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From movieweb, I'm really rather amazed that I got the opportunity to watch this in the first place. Fewer copies of Season Two were released than Season One, and quite possibly with good reason. Though there were other incentives to pick up Season Two, the constant muttering of the fans had some valid complaints.

The Season Two box set is ironic, when you consider it fully. Yes, indeed, it comes in an absolutely freaky case that looks like an exact replica of a human skull. Pull off the top and an array of DVDs are found within. But Masters of Horror: Season Two is exactly like a real human's head, and not just for the amazing skull case; it's a masterfully designed casing holding a mix of the good and the ill. Just like a real human head. I'm somewhat opposed to this, however, as it required some titles to be double-packed on one DVD--Family is the B-side of The Screwfly Solution's disk and that's not a good thing.

Yes, the fans were correct. Season Two was quite a bit inferior to season one, but it's crashingly unfair to say that season two was BAD. No, not in the least--it wasn't bad at all. It just wasn't good compared to the first. Why? Well, I'm going to put forth the suggestion that it just averaged better. Strange thing to say, I know, but look at season one--only Deer Woman and Chocolate were anything less than good. And the best of season one--Pick Me Up, Homecoming, and Cigarette Burns--were inspired masterworks of horror. Takashi Miike put forth possibly the very first work of horror that Showtime refused to show. The rest were at least good, and that makes a pretty high plateau to achieve.

By comparison, there are fewer high points and more low points to season two. I'm still offended by the existence of The V Word--a VAMPIRE story? In Masters of Horror? Honestly--surely masters of the art can do better than rehash old mythoses into the modern era. Vampires are done and to death--I'm sick of Lestat and his buddies mincing his way through horror movies, and only slightly better are the coked-up madmen of movies like 30 Days of Night. At least that's a bit original. But even in this it was still a relatively successful film--just because I'm not all that into vampire stories doesn't mean vampire buffs won't enjoy it. Bringing in chronically ignored pulp-horror figure Bentley Little for "The Washingtonians" was also a good move that showed a commitment to at least try--when's the last time you saw anything vaguely related to Bentley Little? Yeah, I figured--like I said, chronically ignored. Do yourself a favor--go out and read his book The Store and see if you can look at a Wal-Mart the same way ever again.

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