ShareThisBy TERRY MORROW
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
"Masters of Horror," the Showtime anthology, began around a dinner table with ghoulish types trading stories.
They were directors of the genre, who jokingly referred to themselves as the Masters of Horror. They were genre giants like John Carpenter ("Halloween") and Joe Dante ("The Howling").
According to Tobe Hooper (1974's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), one of those guests, the idea to do a "Masters of Horror" was born there.
"The show came out of a core group of hardcore, filmmaking dudes," says Hooper. "We have had as many as 22 for dinner, and we always talked about the stories we wanted to work on."
The idea for the show eventually went to IDT Entertainment, which brought it to Showtime.
For the series, high-profile horror directors are wrangled, given 10 days to make a one-hour episode with a budget of a little less than $2 million. Also enticing to Hooper and the others was the artistic freedom of the project.
"They said, 'do it your way. Do what you want to do, and you have the final cut. It will be your cut,'" Hooper says. "That kind of freedom is rare. All I had to do is fall back on my own feelings."
During this second season, airing Friday nights, directors such as Brad Anderson ("The Machinist"), Tom Holland ("Child's Play"), Rob Schmidt ("Wrong Turn"), Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator") and John Landis ("American Werewolf in London") are behind the lens.
Hooper directed last season's "Dance of the Dead," an apocalyptic tale, and will be back this time around for "That Damned Thing," about an evil force swallowing a small town.
Going along with this season's more topical bent in the stories, Hooper says his "Thing" has a subtext about the power of oil in today's society. The story is based on Ambrose Bierce's 8-page short story.
"I like the idea of this invisible force that is, somehow, very tangible," he says. "From my point of view ... it's basically a metaphor for the oil monster of today, and it's bad spirit. But from a practical view ... it's about an energy force that can go into a community and disrupt it."
Upcoming episodes have a more direct connection to topicality:
_ Carpenter's "Pro-life" will be about a pregnant woman carrying a demonic child. She seeks refuge in a women's clinic.
_ Singer Meatloaf stars in "Pelts," about a fur trader who is haunted by the raccoon pelts he has stolen.
_ George Washington is revealed to be a cannibal in Peter Medak's "The Washingtonians."
_ "Right to Die" focuses on a woman who is comatose and kept alive by artificial means, but her spirit turns vengeful because she wants to die.
Hooper's favorite cinema always has a hint of mystery for the viewers. Having everything spelled out on screen doesn't interest him.
"It's not always about (the story) being spoon fed to me," he says. "I want to find out what's going on through the collective experience."
