Known for creating some of the most loved comedies of our time (does Animal House or The Blues Brothers ring any bells?), John Landis seems like a weird choice to helm an episode of the Masters Of Horror series until you remember he was responsible for one of the best werewolf movies ever made: An American Werewolf In London.

That film has some great transformation effects by Rick Baker, good characters, and an off-the-cuff sense of humour - with Deer Woman, Landis keeps a lot of those elements intact, but instead plays it more for humour than horror. The results, therefore, are a mixed bag as I was amused more than once during the course of the film, but was also wishing for a bit more bloody mayhem.

Brian Benben plays Detective Dwight Faraday, an unhappy cop who's been demoted to dealing with animal attacks after making a huge mistake during one of his prior cases. It's a dull job and there's not many worse areas he could've been assigned to, but things are about to pick-up when he's called in to a nearby tavern to investigate the bloody trampling death of a trucker.

While trying to piece together clues with the help of beat cop Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith) more bodies turn up killed the same way. Faraday soon learns of an ancient Native American legend about the "Deer Woman" who is supposed to be a seductive young beauty who just so happens to have deer legs and hooves on the bottom half of her body.

The problem is he has to try and convince people that's what is actually happening while our mystical killer (played by Cinthia Moura, who doffs her duds more than once and looks good doing it) continues to have victims die by her hands. err, hooves. This leads to a final showdown, which is by far the most serious, and weak, thing here.

Deer Woman is played tongue-in-cheek from the get go, so if you come into this episode expecting anything remotely scary or suspenseful you're better off elsewhere. This one is all about being as outrageously goofy as director Landis as his co-writer (and son) Max can dream up. It gets more goofy as it goes along with Benben perfectly deadpan in his role with Landis evening getting to throw out a knowing "wink" to fans by tossing in an in-joke involving American Werewolf.

It's a watchable timewaster and you can't help but be incredibly amused by Benben's daydream scenarios (one has a trucker being beaten to death by a woman with a deer leg weapon, another has the same making out couple scream loudly when they look out the window and see a innocently blinking doe, and a last one involving a "deer man" who kills the guy, kidnaps the girl, and carries her away), however if you're looking for straight-ahead horror you're better off watching the other contributions in the series from such names as Don Coscarelli and Tobe Hooper. (Chris Hartley, 5/31/06)

Directed By: John Landis.
Written By: Max Landis, John Landis.

Starring: Brian Benben, Anthony Griffith, Cinthia Moura, Sonya Bennett.

Picture Ratio: 1.77:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Like all of Anchor Bay's entries discs for the series, Deer Woman looks quite good with solid clarity, no grain, and only a few jagged edges once and a while. There's nothing here to complain about.

Extras: All of the Masters Of Horror discs use the same template and contain pretty much the same extras, but it's the sheer amount of them that makes Anchor Bay's decision to release them seperately instead of a season box set a good move (even if it might be expensive to buy them all, this way you can pick and choose your favourite episodes also).

We get a trailer (plus trailers for seven other episodes), promo trailers for other Anchor Bay DVD releases, a still gallery, a well written text biography for Landis, DVD-rom content that includes the screenplay and a screensaver, a clip from the early 80's TV show Fantasy Film Festival that has Masters creator Mick Garris interviewing Landis, a behind-the-scenes montage, on set interviews with Benben, Griffith, and Moura; an informative interview with Landis entitled "Animal Hooves", the pretty cool "Working with a Master" featurette that graces every Masters disc, and a lightweight commentary track with co-stars Benben and Griffith.

Deer Woman will be available in a double pack with Lucky McKee's entry, Sick Girl, which releases on the same date.

Visit Anchor Bay for more info.