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
Review of Deer Woman
