Incident On and Off a Mountain Road
I tend to hesitate when going into a tv show or movie that is described as “from the master of horror…” or “the scariest movie you’ll ever see”. I tend to roll my eyes. But I’m finding the Masters of Horror series pretty good. Granted, some episodes are good and some are bad. I think Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is a good start to this series.
Photo Credit: IDT Entertainment
Season 1 Episode 1
Released: 28 Oct 2005
Runtime: 51 mins
Director: Don Coscarelli
Writer: Don Coscarelli, Stephen Romano, Joe R. Lansdale
Actors: Bree Turner, Angus Scrimm, John DeSantis, Ethan Embry
PLOT
Hell of a night, huh Moonface—Ellen
A woman, driving on a lonely mountain road, runs into an abandoned car. She looks for help and instead she finds a monstrous man who has terrible plans for her. But she holds a secret that could help her survive.
MY THOUGHTS
The eyes see all the evil, all the evil in the world…—Buddy
We get four kills overall. Unfortunately the deaths are not graphic or for the most part not shown. But having said that we do get to see some blood, especially when Moonface and Ellen use the drill press and we see the blood dripping from the drill. It’s not gory but we do see a lot of bodies in various forms of decay. (Mostly old and dusty.)
I think the actors did a decent job with their acting. We have Ellen played by Bree Turner (known for Grimm and mostly non Horror stuff). She’s our lead who is driving alone at night with a secret of her own. Bruce, played by Ethan Embry (known for The Prophecy II, Disturbing Behavior, FreakyLinks, Fear Itself, Devil’s Candy, and lots more) plays Ellen’s survivalist husband.
Moonface is played by John DeSantis (known for Thirteen Ghosts, Dresden Files, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days), the creature that has an interesting decorating style. And rounding out the crew is Angus Scrimm (AKA The Tall Man in the Phantasm movies. He’s also known for Chopping Mall and Subspecies) as Buddy, a crazy old man trapped (?) by Moonface.
We start Incident On and Off a Mountain Road with Ellen driving at night on a mountain road. She hits a parked car, and gets out to see if the other driver is okay. Instead she sees Moonface dragging a woman behind him. She runs away, with Moonface following close behind.
We next see a flashback where we see Bruce, Ellen’s husband, teaching her survivalist skills. Back in the present we see her set up traps to try and stop Moonface. Unfortunately, no matter how good they are, he isn’t stopped by them. Instead the other female (the other driver) falls into one of the traps, her leg being impaled on a spike.
Despite her fighting, Ellen is knocked out and taken to a cabin in the woods. She awakens, chained to a pole. Near her is an old man, Buddy, chained into a wheelchair. She tries to get out of her chains but Moonface shows up, the other female flung over his shoulder. He puts her on the table and uses a drill press to her eyes (off screen).
She manages to get out of her chains and Moonface goes after her. She goes up the stairs, still fighting Moonface. As they fight she gets the upper hand and throws him out the window, over a cliff.
We think it’s over but here comes the twist. She heads back to her car and she passes bodies up on crosses. She opens the trunk of her car and Bruce’s body is in there! We then see a flashback of how he died and what led up to it.
Ellen takes Bruce’s body back to the cabin and basically sets his body up like what Moonface did to his victims. She puts him on one of the crosses before heading back to dispatch Buddy.
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Overall, I think Don Coscarelli did a great job with this episode and if the rest of the episodes are as good then this series lives up to the hype. My main complaint with Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, is that we don’t get to see the kills really. I think if they showed more of that it would be better. I definitely recommend this series if you haven’t seen it yet.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
Ethan Embry played another character in 2008 Fear Itself.
Angus Scrimm had already worked with director Don Coscarelli on the Phantasm movies.
During the chase scenes through the forest, you hear and see thunder and lightning, but no rain. There are also pictures of a full moon on a clear sky, despite the thunder and lightning.
Scary/Creepy: 4/5
Sex/Nudity: 0/5 (But there is a rape in it.)
Kills/Blood/Gore: 3/5
My Enjoyment: 5/5
My Rank: 3.75/5
IMDB: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: –/10 audience: –/10
Letterboxd: 2.9/5