that could change and it would be so much better.’ The situation with THE BORROWER was pretty horrible, because the company we made it for was going bankrupt and it always seemed that the world was collapsing around us. It reminded me of the fall of Saigon [laughs]. Money was disappearing, the company was going out of business—I mean, it was shit.

“It’s funny, because when your luck is going well, the right people come to the project and it’s a magic that you can’t control,” he continues. “And when a project is going bad, once it starts going that way, it only gets worse. But when it came to MASTERS OF HORROR, although it was a very small project, it was one of those situations where everything went really well. The Canadian crew was fantastic, the cinematographer was great, the production designer was terrific, even the makeup people were superb. The luck was running good.”

The director promises that his MASTERS installment is distinct from his previous genre work. “Pretty much—it’s different from anything I’ve done,” he says. “We have a scene in a graveyard with this naked dead woman who’s surrounded by dozens of zombies. When I look at the episode, there are a number of scenes that really remind me of paintings I like, because art is a great influence in my style as a director and storyteller. So I have a whole store of paintings in my head, and I look at them when I need an influence for a certain scene.”

He has also been pleased with the other directors’ MASTERS that he’s been able to see. For him, a good deal of the series’ success has to do with the general rebirth of horror that has taken place recently. “Overall, I like MASTERS very much, and I’m very glad they’re doing this,” he says. “Horror directors’ careers have ups and downs over the years. Several years ago, the genre appeared to be dead. But over the last few years, there have been some really successful horror pictures, and the genre seems to be very viable right now.”

www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=5489
 
Not exactly a tempting combo::

February 15: Two more DVDates for MASTERS OF HORROR

It hasn’t been officially annouced by Anchor Bay yet, but the TV Shows on DVD website found some pre-order information on the Bay’s second round of MASTERS OF HORROR discs at DVD Planet. Look for Don Coscarelli’s INCIDENT ON AND OFF A MOUNTAIN ROAD (pictured) and Mick Garris’ CHOCOLATE to arrive May 9, both separately (for $16.98 each) and in a two-pack ($29.98). There’s no word on what extras you’ll find, but no doubt they’ll be just as jam-packed as the first two MASTERS DVDs (see those details here). We’ll bring you more news on these as we find it out. —Michael Gingold

www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5603
 
See now this is more like it!!

March 01, 2006

Takashi Miike's Imprint To Air In The UK April 4th!

(Posted In Asia Horror TV Trailer Alert )

Ah, those clever Brits ... when the American media say 'Banned!' they hear 'Free Press!' and so Takashi Miike's Imprint, his entry in the Masters of Horror series, dropped from broadcast in North America for being too extreme, will be getting a television airing after all although only in the UK. Bravo will be airing the show April 4th at 11pm. Bravo is also hosting a new clip from the episode - at least it's new to me, I don't believe it's been seen before - on their website that demonstrates, once again, that nobody has an eye for unpleasant prosthetics quite like Miike ...

Check all the details and the clip here. Thanks to Ben for the pointer.

www.twitchfilm.net/archives/005300.html

Clip:
www.bravo.co.uk/mastersofhorror/
 
More on Miike's Imprint (the clip at the Bravo link above is well worth watching!!):

MASTERS OF HORROR: IMPRINT

It's a rainy afternoon in LA, and Scotty and I decided to put on the Takasi Miike episode of MASTERS OF HORROR. Now, I know I worked on the show, but the producers didn't give me the episode. It came from someone totally unconnected with the show, which made me laugh. I've had it for a few weeks, and just haven't made the time to watch it. I knew, based on a few things I heard, that I didn't want to watch it with my wife, and now that I've seen it, I know I made the right choice.

I have to say, I'm a little humbled by the episode. It's insanity, pure and simple. It is a ghost story, like so much of Asian horror is, but it plays very, very rough, and it keeps changing the rules of what kind of film it is every ten minutes or so. As a result, you stay off-balance, not quite sure what's around the next corner. I'll promise you this: you won't guess the last ten minutes by watching the first ten minutes. There's just no way.

I understand why it didn't air on Showtime now. There's one torture sequence that is so graphic, so stark, that it just makes sense for the network to have passed on the whole thing instead of trying to tone it down. If you just flipped past this scene on cable, you would genuinely wonder if you had suddenly added Videodrome as a channel on your system. The stuff in the second half of the episode is graphic, but it never matches the torture scene for sheer smothering brutality. In fact, the last five or ten minutes walks a dangerous line towards the silly. Miike deserves credit for taking something as outlandish as this and making it all seem not just possible, but compelling and urgent. Billy Drago gives one seriously weird-as-shit performance, but I'm surprised how comfortable the rest of the cast is in English. This is like MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA as directed by Satan, and it will definitely stick with me. I'm impressed that Bravo's going to show the episode uncut in the UK, but for those who see it on DVD in the fall, as I did, you're in for a pretty unforgettable hour of horror.

It pains me to say it, but if Season One has a "winner," it's Miike.

http://moriartylabs.typepad.com/moriart ... _horr.html
 
March 30: More MASTERS directors—and episodes—named

Two more names have been added to the directors’ roster of MASTERS OF HORROR’s sophomore outing, which has begun shooting in Vancouver. Yesterday, various sources announced that Ernest (DEMON KNIGHT) Dickerson will helm one of the 13 episodes on season two’s slate, and Fango has learned that Tom Holland (writer of PSYCHO II and director of CHILD’S PLAY and FRIGHT NIGHT) is joining the pack too. They’re among two of the three new directors hopping on board the series; previously announced SESSION 9 helmer Brad Anderson rounds out the trio.

Meanwhile, returning Dario (JENIFER) Argento is gearing up to helm PELTS, based on the F. Paul Wilson short story of the same name, whose scripter Matt (WHITE NOISE 2) Venne first told us about the episode here. The scribe tells Fango, “Production starts April 18 in Vancouver, and having phone conferences with Argento about my script has been one of the creative thrills of my life!” And finally, it appears that John Carpenter’s contribution—reuniting him with CIGARETTE BURNS scribes Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan—now has a title, and it’s, get this…PRO-LIFE. —Ryan Rotten

www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5856
 
LINK
Horror To Live On

It was a dark and stormy night in Hollywood, but the creators of Showtime's Masters of Horror anthology series told SCI FI Wire on April 4 that the mini-horror franchise will likely go on for a third season. A freak storm with two inches of rain pelted the red carpet for the late-night arrival of the greatest horror directors, including Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), William Malone (House on Haunted Hill), John McNaughton (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), Joe Dante (The Howling), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Mick Garris (The Stand) and Don Coscarelli (Phantasm).

The party kicked off the second season of the series, which also featured contributions from world-class horror directors John Carpenter (Halloween), Dario Argento (Suspiria), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Takashi Miike (Audition) and others. All have contributed an uncensored one-hour horror story that is supposed to be shot within 10 days.

"I believe there will be a season three," said series producer John W. Hyde. "We're working on [season] two right now, and everyone loves doing it, so there will be another. But the biggest problem is scheduling the directors, because they all have feature films. We give them total control, and it takes an average of four to six weeks to complete. Once they finish with principal photography, they can go back to their film and do the editing later."

Mick Garris, who created the idea of Masters of Horror and directed one of the segments himself, said: "This kind of project is unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It's an historic effort. We have expanded the shorts and compressed the features."

Garris said that the one-hour format gives the directors a chance to try something different. "All we ask is that they stay on schedule and on budget. ... John Landis did something scary. Dario's [Argento] is smaller, and Tobe's [Hooper] was on a giant scale. About half of the directors brought their own writers and projects in, and we had scripts from others."

The only issue arose when Showtime cut the episode by the controversial Japanese director Miike, "Imprint," because of its graphic images. The episode, which takes place in a brothel on a mysterious island, could have been edited for TV, but IDT Entertainment executive Amorette Jones said: "It is OK. It just wasn't appropriate for Showtime and will be on the DVD. We're not going to restrict the godfathers of the horror genre. We're not telling them they have to stay within a PG-13 rating. That defeats the purpose."

The April 4 party included actors Angus Scrimm (Phantasm), Doug Jones (Hellboy), Udo Kier (Blood for Dracula), Corbin Bernsen (Psych), Bree Turner (Wedding Planner), Rachel Grant (Die Another Day), Arlene Martel (Star Trek), John Hawkes (Deadwood) and others. The first season of Masters of Horror is now available on DVD; the second season debuts in the fall. —Mike Szymanski
 
Well Miike's episode was pretty impressive!!

I can't see them inviting him back which would be a pity as an awful lot of the first batch of MoH was poo - although with enough good installments like this to make it worth it.

Fingers crossed seasons 2 and 3 take a few risks too ;)
 
Some updates on the second season:

www.twitchfilm.net/archives/005858.html

Miike may be back, Stuart Gordon is trying to get Jeffrey Coombs to play Poe in "The Black Cat" and some of the other directors are back (hopefully to make up for the dreadful efforts they handed in last time ;) ).
 
May 26: More MASTERS second-season details revealed

The word is out! The fiends at IDT Entertainment have officially released the details on 10 of the 13 MASTERS OF HORROR episodes we’ll be spying next season.

Fango has spread the word on a handful of ‘em already, including John Carpenter’s PRO-LIFE, scripted by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan. Ron Perlman has been confirmed to headline the episode, along with Caitlin (THIRTEEN DAYS) Wachs and SAW II’s Emmanuelle Vaugier. Also grabbing plenty of headlines on this site is Dario Argento’s PELTS; newcomer Matt (WHITE NOISE 2: THE LIGHT) Venne penned that one, adapting a short story by F. Paul Wilson. John Saxon and Meat Loaf Aday star.

Tobe Hooper reteams with scripter Richard Christian Matheson for THE DAMNED THING. Like Carpenter’s chapter, this one appears to be a creature feature, as Sean Patrick Flanery, Marisa Coughlan and Ted Raimi go up against a “monstrous force” terrorizing a small Texas town. Elsewhere, John Landis has found some co-stars for George (KING OF THE ANTS) Wendt in the Brent (FRAILTY) Hanley-scripted FAMILY: Matt (SCREAM 3) Keeslar and Meredith (DAWSON’S CREEK) Monroe are a young couple who move into some new digs and discover that their neighbor (Wendt) is not all that he seems. This one is already in the can and in postproduction, and Fango has heard this is a vast change of pace from Landis’ previous MASTERS episode DEER WOMAN.

Meanwhile, Stuart Gordon, as previously reported, is reteaming with frequent collaborator Dennis (DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE) Paoli and Jeffrey Combs (embodying Edgar Allen Poe!) for THE BLACK CAT. This is Combs’ second turn as an infamous literary horror icon, after his role as H.P. Lovecraft in NECRONOMICON.

Switching gears to the new info, director Ernest (DEMON KNIGHT) Dickerson’s got a bloodsucker problem in THE V WORD. Frequent screen heavy Michael Ironside has been cast in this story of two boys who break into a mortuary. Dickerson is working from a script by MASTERS creator Mick Garris, who is helming an episode of his own too; it’s a sex-fueled suspenser called VALERIE ON THE STAIRS, from an original story by Clive Barker. Cast details are unavailable at this time.

Tom (FRIGHT NIGHT) Holland’s WE SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM focuses on an ice cream man whose influence on his young customers has them turning against their parents. Originally entitled I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM, the episode was adapted by David J. Schow from John Farris’ story. For his MASTERS debut, SESSION 9’s Brad Anderson will bring us the story of a man driven to violent measures when he’s afflicted with the power of “supernatural hearing,” in a Mike O’Driscoll-scripted piece called SOUNDS LIKE.

Last, but not least, Joe Dante (pictured)—who caused quite a stir with last season’s HOMECOMING—reteams with scripter Sam Hamm for THE SCREWFLY SOLUTION. Another tale of a grim nationwide scenario, SCREWFLY is based on Raccoona Sheldon’s short story and depicts the spread of a virus that turns men into women-slaying maniacs. Bringing us the grisly FX for all these minifeatures is KNB EFX, encoring from their bloody work on the first season. Watch this site for more details! —Ryan Rotten

www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=6199
 
Masters of Horror S2

Masters of Horror season 2 has begun on American TV, unsure when it is going to be shown in good old blighty, but the first series had some good episode's.

Masters of Horror
 
Season 2 starts next Monday night on Bravo:

23:00 Masters of Horror
The Damned Thing
A series of one-hour horror films directed by the masters of the genre. Tobe Hooper, of Texas Chain Saw Massacre fame, directs this apocalyptic tale of terror in which a mysterious force brings disharmony and chaos to a small Texas town.

From what I've heard most episodes are disappointing and have a rushed feel :(
 
Takashi Miike's Imprint, his entry in the Masters of Horror series, dropped from broadcast in North America for being too extreme

um, what did they expect when they got Miike in to direct? :?
 
Back
Top