The best way to describe Deer Woman is as a bizarre black comedy. This one sets the tone right away, and while there are some otherworldly elements and gore, it is never scary or suspenseful. It is, nevertheless, an odd story with unusual characters and ideas. On the other side, Landis makes it work.
While calling this a “horror” picture is a stretch, it is nonetheless a lot of fun and never uninteresting. Brian Benben, who is always acerbic and cynical in his humor, deserves a lot of credit for this.
The scene in which he imagines several scenarios in which the murders could have taken place is hilarious, grisly, and inventive. Landis even throws in some self-referential humor – Dwight’s supervisor tells him, ‘This is not 1981, and this is not London!’ – indicating that the entire thing is done with a sly grin on his face.
Anthony Griffith, who plays Benben’s caustic humor, is particularly fantastic in his supporting role. Simultaneously, Cinthia Moura, who plays the titular woman without saying a word, is extremely gorgeous, to the point that you might envision her seducing the occasional intoxicated truck driver.
The setting and cinematography are stunning, and Landis is at the top of his game once again. He manages to elicit very authentic personalities from his actors, despite the fact that they are dealing with such a preposterous situation that the whole thing could have easily descended into farce. Faraday, a once-talented detective [played by Brian Benben] who has been demoted to “weird calls guy” until one of those calls leads him to a dark-haired, yellow-eyed woman who just might be the embodiment of an ancient Native American legend in which men are seduced and then brutally murdered by a half-woman/half-deer creature.
Deer woman- sneak peek into story
Set at a lodge in an unnamed northern hamlet in Washington state, where numerous drunk truckers seek solace in drink and women. A few of these truckers leave the lodge to go to the bathroom and overhear another driver crying in agony inside one of the trucks. His curiosity is aroused, the inebriated trucker inspects the vehicle but walks away when it becomes silent. The door is thrown out a few moments later.
Detective Dwight Faraday, a fired cop whose major duty is dealing with animal assaults, arrives at the resort the next morning.
Officer Jacob Reed and he are dispatched to investigate a weird report regarding an alleged animal attack/murder. The cops are shown the vehicle from the opening scene when they arrive, and they establish that the truck’s door was pushed out by something exceedingly forceful.
Detective Faraday checks the vehicle of the previously inebriated trucker from the previous night and finds that the indistinguishable mass of blood and tissue was human based on a jaw bone. Faraday then asks the villagers what happened and discovers that the now pile of pulp was seen with a gorgeous Native American lady who had the “eyes of a deer caught in headlights” just before he died.
After a verbal altercation with Faraday, Detective Patterson takes over the case and sends Faraday back to the police station to handle a “royal rumble” between a lady whose dog was attacked by a monkey as well as the guy who owned the animal.
Down to the station, Faraday, perplexed by the monkey-dog case in front of him and clearly preoccupied with the mystery of a dead trucker, realizes that the victim was crushed from the crotch upwards, leaving his dog-monkey case investigators in a state of hilarious uncertainty.
Faraday then goes to inspect the body and banters with Dana, the visiting coroner, before determining that the guy died in a level of arousal and that what is left of his body had hoof impressions on it.
Even though the case is promptly shifted to a Homicide unit, Faraday links up with beat detective Jacob Reed to conduct his own investigation. He also bounces ideas off with the gorgeous coroner Dana.
I’d love to see a series on Dwight and Dana’s exploits in the future; their conversations were so natural that it seemed like I was catching up with friends. Although Benben’s portrayal of Faraday occasionally reminded me of Dream On’s Martin Tupper, notably in one scene where he’s picturing the many scenarios about how the first person was killed, he largely reminded me of getting Smart’s Maxwell Smart, which I take as a compliment.
One of Max’s, and hence Dwight’s, most prominent personality qualities was his ability to remain focused just on the case at hand despite the chaos around him. Faraday’s chief reassigns him to the investigation when the third death is discovered in under two days. “Deer Woman” then shifts gears and takes us to River Rock, a traditional Indian casino where we learn about both Faraday and Deer Woman’s backstories. Things pick up speed from here on out.
The pace of “Deer Woman” is spot-on, a credit to both Landis’ sharpness and the brilliance and precision of the script written by his son, Max, while he was still a teenager. In the “Working with a Master” extra, we find that John and Max had a disagreement regarding the finale, with the older Landis having the last word.
Max, to his credit, acknowledges the situation. Landis and the performers repeatedly emphasize that their goal was not to make people laugh but to convey a ridiculous yet terrifying scene as accurately as possible. It’s a difficult balancing act, but Landis’ particular ability has served him well throughout his career and endeared him to fans all around the world.
As well as his coworkers. “Working with a Master” is a 22-minute memorial to Landis that begins with Don Rickles, of all people, reminiscing almost longingly about working with him, and contains tributes from giants like Forrest Ackerman, and Rick Baker, and Dan Aykroyd. The amount of love and admiration these people have for John is extremely astounding, but it’s not unexpected given what a nice and self-effacing man he is.
Another documentary, “Animal Hooves,” contains an almost half-hour conversation with Landis. “Hooves” is a comprehensive look back at Landis’ career, which began when he was eight years old after he went home from seeing the Harryhausen classic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
It’s a lot more fun, but it’s not too scary. The entire film plays out like a scene from The X-Files. Rather than any of The X-Files’ amusing episodes. There was one excellent jump scare, but overall it was simply a lot of funny jokes. There isn’t much else to write about it.
“Masters of Horror” episode “Deer Woman” is nice, with a hilarious plot that combines humor and horror, but it has a sad ending. Cynthia Moura, a Brazilian actress, is stunning, perhaps one of the most beautiful ladies I’ve ever seen, yet she has no lines throughout the drama.
Brian Benben gives a strong performance as a jaded investigator who sees an opportunity to re-energize his career. With a reference to a strange murder case committed by a wolf in Piccadilly Circus in 1981, there is a big nod to An American Werewolf in London.
When all is said and done, “Deer Woman” achieves its objectives.