Customer Reviews

Masters of Horror: Sounds Like

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

 

 

This dark episode plays like more of a TWILIGHT ZONE than most of the other entries, but it's disturbing in its portray of massive grief and man's tendency not to really listen. Chris Bauer stars as Larry Pearce, a supervisor at a software support call in center, whose loss of his young son to heart disease has left him surly, cold and insensitive. Laura Margolis plays his submissive wife who is eager to have a son to replace their loss. Unfortunately, another component of Pearce's grief is his supersensitivity to sound where in any noise is overwhelming, leading him into a gradual maelstrom of madness.
Bauer is quite good in assaying the difficult role, very convincing as he descends into violence and madness. A good entry in the uneven series.

Larry Pearce (Chris Bauer) is just your average computer tech supervisor who just lost his son. He has a special supernatural kind of hearing that lets him hear from very far away especially when he listens to conversations on the phone by his staff at work. However this kind of ability is driving him to the brink of insanity as he can't stands no more especially his griefstruck over his son's death.

A stirring and disturbing psychological horror thriller from Brad Anderson (Director of "Session 9" and "The Machinst") is a smart and startling story. It's one of the more "Twilight Zone"-ish stories on the TV Show as it gives us a character and social study about what it is to be someone else's own world of noise. The acting is quite good and has one hell of a disturbing ending.

This DVD includes two featurettes, photo gallery, script and audio commentary.

First off, I have to say that I am a huge fan of the Masters Of Horror series on Showtime. I have bought every DVD that has been released on DVD. However I am disappointed with Season 2 of Masters Of Horror. Season One was great with lots of different styles, episodes, and interesting stories. Season 2 has had a lot of average episodes, a couple that should have never been made, and some that are just as great as the first season.

I picked up this episode on DVD mainly because it was directed by Brad Anderson who directed "The Machinist" and "Session 9", both wich are excellent, creepy, movies. Anderson proves again with "Sounds Like" that he truely is a master of horror. Great directing, acting, and story telling. Out of all the Season 2 DVD's to be released so far this is one of the best. This is a have to see episode of Masters Of Horror for anyone who likes outstanding horror.

Brad Anderson, while still very young, is proving himself to be truly a master of horror. "Session 9", "The Machinist" and now this. Dang. It's great. Don't expect a balls-to-the-wall horror extravaganza, and you will like what you get. This is more Alfred Hitchcock than Lucio Fulci. Paced well, cerebral, and sounds great. Highly recommended.

The Masters of Horror series has been a touch-and-go affair, but DVD presentations have been generous with the extras and exude a sense of enthusiasm that occasionally exceed the quality of the feature itself. The good news is that 'Sounds Like' is a masterpiece of its genre, and we've got a detailed director commetary as well as a couple of very good features: a Making Of, along with a detailed look at the sound track.

I could go on about the cinematic felicities in this feature: Chris Bauer's incredible portrayal of an average family guy wracked with guilt over his sons death, and suffering from increasingly sensitive hearing that imposes a sort of aural claustrophobia. (Bauer played the degenerate psycho in '8mm', is now carrying a major role in TV's 'True Blood', and carried off a short but intense role at the end of season 2 of Murder One that more or less seals his credentials for playing sympathetic psychotics). There's Brad Anderson's taught directing, which provides just enough detail and narrative to tie up all loose ends, something he mastered so well in 'The Machinist'. His commentary provides a detailed look at how he selected this story for adaptation and insight into working with the American and Canadian production staff.

The only caveat concerns the amount of blood spilled in this film. If you come to Masters of Horror for splatter, you'll find this film very sparing in the use of knives and blood loss. This is as close to psychological horror as MOH has come but a welcome development as far as I am concerned.

Finally, if you like this film, by all means check out Anderson's feature film 'The Machinist'. It's an incredible foray into a guilt-laden head trip like this one and shows the director and lead actor (Christian Bale) in fine form. Released shortly before production began on 'Sounds Like ...', it was probably responsible for signing him up for MOH. Get both of these while you can.

*contains spoilers*
not as bad as The Damned Thing or The V Word, this episode has a main character who isn't totally one dimensional, i guess it's conceptually a little reminiscent of Falling Down or Taxi Driver, but there are so many monotonous scenes of the guy contorting his face from all the little sounds that bother him, and all it leads up to is a contextless anticlimactic murder when a suicide would have made a lot more sense.

I enjoyed this MOH installment. The reason I liked it was due to it's very original storyline. It is about a man who discovers he has superior hearing when one day he hears an irregular sound coming from inside his son. The sound would later wind up to be fatal and the father would never be the same again. Each day that goes by the sounds of everyday life begin to make him insane. He has no escape from sound and can never find a place of peace.

This one wasn't scary in any sense. However it was very entertaining and I would definately recommend checking it out.

Working at a call center can be a drag, and more so if you are a call supervisor that finds himself continually segregated from the crowd because of your "abilities." That seems to be the problem for Larry Pearce (Chris Bauer), who listens to hundreds of calls a day and starts to notice the "little things." Changes in tones, little pieces that show just how a call will go; he even notices someone texting just because of the sound of it.
And it goes on and on.
As the days rattle on he finds that his sound becomes intensified, to the point of superhuman and beyond. And to stop it - o, to stop it.

As the Masters of Horror series trudges on and continues to explore new concepts, there are continually more middle-ground episodes than there used to be. In the first season most of the tales were complete hits or sad misses, but many of the newer tales are something in-between. As far as Sounds Like goes it was something like that, with episodes like this not really bad and not really good. To be frank, it didn't seem as though it tried too hard to be something out of the ordinary.

It began well enough, setting up a character that had an understandable problem. The episode delved into his personal issues, too, showing exactly why the happenstances were happening. The middle of the episode was much of the same, and the conclusion - well, I laughed a bit at the it and I was saddened a bit by it but I didn't think it really examined the issues at hand.
And, considering this is Masters of Horror, I expected it to be a be more horrific than it was.

If you are new to the episodes, you might want to try a better starting point. If you are are a fan of the series, then you'll probably buy and you'll notice the middle ground I was talking about. I personally like most of the episodes because I look at them for what they are, a horror series that isn't really a movie and isn't really a series. It is a show cutting out the filler, trying to be purely horror.
And the verdict on Sounds Like - it was like a B movie without a lot of boredom. The price is always good and, if needing something to pass some time, you might find it appealing.

This installment of the MOH series takes a different approach then the rest. Its not as creepy, as scary, as mortifying as the rest of them attempt to be.. instead this one offers up a story line that simply makes you wonder... what is going on with this guy?

Frankly, this one is not scary... AT ALL! IF thats what you are looking for... this is NOT it. The ending sequence is a little cool, but nothing that true horror fans will muster over.

But thats not to say that this one does not lure the audience into a decent story.

You can read the plot synopsis if you like - you will get the jist of the film and get an idea if you like it or want to invest time in it or not. Frankly, I had heard bad things about this one... but I gave it a chance... and was impressed at just how the plot weaves and how disturbed this guy gets. Its more humorous than anything in some parts.

Overall, I gave it the 3 stars simply because it tries something different than what is out there and I found it decently entertaining. So if you like what you hear, give it a chance... if not, dont worry.. it will still be here.

Product came in perfect condition, looked like it had never been touched, shipping was very fast. Thank you!!