Anchor Bay has managed to squeeze all 13 episodes of the Season 2 of Masters of Horror into a friggen’ human skull and are selling this bad boy for about $86.97 to be released on July 29th. It is being discounted to $60.99 if you pre-purchase it. But figure out early on if you want one of these because it is limited to only 15,000 units.
The Season Two Box Set features each episode in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Each disc has director commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, still galleries, storyboards, trailers, and DVD-ROM screenplays.
Here is the full list of the 13 Season Two episodes, alphabetically by director. Only a few of these includes reviews by Horror Yearbook because we are drunk and lazy most of the time.
Brad Anderson’s Sounds Like:
Listening is a way of life for call center supervisor Larry Pearce (Chris Bauer, 8MM). But ever since his young son’s tragic death, Larry’s hearing has slowly intensified. With hearing bordering on the superhuman, he must now contend with simple noises magnified into a cacophony of torment. In a world where nothing screams louder than the madness of grief, how far will one man go to obtain absolute silence?
Dario Argento’s Pelts:
Typical Argento. Struggling fur trader Jake Feldman (Meat Loaf) knows that you can?t make a coat without breaking a few animals? necks. When he creates a luxurious fur coat from an unusual family of raccoons, he doesn?t realize that this exquisite fur coat does more than just dazzle the eye ? it possesses animal desires and the power to exact revenge.
John Carpenter’s Pro-Life:
When young Angelique (Caitlin Wachs) seeks to end an unwanted (and seemingly life-threatening) pregnancy, her devoutly religious, fervent pro-life father Dwayne (Ron Perlman) will stop at nothing to prevent it. As Dwayne and his three sons attempt to rescue Angelique, she discovers that the only thing more dangerous than her would-be saviors is the demonic secret growing within her.
Joe Dante’s The Screwfly Solution:
My personal favorite. Around the world, normal male sexual urges have suddenly mutated into violent rage, resulting in a tidal wave of horrific murders targeting women. Two scientists (Jason Priestley, “Beverly Hills 90210” and Elliott Gould, Ocean’s Eleven) are locked in a desperate race against time to figure out how and why the war between the sexes turned homicidal. Is a mysterious virus making every red-blooded man a potential lady-killer?
Ernest Dickerson’s The V Word:
For geeky best friends Kerry (Arjay Smith) and Justin (Branden Nadon), who’ve only experienced carnage via their video games, it’s the ultimate midnight quest: they want to see a real corpse. But when the pair breaks into a local mortuary, they unleash a ferocious ghoul (Michael Ironside, Scanners, Starship Troopers) who’s hungry to share a few depraved urges of his own.
Mick Garris’ Valerie on the Stairs:
This wasn’t very good. Adapted from the Clive Barker story, Valerie on the Stairs stars Tyron Leitso (Dinotopia) as Rob Hanisee, an unpublished writer living at a commune for aspiring and broke novelists. Rob suspects that the house may be haunted by more than just the specters of failed authors when Valerie, a gorgeous apparition, appears in the hallway. Rob believes that he has found his muse, yet the ghost of this beautiful woman cries out in fear of a beast who owns her — body and soul. Tony Todd (Candyman) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) co-star.
Stuart Gordon’s The Black Cat:
Edgar Allan Poe (Jeffrey Combs) is suffering from crippling writer’s block, he’s deeply in debt and barely takes care of himself, tending only to his loving but ailing wife Virginia (Elyse Levesque). He tends to her, burdened with the knowledge that he cannot save her. But is it his wife’s slow, agonizing death or her ever-present black cat that is steadily driving him insane?
Tobe Hooper’s The Damned Thing:
Adapted from the classic short story by famed author Ambrose Bierce, The Damned
Thing stars Sean Patrick Flannery (The Boondock Saints) as Kevin Reddle, who, as a boy, watched helplessly as both of his parents were brutally murdered by an inexplicable force. Now a county sheriff in the tiny hamlet of Cloverdale, Kevin faces the nightmarish prospect that it might have returned ready to kill again, and once again it’s after his family.
Tom Holland’s We All Scream for Ice Cream:
We All Scream for Ice Cream stars William Forsythe (The Rock) as Buster the Clown, a mentally challenged man who drives an ice cream truck. One day while on his daily route, a group of kids plays a cruel prank with tragic consequences. Years later, the same group, now adults with families of their own, is slowly being exterminated by their own children. Buster and his ice cream truck have returned for the sweet revenge that will leave their children screaming for ice cream and their parents screaming for mercy.
John Landis’ Family:
Harold Thompson (George Wendt) is a mild-mannered bachelor living in an idyllic, sun-drenched planned community. Unbeknownst to his neighbors, he harbors a deadly secret as he builds the perfect family. When a young couple moves next door, Harold sets his sights on the sexy young wife (Meredith Monroe) as his potential new bride. Amid the manicured lawns and white picket fences, can Harold hide his monstrous secret long enough to complete his gruesome goal?
Rob Schmidt’s Right to Die:
Right to Die stars Martin Donovan (Weeds) as Cliff Addison, a man harboring a guilty secret from his wife Abby (Julia Anderson) he is committing adultery. However, after a car accident leaves Abby’s body covered in burns, she repeatedly flat-lines, only to be revived each time. During the brief periods when she is clinically dead, her apparition seeks vengeance on those who stand to profit from her suffering, including a slick attorney (Corbin Bernsen, L.A. Law).
Norio Tsuruta’s Dream Cruise:
Adapted from a short story by the legendary Japanese horror novelist Koji Suzuki (Ringu), Dream Cruise stars Daniel Gillies (Spider-Man 2) as an American attorney working in Japan. He also harbors a crippling fear of the ocean, due to a childhood trauma. Even more threatening waters lie ahead when he begins a dangerous affair with the wife of a wealthy client (Ryo Ishibashi, Audition, The Grudge). When the trio embarks on a sunset boat trip, the stage is set for a tragic showdown between those who love and those who will kill to keep what is theirs. Features the complete theatrical cut.
Peter Medak’s The Washingtonians:
Supposedly the worst of the bunch. Johnathon Schaech (That Thing You Do) stars in and co-adapted Bentley Little’s short story that sheds a new (bloody) light on American history. Saul Rubinek (Unforgiven) co-stars in this gruesome tale about the discovery of a Revolutionary War artifact that suggests George Washington’s famed wooden teeth hungered for more than just liberty.
