I've heard more than a few people bag on Showtime's Masters of Horror series since it debuted in fall of 2005.  They seem to be spending more time bitching about what it's not as opposed to enjoying what it is.  Yeah, I get that some of the directors aren't exactly "masters," as maybe they've only made ONE horror flick (even if it was quite good - see Brad Anderson's Session 9).  Or that these hour-long eps aren't up to the director's usual standards, to which I say, whatever.  They get a small budget and ten days to come up with what we see.  The fact that these are enjoyable at all is testament enough to their skills, I say.  For me, these aren't perfect, no - but they're fun, gory, and there's no other show on TV doing anything like this right now.  So relax, haters.
 
Mick Garris' second season entry, based on an original story by Clive Barker and scripted by Garris, is Valerie on the Stairs.  The story concerns a young, struggling writer named Rob Hanisey (Tyron Leitso), who moves into the Highberger House, which is less of a motel or apartment house and more of a writer's retreat.  The rules (strange and wonderful though they may be) state that it's specifically for scrappy, unpublished writers to reside in, giving them a place to work without distraction or money problems - there's no rent - until their break; once they become published, it's time to go, and another hard-luck author moves in.  All of which seems great to Rob, of course, who has written four novels without breaking through and is working on number five.  He meets some of the other residents, including Everett Neely (Christopher Lloyd) and particularly gregarious Bruce Sweetland (Jonathan Watton), who is willing to show the new guy the ins and outs of their shared abode.  All seems well, yet on his very first night, Rob is bothered by strange knockings at his door - nobody there - and sounds in the walls, before finally hearing what seems to be crying out in the hall.  He finds, sitting on the stairs, a beautiful young woman (Clare Grant) in obvious distress, but she disappears before he can help her.  This continues to go on over the next few nights, with Rob's fellow writers reacting with disbelief, and the girl - who says her name is Valerie - telling him more and more often that she "needs him to help her" and that "he'll be angry" if they keep talking.  Every time Rob gets close enough, she disappears into the shadows. . .and is sometimes pulled into them by clawed hands.  Eventually we learn that what appears to be a typical ghost story is anything but, that (of course) Rob's fellow writers know more than they're letting on, and that Valerie is not alone out there in the darkness; there is a Beast, and the beauty is his.

I liked Valerie on the Stairs quite a bit.  Admittedly, it does end up dealing with some rather crazy concepts, and by the end has become more than a little absurd (yet not completely ludicrous), but is committed to entertaining the viewer.  Garris - creator and executive producer of Masters of Horror - has a slightly above average script with some effective scares and a fine cast.  Lloyd, as ever, hams it up in a highly entertaining manner, Leitso is a sympathetic lead, Grant is fragile and gorgeous (which is pretty much all the plot requires of her, aside from occasionally disrobing), and Watton is likeable and mysterious.  And as the Beast, everybody's favorite seven-foot tall hook-handed urban legend Tony Todd is perfectly menacing and dangerous.

There are some interesting themes thrown into the mix, concerning the nature of creativity and the power of imagination; Barker's concept is creatively literary and borrows some of the themes from In The Mouth Of Madness, even taking a couple of its ideas to their logical conclusion, while Carpenter's film only hinted at them.  Being a Clive Barker story, the author's usual psychosexual ingredients are added to the plot and add a flavor of eroticism.  KNB gives us a typically good-looking makeup job for Todd and provide a couple of inventive, enjoyably bloody kills for the unrepetant gorehound.

Anchor Bay's DVD comes with a decent set of special features as they have always given the franchise; not as in depth as the first season, perhaps - no career overview or interview with Garris, maybe because they already did one last year - but fairly good.  There's an audio commentary with Garris, who is his typical enthusiastic self, giving lots of information about the gestation of the story and working with Barker, as well as the production in Canada and the details of the shoot.  "Spine Tingler: The Making of Valerie on the Stairs", is a decent 15 minutes featurette with on set footage and plenty of interviews with all the principals, including Barker himself.  Another featurette, "Jump Scare", is a brief (five minute) look at the tricks that go into the editing of a horror flick, with Garris and editor Andrew Cohen going over how they make the timing just right with scares and stings, as well as choosing the correct amount of splatter in the effects sequences; despite its short length, this was very interesting.  There's also a photo gallery, sneak peeks at other MOH episodes on DVD (and a trailer for Hatchet!) as well as Garris' script, available on DVD-ROM.

Valerie on the Stairs is a bloody good time, with some intelligent ideas and intriguing developments, and is a pleasant time waster for fans of the genre, and will surely tide most of us over until Garris decides to tackle another Stephen King property.           

 

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