Available at Amazon.com
Directed by
Dario Argento
Cast:
Meat Loaf …. Jake (as Meat Loaf Aday)
Link Baker …. Lou Chinaski
Emilio Salituro …. Sergio
Elise Lew …. Sue Chin Yao
Shawn Hall …. Bouncer
Sylvesta Stuart …. Beefy Bouncer
Ellen Ewusie …. Shana
John Saxon …. Jeb ‘Pa’ Jameson
Subtlety and making sense have never really been Dario Argento’s strong suits. This is a filmmaker that works in big strokes with operatic flourishes, built up with creepy music and incredible cinematography. Argento adds layer upon layer of tension so masterfully that, by the time the moment actual horror in a scene has finally arrived, it’s as if it’s almost a release, exhilarating you to the point of excess. Time and time again in films such as Suspiria and Deep Red, or even in his Masters of Horror entry from season one “Jenifer,” Argento has shown his ability to creep out an audience in a way that no other director has been able to in the last thirty years. With “Pelts”, his new episode from the Horror anthology, Argento is at it again and has brought some 70’s icons with him.
When we meet Jake (Meat Loaf), he’s a pretty pitiful sight. He deals in furs, but is just small time, and he certainly can’t entice Shana (Ellen Ewusie), a local stripper, to be with him. Everything about his being is pretty much pathetic, until he receives a gift that changes his life; a load of the perfect pelts from a local trapper. With these hides in tow, Jake can finally get everything he wants, not knowing that they could also be his downfall.
It’s nearly a perfect fit to see Argento work with such classical themes. From Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King, horror stories have often been about objects that promised dreams and delivered nightmares. “Pelts” is very much in this same tradition, as the mysterious hides end up bringing destruction wherever they go, causing anyone that comes into contact with them to desecrate their own flesh. This allows Argento to go wall to wall with atrocious visuals, from a boy sticking his face in a bear trap to another man disemboweling himself with a pair of scissors.
The director even sets a lot of the killings to very pleasant music, which is a motif he’s used before in other pictures. The technique is a perverse way of getting to an audience, making you expect the oncoming massacre about to take place instead of having you relax, like another director would. This is a filmmaker in complete control, who never lets his gore do the work for him, but still not shying away from the gore whatsoever.
Meat Loaf and John Saxon both look like their having a whale of a time overacting here too, never really fleshing their characters out, but still giving fun performances. Both appear in some pretty grizzly sequences but take it all in stride. Ellen Ewusie is also decent as the story’s object of ultimate desire and at certain times really seems to deserve that title.
Not overly spectacular, but still grandiose and entertaining, “Pelts” stands as a good example of Dario Argento’s ability to manipulate an audience to his will. With tons of gore and nudity, there’s no shortage of excess, but it never seems to harm the installment’s plot. If more episodes from the show were as good as this one, its reputation would probably be a bit higher and probably wouldn’t hurt its ratings either.
The Video
“Pelts” looks pretty good on this disc. The print is decently clear and is never too dark, making it easy to see what’s going on, even in the night shots. The episode is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1.
The Audio
The Audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and also sounds just fine. There’s never any problems hearing the dialogue and the track has a really good balance.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, Featurettes, Storyboards, Bio, Trailers
Audio commentary with Writer Matt Venne – A good track from the writer, Venne virtually never stops talking throughout and has some pretty nice tidbits. He’s goes into great detail about what things he kept and what things he changed from the original short story “Pelts” is based on. He also defends the episode, saying that the gore in it always has to do with the installment’s themes and therefore is never gratuitous.
All Sewn Up: Mastering The Effects Sequence – This has the effects team explaining some of the gore sequences in the episode. They especially focus on a sequence in which a woman sews up her eyes, nose and mouth and how this is done.
Fleshing It Out: The Making of Pelts – There’s a lot of gushing going on from the cast and crew about working with Dario Argento. All of them seem to be invigorated by being around the director and seem to love being in this episode. Meat Loaf has a pretty funny story about when he told his daughter that he had been offered the part and she basically forced him to be in the episode.
Trailers – You get a ton of trailers here, most for Masters of Horror entries, as well as other Anchor Bay releases.
Storyboard Gallery
Dario Argento Bio
