Deer Woman (2005)

Wonderful character development!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

"Deer Woman" was okay. I was pleasantly surprised. That especially so after having seen the horrendous "Imprint" right before it. Model Cynthia Moura did a good job as the mysterious Indian deer woman who has hoofs. The director John Landis ("Twilight Zone movie", "American Werewolf in London") makes the most of the subject, by turns making a spoof and also giving us some genuine scares.This is probably one of the slightly better ones to be expected in the series. The only thing that bothered me quite a bit was the storyline kept going in circles when we knew all along that she was the killer. It was very predictable in that regard. It was also the first episode that was shot in the series back in 2007. This is one of the ones from Masters of Horror that should at least be checked out if you are into the series. 6/10.

The episode 7 of Season 1 and the Vol. 5 of the Region 4 DVDs, 'Deer Woman' is its name and it was directed by John Landis; for the record, after checking on this site I can confirm that I have just seen two films of Landis being 'The Blues Brothers' and its sequel from 1998. Anyway, this is a hilarious episode actually, of course not because of the legendary -and sexy- Deer Woman (Cinthia Moura) but for the present situation of the Detective Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben) who can be only in charge of the animal attacks for a reason that we will know near the ending of this episode. At the beginning Faraday and his charismatic partner Reed (Anthony Griffith) are in charge of the case that for us is obviously related with the Deer Woman but since the case is classified in the violent crimes category soon Faraday will be replaced with another detective, the Detective Patterson (Alex Zahara). Here the situation is that the corpses of all the victims are not more human bodies and nobody wants to take care of the respective autopsy but really relevant for Faraday is that there were hoof prints in one body so that's was enough for Faraday to have hopes in order to make this his case again. From here we can watch how desperate is Faraday for a "real" case and not only cases about dogs and monkeys and is hilarious all the situations that he like to imagine (a deer dressed killing the man, for example) but it is more hilarious that he knows that his own possible theories are quite and simply ridiculous. Eventually as more dead bodies appear there are more hopes for Faraday to make this his case having as an antecedent of animal attacks, like the one he thinks is the cause of the crime, the appearance of a wolf in London back in 1981 (unique!). Of course soon and eventually he will know about the Native American legend of the Deer Woman, once he has finally the case. From Wikipedia: "Deer Woman, sometimes also known as Deer Lady, is a shape-shifting woman in Native American mythology, in and around Oklahoma, The Western United States and The Pacific Northwest. She allegedly appears at various times as an old woman, or a young maiden, or a deer. Some descriptions assign her a human female upper body and the lower body of a white-tailed deer. The Deer Woman is said to sometimes be seen as a beautiful woman just off the trail or behind a bush, calling to men to come over. Deer Woman is often said to have all the features of a normal young woman save for her feet which are shaped like deer hooves and her brown deer's eyes. Men who are lured into her presence often notice too late that she is not a natural woman and are then stomped to death. The Deer Woman is similar in nature to several other female figures of folklore from other regions such as La Llorona from Mexico and the Southwestern United States, The Colombian creatures La Patasola and the Tunda and the Iara of Brazil. All are females who at times, function as sirens leading men to their death". When the legend faces Faraday everything turns even into irony, you know the guy wanted some real emotions in the animal attacks "department" so what else he could wish after his meeting with the legend, a legend that will live on.In short, this truly is a near perfect episode of Masters of Horror and definitely it is not very far from my favourites of Season 1.

From John Landis, director of An American Werewolf in London and Innocent Blood, comes Deer Woman.A severely mutilated body has just been found, a victim of a seemingly vicious animal attack, which brings Dwight, a detective, to the case. Stubborn and burnt out, it doesn't take long for Dwight to get caught up in the mystery as well as a rookie cop.But neither of them are prepared for the wrath of a deer woman scorned as they track down the Native American legend.The films casual style, tongue-in-cheek horror, and wonderful performance make this one of the highlights of Masters of Horror. This reviewer's favorite.

Burnt-out, cynical Detective Dwilight Faraday (winningly played by Brian Benben) and affable Officer Jacob Reed (a likable performance by Anthony Griffith) investigate a baffling series of brutal murders in which a handful of men are savagely trampled by a large, lethal animal. The pair discover that a deadly, yet enticing Native American woman (the stunningly gorgeous Cinthia Moura) is behind the killings; she seduces guys and then pulverizes them with her powerful deer legs! Director John Landis, who also co-wrote the witty and inspired script with Max Landis, takes an admittedly silly premise and deftly mines it for all the often sidesplitting off-the-wall black humor he can feasibly milk from it (there's an especially nifty dialogue reference to Landis' horror comedy classic "An American Werewolf in London"). Moreover, Landis delivers a handy helping of graphic gore and a decent smattering of tasty distaff nudity (Moura looks smoking hot topless). Benben and Griffith display a charming and appealing chemistry as the engaging lead characters; they receive nice support from Sonja Bennett as spunky coroner Dana. Jon Joffin's polished cinematography, Peter Bernstein's folksy, flavorsome score, the steady pace and the gruesome make-up f/x by Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger are all up to par. A hugely amusing romp.