Customer Reviews

Masters of Horror: Family

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was just an amazing episode from a hit or miss series. The acting by George Wendt was brilliant. There are many twists, some come very early on, but the final one caught me way off guard (which is hard to do). Family is much better than last seasons Deer Woman, though I enjoyed that one as well. I hope John Landis tops this one next season.

Excellent film for those who love a mix of comedy and horror and a touch of Hitchcock.
I knew I was going to love it when the opening movie pans shows a picture of Dick Cheney in the psycho's house. His crazy moments are masterfully done. The dirty talk by Meridith Monroe, we were lead to believe was part of the psycho's imagination. I too admit, I missed the plot twist...and I was looking for one. Kudos George. I don't want to say too much about the plot as it might ruin the movie.

I have definitely found the consistency of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" anthology series problematic. I was thrilled by the conceit, pleased by the selection of talented directors, but somewhat mystified by some of the actual episodes. The second season, in particular, started out rather unimpressively. John Landis, who clocked in last season with "Deer Woman," returns with "Family." While many people didn't care for "Deer Woman" (about a woman with a deer body, in case you don't understand the title)--it was, at least, humorous and bizarre. I wouldn't have recommended that episode, either, but it attempted something different.

When I saw the preview for "Family," I was pretty stoked. It didn't, however, look horrifying--it seemed to be relying on the comedy angle. That's cool, I enjoy comedy/horror. After watching the episode, though, I think it's fair to say that it's not funny enough to be a comedy, not scary enough to be a thriller, not particularly original, and the twist ending was telegraphed a mile away.

George Wendt stars as an ideal suburban husband who is not what he seems at first glance. His family, after all, isn't alive--and they're not even his real family. They are skeletons that he has accumulated from various victims through the years. When a young couple moves in across the way, he becomes infatuated with the wife. He thinks she might be an excellent addition to his brood.

What follows should be a fun game of cat-and-mouse, but it just doesn't get going. I think the main problem is the tone. Meant to be a satire, most of it comes across flat. Wendt, who should be having a ball, delivers a one-note performance. You might smile a few times, but this is ultimately forgettable. KGHarris, 12/06.

Bare Bones (Quick facts):
Family is the latest offering in the Masters of Horror series. This time, director John Landis (American Werewolf in London, Animal House) lends his unique vision to the horror genre. The result is a campy little horror movie that's very enjoyable.

The Meat of the Matter (The plot):
Harold Thompson is a mild mannered man with a penchant for 1950's decorating, good family values, and gospel music. He also likes to kill people and use their bodies to construct dummies in order to have the perfect family. One day a new couple moves in. They are his neighbors and become his friends. But when Harold starts coveting his neighbor's wife, he decides it might be time to trade in his old wife and get a new member of the family... but first he has to get rid of her husband.

Viscera (My ramblings):
Family is one of the better offerings from Masters of Horror. I liked the corpse scenes, nice and gross. The acting is a little flat and the interactions a bit too staged. No one has manners as nice as these neighbors! Watching this you can tell George Wendt's performance seems off slightly, like a copy of a copy. The rest of the acting is wooden as well. The plot seems to drag at some spots. However, over all, I really liked this installment. The dark humor is great, and the morality play ending is spectacular. If you like Tales from the Crypt or Alfred Hitchcock presents, I think you'll really like the episode. But if you go in expecting something spectacular, gory, or novel you will be disappointed.

Recommended for horror movie fans with patience to survive the slow bits and a love of twist endings.

For the most part, I really liked the Family. CGI takes me out of films a lot of the time and it was no exception this time. To the fake looking CGI blood when a woman gets her head smashed by a hammer (don't want to spoil, so I won't say who) to an old man having chemicals that deteriorate his body as it is poured on his lifeless self. It looked a fake and cheap. The story itself, on the other hand, is really good. It is basically John Landis' homage to films like Psycho and Last House on the Left. If you have seen those movies, then this film doesn't really hold that many shocks or twists.

John Landis directs Family, part of the second season of the Showtime series that asks important horror directors to create their own hour-long horror story. Landis, known for his dark comedy spliced with social satire and gore, takes that same campy direction on Family. The episode centers on Harold (George Wendt), an older bachelor living in the suburbs of LA in a quiet, beautiful neighborhood. A gospel-loving, sweater-wearing man, Harold loves his afternoon lunch of soup and milk served on a tray; he likes making flower arrangements in ornate vases; he likes to have the new neighbors, Celia (Meredith Monroe) and David (Matt Keeslar), over for dinner. He also enjoys bleaching bones and making people a part of his skeleton family.

Landis doesn't attempt to hide anything about Harold from the audience; in fact, the opening serves as a juxtaposition of Harold's relatively passive life - with a tromp through his tidy house being our guide to his generally stable mentality, and quickly after a presentation of his hobbies as he dissolves the skin of an elderly man. It's this clever and well-plotted presentation of Harold that keeps the viewer from turning against him too quickly. Instead, the killings and violence are left mostly off-screen, and so the audience is distanced from the murders so much that it almost feels as though Harold could not have committed them, even when we see the skeletons he harbors and talks to in his living room.

But Family is not just about Harold's perverse but lonely life. It also hinges on Celia and David as a inciting action, a couple who move in next door to Harold and enter his life in a way no one has in a long time. Of course, Harold is a bit suspicious of their actions, in case they ever stumble upon evidence of his murders which he recognizes as a problem even though his morals may seem a bit skewed. Despite this, however, Harold is sucked in to Celia's seduction - which seems to be all in Harold's head as he hallucinates hearing Celia relate his sexual fantasies - and begins to plot ways of making her a part of his family and kicking out his nagging older bag of bones.

At first, Celia and Dave feel just a bit too perky. And the viewer somewhat brushes this off as Landis' influence, the sarcasm and exaggeration of the campy film. When Celia and Dave express their qualms about their new life, and "going for it", it seems as though they want a child after their other one died... of cancer. So Celia and Dave operate on the outside of things, mostly away from the viewer's perspective of the events with Harold taking the main show, and one doesn't question the couple, and instead urges them to stay away from the loony man.

Harold manages to stay likable because of his depth of character. Over the course of the film, we learn that his life has been a jumble of failures that has led to his loneliness: he killed the woman he loved, presumably after she refused him; he created a daughter for himself after he was unable to create one of his own volition; and then he introduced grandparents for the child as maternal and paternal influence, as though living out his own version of life that is more perfect and problem-free than reality could be. We often get Harold's perspective of the bones, which look like real people to him as he imagines who they were before he killed them. This often results in darkly comic, but often sad, transitions as we jump perspectives to see the people for what they really are, strung-up bones of people who were taken from their own lives.

But in the end, the final twists are surprising not because they are unforeseen - probably anyone attentive enough could pick out the movement of the plot - but because the audience doesn't want to see it. They don't want to see Harold as a cold-blooded killer, one who has snatched a child from an established family, or one who tries to turn Celia into one of his family members. And so, when the twist is revealed just what Celia and David are doing in Harold's life, it's regrettably a depressing moment for the viewer, who must face the reality that Harold, despite his good-natured lifestyle and neighborly demeanor, is ultimately a misguided killer.

In Family, John Landis is able to establish a sunny sense of atmosphere with a deeply dark tone running underneath it, a mimicry of the same black that runs beneath the skin of Harold. The juggling of these two moods is perfect, with both reaching a state of equilibrium at the close of the film. In so doing, Landis cements his own riff on the idea of suburban evil, the quiet lifestyle of those we may not be able to trust, or those who can't even trust themselves.

FAMILY is one of the better MASTERS OF HORROR offerings. George Wendt (HOUSE) is wonderful as the neighbor w/ serious family issues. His lumpy, homicidal character makes for an (almost) loveable maniac. His new neighbors (especially the wife, played by Meredith Monroe) appear to be the perfect subjects for his... umm, family project. Director, John Landis (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, INNOCENT BLOOD, DEER WOMAN) strikes the right balance between terror and hilarity. Highly recommended...

The first scene in John Landis's second effort is dynamite.
I don't want to ruin it for you, but you'll cheer. (I did)
Grandpa's bath has never gotten him so clean.
The special effects in that scene alone, make this flick worth a purchase.

George Wendt stars as the quaint, neighborhood psychopath who collects family members, cleans 'em off, and dresses their skeletons up.
Its a perfect family that he hand-picked himself.
He converses with them, as he goes about his day,
and they respond via his hallucinations.
Problem is, is that he's tired of his hand-picked wife,
and he wants to replace her with his new neighbor.

Out of all the episodes I've seen this second season,
this is one of the best.
It has great make-up effects,
a straight-foward story,
believable characters,
a soundtrack that actually gives some insight into Mr.Psycho's past,
Add to that, a dash of humor,
a scoop of terror, and a few sprinkles of horror.
And you get a sundae topped with a twist ending that you won't see coming
(that is unless someone already told you there's a twist ending.)
(Ooops! Sorry about that)

Unlike "Deer Woman" this one wasn't particularly funny,
and it certainly wasn't horrific,
and yet it still worked as a whole.
Would I recommend it? - Definitely
Would I watch it more than twice? - Probably not.
Although I would watch that first scene multiple times.

It was good, but it wasn't great.
Worth a purchase at only $10 (especially if you haven't seen it yet.)
Watch it on showtime demand if you don't want to spend the 10 bucks.
Either way, it's an enjoyable way to kill an hour.

MORAL OF THE STORY: You can pick your friends,
but you can't pick your family.
Unless of course you have chloroform.
In which case, you can pick anyone you want.

John Landis again scores big with his Masters Of Horror entry. First it was "Dear Woman" now it's "Family". This film has an incredible script written by Brent Hanley and with Landis's amazing direction skills it's no wonder this is the best Masters Of Horror DVD to be released from the second season. It mixes humor, suspense, mystery, and horror all into one nasty episode. Give Brent Hanley a hell of a lot of credit for this story because it's one of the most powerful elements "Family" has going for it.

George Wendt has become a very convincing psycho with "The King Of The Ants" and now "Family". The rest of the cast does a great job, but it's Wendt who shines as the psycho/murderer/nutcase.

This is a must see if you are a Masters Of Horror fan or you just like horror movies in general. Pick this up and you won't be disappointed.

This movie isn't brilliant. It's creepy. It's disturbing. Which are lusses in my book. But there could have been *so* much more that could have been added to make the storyline plausible. All in all, in my opinion, forgettable. A good one time watch.