Masters of Horror: Peter Medak – The Washingtonians – DVD Review

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Available at Amazon.com

Directed by
Peter Medak

Cast:
Jhnathon Schaech … Mike Franks
Venus Terzo … Pam Franks
Caroline Carter … Hitch Hiker
Ian Carter … Washingtonian #3
Nathan Clark … Deputy #1/Washingtonian
Daniel Cudmore … Deputy #2
Chris Davis … Thomas Jefferson
Duncan Fraser … Bearded Washingtonian
Abraham Jedidiah … Jared Barkish
Brian Jensen … George Washington
Chris Kalhoon … Washingtonian #2
Patrick Keating … Minister
Esme Lambert … Nancy Arnold
Chi Lam … Delivery Man


The Episode:

On the surface, Peter Medak’s entry into Showtime’s Masters of Horror anthology series, “The Washingtonians”, shouldn’t be that hard to review. The episode is uniformly terrible, with a ridiculous concept, a clumsy script, acting that gives new meaning to the word “campy”, and cinematography that screams “cheap TV show”. “The Washingtonians” is bad on so many levels that it would be easy to declare it the worst episode of Masters of Horror ever created, but oddly enough, all of its factors somehow come together to make it an experience that is quite enjoyable, albeit in a way that makes you feel quite guilty.

The story begins quite badly, and kind of spirals from there. Having recently learned of the passing of his grandmother, family man Mike Franks (Johnathon Schaech) journeys to his hometown in order to take care her estate and attend her funeral. His wife and young daughter in tow, Franks stumbles upon an odd document while rummaging through his grandmother’s belongings that claims to be a letter from George Washington revealing himself to be a cannibal. After asking folks in the area about the document, weird things begin to happen, as a man on horseback attacks his car and all the elderly people in the region begin acting quite hostile toward he and his family.

Again, it’s hard to say that “The Washingtonians” is good on any level, but it is effective due to the level of camp. Watching the installment is actually quite fun, due solely to the episode’s level of audaciousness in its execution. Director Peter Medak throws subtlety out the window within the story’s first two minutes and never looks back, climaxing the episode in a sequence of grand guignol excess that’ll have you laughing while still being grossed out. As body parts get ripped to shreds and white powdered faces are covered in blood, it’s tough not to give in to the preposterousness of it all.

There’s no subtext or anything going on under the surface of “The Washingtonians”. Every moment of this piece is as obvious and over the top as possible, which is where the episode’s camp factor kicks in. If you’re looking for high quality, meticulously crafted horror, then stay away from this installment at all costs. “The Washingtonians” is good in absolutely no category, and yet saying this is the worst episode of the Masters of Horror would be far from the truth. I cannot tell a lie, there’s fun to be had here, you just have to be in the right mind to see it.


The DVD:

The Video
Once again, the print on this episode is quite good, with a bright picture and vivid colors the whole way through. There are no obvious errors at all with this print and Starz continues to make good looking DVD’s with this series. 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 is also quite good. Soundtrack never overwhelms dialogue and the whole soundscape is well balanced.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary with Director Peter Medak and Actor/Co-writer Johnathan Schaech – This is a decent commentary track from these two, but kind of absurd. I’m not sure that they’ve created an episode as bad as it is, as with one scene in the installment they compare to Rosemary’s Baby. Still, the track is lively and fun to listen to.

Feast on This – Nice little Featurette covers nearly every aspect of this production and spends a lot of time on the episode’s big finale. The most interesting portion of the Featurette actually talks about a kind of insignificant sequence in which characters are inside a van that is on a soundstage in reality. The scene totally works as tree branches rotating on a wheel and a clever use of light and shadow substitute for movement quite convincingly.

Wigs, Teeth, and Power! – This is a short Featurette just on the costuming and makeup, and the work done by KNB again is astounding. A piece that is supposed to be George Washington’s teeth is featured prominently, as is the actor that plays Washington in this episode.

Bloopers – This is a 4 minute blooper reel that really isn’t as funny as the episode.

Trailers – You get trailers for Hatchet as well as trailers for every episode of Masters of Horror.

Photo Gallery

Original Script

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for Masters of Horror: The Washingtonians
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE EPISODE

5.5
THE VIDEO

8
THE AUDIO

8
THE EXTRAS

6
REPLAY VALUE

8
OVERALL
6
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.