Wow! What can I say; I was completely taken aback. Not simply because this was one of the better episodes, up there for me personally with the likes of John Landis's "Deer Women" but simply because I couldn't believe who the director was. You might know William Malone from his infamous "Fear Dot Com" and "House on Haunted Hill" for someone who has quite literally only produced bile so far, his recent addition into the Masters of Horror series "Fair-Hair Child" comes across as nothing other than a complete an utter unexpected gem.
The premise of this episode revolves around a young girl named Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher) who is a complete outcast and considered a 'freak' among her peers, is suddenly kidnapped when she is cycling home. She ends up in what appears to be a hospital, but upon trying to escape she is confronted by her kidnapper Anton (William Samples) the nurse who Tara first meet upon awakening is in fact the kidnapper's wife Judith (Lori Petty.) They then throw Tara in what appears to be a basement. It turns out that someone else is also down there, a mute child Johnny (Jesse Haddock.) However as things unfold it turns out the child is the son of both Anton & Judith, whose son recently drowned, but using a ritual of sorts they were able to bring him back, on one condition they were to sacrifice "12" children. Tara is the last of the "12" and tries to survive Johnny's periodical transformations into a monster-like abomination.
The films strong points come from its creepiness and pure flat out frights. Johnny's abomination like transformation comes across as scary and creepy, and there clearly has been a lot of thought put into the movement and visual nature of the creature which only makes it creepier. The constant stream of problems Tara has to face and the survival factor of the episode kept me constantly tense. No one likes to be thrown into a basement with a monster and no way out. Malone also uses some brilliant Cinematography, he also uses a wide range of other effects such as the POV shots used in the flashbacks to tell the narrative of Johnny's death and the multitude of other effects such as the Black & White colorization and the smooth 'clinks' and 'tinks' produced by appropriate Sound SFX. This is one of the episodes that uses the least gore but packs more surprises as a result.
The plot and characters on the other hand is a little flimsy. While we do feel for Tara due to her current predicament and the bad life she has faced she still sways closely to the stereotypical quiet girl who gets a whole lot more noisy, not to mention the amount of cliché's in the plot from the whole over-the-top psycho parents who want their son back, the whole demonic ritual to-bring-him-back crap and the fact that I personally already knew the Fair-Haired child was Johnny from the moment I saw him but the director kept trying to add mystery on top of things that were clearly quite cliché and obvious. The characters came across as flat and the plot too thin. The acting was decent for the most part William Samples done a decent job as Anton and Lindsay Pulsipher as Tara, but it's nothing extraordinary. The creature reminded me of something out of "The Devils' Backbone" The episode did have a quite unpredictable turn of events when monster Johnny ate Tara, for which there was a gruesome and grotesque scene, I mean who wants to be eaten alive by that 'thing'. The movie ended on a nice note when the parents got there duely deserved dish of revenge as Johnny reincarnated Tara using a similar ritual, however he bargained for the lives of only two people to return her to flesh (in this case Anton & Judith) who were chomped on by a monster Tara at the end leading to a happy cheer from me personally; this fell into the whole cliché happy ending too soon afterwards though, which was sort of disappointing.
These facts aside William Malone has proved he can be a Master of Horror especially when other more well received directors, have produced much, much worse episodes such as Tobe Hooper's "Dance of the Dead". Sure the characters and plot are a little flimsy but the scares and creepiness of the episode hits where it counts; let's hope Malone can learn from what he's done here.
The premise of this episode revolves around a young girl named Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher) who is a complete outcast and considered a 'freak' among her peers, is suddenly kidnapped when she is cycling home. She ends up in what appears to be a hospital, but upon trying to escape she is confronted by her kidnapper Anton (William Samples) the nurse who Tara first meet upon awakening is in fact the kidnapper's wife Judith (Lori Petty.) They then throw Tara in what appears to be a basement. It turns out that someone else is also down there, a mute child Johnny (Jesse Haddock.) However as things unfold it turns out the child is the son of both Anton & Judith, whose son recently drowned, but using a ritual of sorts they were able to bring him back, on one condition they were to sacrifice "12" children. Tara is the last of the "12" and tries to survive Johnny's periodical transformations into a monster-like abomination.
The films strong points come from its creepiness and pure flat out frights. Johnny's abomination like transformation comes across as scary and creepy, and there clearly has been a lot of thought put into the movement and visual nature of the creature which only makes it creepier. The constant stream of problems Tara has to face and the survival factor of the episode kept me constantly tense. No one likes to be thrown into a basement with a monster and no way out. Malone also uses some brilliant Cinematography, he also uses a wide range of other effects such as the POV shots used in the flashbacks to tell the narrative of Johnny's death and the multitude of other effects such as the Black & White colorization and the smooth 'clinks' and 'tinks' produced by appropriate Sound SFX. This is one of the episodes that uses the least gore but packs more surprises as a result.
The plot and characters on the other hand is a little flimsy. While we do feel for Tara due to her current predicament and the bad life she has faced she still sways closely to the stereotypical quiet girl who gets a whole lot more noisy, not to mention the amount of cliché's in the plot from the whole over-the-top psycho parents who want their son back, the whole demonic ritual to-bring-him-back crap and the fact that I personally already knew the Fair-Haired child was Johnny from the moment I saw him but the director kept trying to add mystery on top of things that were clearly quite cliché and obvious. The characters came across as flat and the plot too thin. The acting was decent for the most part William Samples done a decent job as Anton and Lindsay Pulsipher as Tara, but it's nothing extraordinary. The creature reminded me of something out of "The Devils' Backbone" The episode did have a quite unpredictable turn of events when monster Johnny ate Tara, for which there was a gruesome and grotesque scene, I mean who wants to be eaten alive by that 'thing'. The movie ended on a nice note when the parents got there duely deserved dish of revenge as Johnny reincarnated Tara using a similar ritual, however he bargained for the lives of only two people to return her to flesh (in this case Anton & Judith) who were chomped on by a monster Tara at the end leading to a happy cheer from me personally; this fell into the whole cliché happy ending too soon afterwards though, which was sort of disappointing.
These facts aside William Malone has proved he can be a Master of Horror especially when other more well received directors, have produced much, much worse episodes such as Tobe Hooper's "Dance of the Dead". Sure the characters and plot are a little flimsy but the scares and creepiness of the episode hits where it counts; let's hope Malone can learn from what he's done here.