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Masters of Horror: The Fair Haired Child (2006)
Director William Malone knocks your socks off with this cool and creepy fright-fest
I have enjoyed director William Malone's work since he turned out a roller coaster of a "House on Haunted Hill" remake. Why isn't this guy directing the next "Harry Potter" or something?
"The Fair Haired Child," a film in Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series, is a moody shocker with some truly scary moments. It literally starts with a bang when Tara (a well-cast Lindsay Pulsipher), a troubled high school girl, is intentionally slammed into by Anton's (William Samples) cargo van.
Hurt and bleeding, she's helped into the van and spirited away to what appears to be a hospital, but is instead a rural manor where Anton and his wife, Judith (a creepy Lori Petty) run a boarding house in terror. When she asks too many questions, poor Tara is tossed into the basement where she's befriended by Johnny (Jesse Haddock), another traumatized prisoner, who claims that some weird chit is coming down the pike.
Malone sets this all up beautifully. I remember seeing one of his "Tales from the Crypt" episodes - it was another riveting tale of a masked party girl who takes an obnoxious guy back to her apartment for what he thinks is going to be a slam bang evening, but turns it into his worst nightmare - especially when he finds out she's not really wearing a mask... It had more tension than "Basic Instinct."
Well, "The Fair Haired Child" is a different story entirely, but the same creeping claustrophobia comes to play and Malone makes use of every nuance of his characters, his location, his props, his lighting. He's a true artist with a wonderful palette of moods and images.
Malone knows how to make whatever's on screen feel essential, he doesn't waste film or shots and "The Fair Haired Child" makes the most of a limited budget. Okay, it's not the most original piece in the world, but Malone gives it weight and tension and style. And that's why I liked it - I enjoyed his artistic choices and I'd like to see what he does next on the big screen.