Karry
Best movie of this year hands down!
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Keeley Coleman
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
MARIO GAUCI
This is easily one of the best MOH entries I've watched thus far, and definitely the most entertaining. I missed out on Landis' second horror outing INNOCENT BLOOD (1992) so I was relieved to note that he has lost none of his talent in this field (to say nothing of his uncanny ability to mix chills and gore with broad humor) in the years since AN American WEREWOLF IN London (1981); by the way, there's a brilliantly funny reference to that landmark film here. As can be guessed from the title, what we have in this episode is a half-woman half-deer who seduces and then brutally murders her prey (actually reminiscent of "Carpathian Eagle", one of the more successful entries in the HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR [1980] TV series). Of course, nobody at first can make the connection between the presence of both a sensual native American girl (one minor gripe I have with this is the fact that everybody seems to fall for her obvious charms without once questioning her inability to speak, unless we're to believe the victims are all lechers) and a deer-apparently-gone-berserk at the scene of each crime!; the single funniest sequence is the hero having multiple (and wildly divergent) visions of the first murder culminating in a bit where a deer, clothed and walking upright, makes off with a girl into the woods! Running hand in hand with the investigation is his story a disgraced cop forced to deal with cases of animal aggression slowly regaining his integrity and faith in the job. Ironically, since he'd been demoted after having accidentally shot his own partner, it's only after his new assistant succumbs himself to the titular creature that he's able to bring her to book. Wisely, Landis leaves his comic baggage behind for the intense (if somewhat abrupt) finale though coming in again at the very end as the hero realizes that he won't be able to satisfactorily explain the mystery to his superiors, so that it's back to 'harmless' animals for him from there on in
Paul Andrews
Masters of Horror: Deer Woman starts as washed up detective Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben) gets teamed up with rookie cop Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith) to investigate an odd call about a possible murder, when they arrive at the scene they find the badly mutilated remains of a guy but it seems like he was trampled to death by something with hooves. The police have little to go on as more bodies turn up, could an ancient Native American legend about a Deer Woman who tramples men to death with her deer deer like legs & hoofs have any connection to the brutal killings?This Canadian American production was episode 7 from season 1 of the generally hit-and-miss Masters of Horror TV series, the first of two episodes so far to be directed by John Landis this is definitely one of the better stories I've seen & is a pretty good way to spend an hour in it's own right. The script by Landis & his son Max has a really nice blend of horror & comedy, the character of the cynical & bitter detective is great & the scenes where he is dreaming explanations up in his head is hilarious as nothing that makes sense fits the case. The dialogue is amusing, quite funny at times & there are a few things to spot & listen out for like the obvious reference to An American Werewolf in London (1981) also directed by Landis. There isn't much of a story here & it doesn't really try to put any rational reasoning behind what's going on but Deer Woman is good fun & provides a fair amount of entertainment so I can cut it some slack in that regard.Director Landis does OK but this episode isn't really going for out-and-out scares, I like to think of it as a laid back piece of nonsense that passes the time harmlessly enough. There's some good gore here, there's some badly mutilated bodies, a severed arm, a ripped off jaw & a gory autopsy scene with the special make-up effects being excellent as usual.Technically Deer Woman is very well made, it has good production values & looks like it had a budget. The acting was good here by everyone who all managed to just about take it seriously enough but not completely so.Deer Woman is definitely one of the best Masters of Horror episodes that I have seen, it's good gory silly fun that entertains. Worth checking out.
LoneWolfAndCub
When I first heard that John Landis had directed this episode I didn't really know why because compared to the other directors, he isn't really a Master of HORROR. But then I remembered the classic horror/comedy An American Werewolf in London which has earned him this title. Deer Woman is much the same, a great blending of comedy and horror.The plot focuses on a policeman (Brian Benben) who is investigating a series of bizarre murders where the victims are trampled to death. This leads him to believe that an Indian folklore might be true and a "Deer Woman" (Cinthia Moura) is seducing and killing men.Brian Benben is hilarious as burned-out policemen Dwight Faraday. In one particularly amusing scene, he imagines all the possible ways of death by deer. If it weren't for his acting that scene would not have been as funny. Cinthia Moura is perfect as the Deer Woman, she didn't need to speak but her facial expressions and perfect body made the character.John Landis' direction is pretty much perfect as he is suited to horror/comedies. Although there is more comic elements to the movie, there is a nice amount of horror in it and it is suitably gory and gross.4/5.
Tommy Nelson
It seems as though, after a period of doing comedies, John Landis loves to do horror also. In 1981, he did "An American Werewolf in London", in 1992 he did "Innocent Blood" and now he's taking on the deer woman. The main thing that struck me about this Masters of Horror episode is it's sense of humor. Where the other episodes up to this one were quite serious, this one had a great sense of humor, which John Landis seems to have in all of his films. The next thing that struck me as good was the disturbing gore. There wasn't a lot of special effects with the gore, just disturbing cutting in to human skin type stuff. The final great thing about this was the acting was great. Everyone did a top notch job. My only problem, which also seems to always be Landis's problem, is the ending. The ending to this was one I did not care for. John Landis has always had a problem writing endings though. I found this episode about a native American deer woman that kills men to be the most entertaining of the episodes.My rating: *** out of ****. 56 mins. Not rated, contains violence and language.