Masters of Horror Season 1, Volume III (Blu-ray)

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While the whole post-apocalyptic landscape is almost tiresomely familiar, the music and frequent cutaways to The Doom Room (much like "Cabaret") keep viewers driving forward--held, if not fascinated, by the macabre goings on. And to Matheson's credit, he rewards viewers for their attentiveness with a "moving" twist at the end.

Pick Me Up is a twofer of a film that takes the serial killer concept one step further by inserting a pair of them. We watch separate narratives of a trucker named Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) who stops to assist accident victims and stranded motorists--a nice guy, until you figure out that he's a sadistic killer who preys on hitchhikers. Then, yee-haw, there's a young, good-looking cowboy of a hitchhiker named Walker (Warren Kole) who does just the opposite and preys upon the people who stop to give rides. A classic case of watching the iceberg and Titanic converge, right?

Sort of. Thrown into the mix are several victims, who find themselves caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. One of them, Stacia (Fairuza Balk) isn't going down without a fight. And the end, as with the other stories, has a twist that some might see coming around the bend.

I have to say that any horror/slasher film that has someone strangled with a freshly-killed rattlesnake is okay in my book. I mean, how many of these films have you seen where you thought, Come on, be creative, kill them a different way?

What makes this one work is Larry Cohen's tight direction, along with his focus on character and situation to create a believable tension.

Though these episodes are not rated, they'd easily pull down an "R" rating. Aside from the blood and gore, there's also strong language and female nudity.

Video:
Starz/Anchor Bay have done a nice job of putting out a quality product. The episodes are presented in 1.77:1 aspect ratio, and though they're 1080i, not 1080p, they still look sharp. That's a must for films like this, because so much detail can get lost in shadows or darkness. But I'm happy to report that there's a solid amount of detail because the black levels are strong and the color saturation is also pretty full, which you notice in those intermittent scenes of light. It's a solid-looking transfer that, while it may not be the disc you pop in to show of your HD set-up, still makes the DVD look primitive by comparison.

Audio:
The featured audio is an English PCM 5.1, which sounds wonderful, especially in the episode that's driven by music. Kudos to the sound engineers for mixing and editing this for consistency from episode to episode. There's a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround option as well, and Ed Shearmur's Emmy-winning main title music sounds great on both tracks.

Extras:
No making-of features or deleted scenes, but there are a surprising five commentaries for the three episodes. All of them are worthwhile, with the directors sharing most of the details about the project, from start (what interested them in the series or script) to finish (the DVD production). Director Don Coscarelli, writer Stephen Romano, and DVD producer Perry Martin offer one of the commentaries for the first segment, while for the second Coscarelli is joined by Joe R. Lansdale, the author of the short story upon which the film was based. As a writer, I enjoyed the second commentary considerably more than the first.

Tobe Hooper talks about "Dance of the Dead" with DVD producer Perry Martin, while writer Richard Christian Matheson gets his own commentary track. Both of these commentaries are equally interesting, though fans of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" will enjoy hearing Hooper talk about the similarities he saw in the properties.

But my favorite commentary of the whole bunch came from Larry Cohen on "Pick Me Up." There's no dead air and no dead moments on this track, with every morsel a fascinating bit of information. Cohen is also a generous director, who showers his cast, editors, cinematographers, and other key people with praise. But he doesn't do this is a back-slapping way. He educates us on part of the process, then adds how grateful he was for the person responsible. It's interesting to hear how this former writer insisted that writer David J. Schow go to Seattle to collaborate on-location with him, and the stories of the rain, the uncooperative rattlesnake, and the bears are a revelation.

Bottom Line:
O. Henry knew how important the "twist" was at the end of a short story, and these film adaptations of short stories are still dependent upon that final torquing. Though they don't do much to advance the genre, these "Masters of Horror" episodes are done so well that they're really entertaining.

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