I was interested in this series from when I read about it being in its planning stages... since it didn't air on TV on a network available to me, I didn't get a chance to watch until just recently, where I discovered DVDs with singular episodes, as well as some special features for the episode. Not wanting to wind up with a bunch of episodes that I didn't like, I asked a friend of mine who has watched the series for recommendations. He named this and John Carpenter's effort, Cigarette Burns. In that this is the first episode that I've seen, I can't really draw any comparisons to the others... nor to Landis' earlier horror effort, An American Werewolf in London, as I've yet to find a copy of it. The plot is quite good, if not terribly deep. The mystery is slowly unraveled, if it is fairly simple. The pacing is very good... I was never bored while watching this. I was surprised to find few scares in this... there's gore enough, and several genuine "ick" moments(including a brief but unpleasant close-up of an autopsy in progress), but there's very little to jump at. The film makes up for this with humor... and lots of it. There's a smart-alecky sense of humor throughout, and almost every single laugh works. If you've liked any comedy effort by Landis, and you can take the black nature of many of the jokes, you'll definitely find this funny. Among the jokes is the running gag of the one police officer who irritates *everyone* around him to the point of them telling him to shut up. Brian Benben yet again displays his comedic talent(as he also did on the show named after him and on Dream On, where he also worked with Landis), and proves his depth as an actor. He carries the film perfectly. The actress portraying the title monster also does really well... with no lines of dialog, she uses facial expressions and gesturing to convey the emotions, and does so flawlessly. Also, she manages to shift between a sweetly-natured feminine character and a creature of pure evil from one moment to another. The effects are very well-done. The characters are well-written and interesting. Among them, the character of Dana, who seems to be mainly inspired by Abby Sciuto of NCIS(hey, it may not be original, but still). The cinematography shows signs of not being shot as a feature, theatrically-released project... it looks and feels somewhat "TV", and it works really well. For anyone bothered by such... this has a little female nudity, a bit of swearing in the dialog and, as mentioned earlier, some graphic stuff. All in all, this is just a funny film with a horror feel to it, a dark comedy with some gore and scares. I recommend this to any fan of John Landis, Brian Benben, horror and black humor. 7/10
Review of Deer Woman
