Director John Landis contributed Deer Woman to
the “Masters of Horror”
anthology series, one of the undeniable highlights of the program’s first
season. For the second season he matches if not quite outdoes himself with the
wickedly delightful Family, scripted
by Frailty‘s Brent Hanley.
 and Celia<br />
(<a href=)
Meredith Monroe),
moves in across the street. They befriend Harold after accidentally running
into his mailbox one evening, and Harold quickly sets his sights on prying Celia
away from her husband.
shot (which includes, amusingly, a portrait of Dick Cheney in Harold’s house) past
manicured lawns and picket fences, all of which summons to mind visions of David
Lynch’s Blue Velvet, and the
nastiness that lurks just under the surface in suburbia. The tone here, though,
is one of sinister comedy, and Wendt gives a great performance. Somewhat
guarded but still mostly friendly, he plays the sincerity on top, and brings
the temper to a boil only when necessary. There’s some dark delight in the twisted
inner monologues of unfiltered id that occasionally punch through in Harold’s
interactions with other folks, chiefly Celia, but his thought processes in
stalking teenagers at the nearby high school must be dangerously close to the
rationalizations that real-life killers, kidnappers and molesters indulge.
material laid out above, assaying the intertwined natures of loneliness and grief,
and how they can both feed into madness. Landis’ touch with the substance and
tone of the movie is spot-on, and though he admits he’s usually not a fan of
visual gimmickry, he hauls out at least one doozy of a shot here.
DVD release of Family continues their
superb handling of the series. It’s presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and coming with
nice, cleanly mixed Dolby digital 5.1 and Dolby surround 2.0 audio tracks. Supplemental
features are anchored by an audio commentary track from writer Hanley, in which
the native Texan talks, in his relaxed, twangy style, about the ease with which
the project came together, its roots as an unabashed homage to Psycho, and the fact that he initially
had trouble envisioning Wendt for the role of Harold. (Like the role that eventually
went to Powers Boothe in Frailty, Hanley
says he wrote Family for William H.
Macy, who apparently hasn’t gotten any of his beseeching memos.)
interviews with the cast and separate sit-down overview chats with Hanley,
Landis and others, including special effects guy Lee Wilson. Landis is
characteristically self-effacing, but just a real pleasure to listen to. There’s
also a seven-and-a-half-minute featurette on the film’s score, which contains
footage of Landis working with (and praising) composer Peter Bernstein. Storyboards
from William David Hogan, a photo gallery, a surprisingly informative text
biography on Landis (who got his start in the mailroom at 20th Century Fox, and
was a production assistant on 1970’s Kelly’s
Heroes), and a DVD-ROM copy of the script round out the disc. A (Movie) B+
(Disc)