I would like to address every horror movie fan out there: you owe a debt of gratitude to filmmaker and screenwriter Mick Garris for his incalculable contribution to the genre. For openers, the anthology television series Masters of Horror would not have been if it had not been for Garris. Masters of Horror premiered on Showtime in October 2005 and has received 1 Primetime Emmy, 8 award wins, and 7 nominations.
We will start with a brief history of the series before diving right into the topic of today’s video. It so happened that Garris had invited a group of his director buddies to a restaurant in the year 2002. Stuart Gordon, Guillermo del Toro, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Larry Cohen, Bill Malone, Joe Dante, John Landis, Don Coscarelli, and, of course, Garris were among the ten ‘masters’ on the list.
The dinner went off without a hitch, and del Toro even joked about giving the group a name: ‘Masters of Horror.’ Following that, Garris continued to throw similar dinners for the group.
Garris did not want to limit himself to the group, so he began inviting other directors to his dinner parties, including David Cronenberg, Eli Roth, Mary Lambert, Quentin Tarantino, Tom Holland, and Dario Argento, Fred Dekker, and Wes Craven, to name a few. By 2005, Garris had already established himself as the creator of his anthology series, Masters of Horror, which showcased the work of many of the ‘masters.’
Returning to today’s video, we will take a deep dive into Pelts, the sixth episode of the second season. Pelts is based on a short tale by F. Paul Wilson and directed by Dario Argento and written by Matt Venne. Prepare for today’s video, which will be a fascinating in-depth examination of the episode. Please do not hesitate to share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section.
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Pelts – Tit For Tat
(The Episode Explained In Detail)
Everything about Jake Feldman points in a negative direction. To begin with, he is a greasy, perverted, immoral fur trader who is seen berating and degrading his workers. From providing sub-standard working conditions to paying his workers the minimum amount possible for their long hours of service, Feldman literally hates everyone. Also, he certainly does not comprehend rules that state ‘look but don’t touch.
By this, we are stressing about his frequent visits to a strip club straight after work, throwing money around, and demanding private dances from the stripper he fancies – the beautiful Shanna. It is pretty clear that he wants to enjoy a good roll in the hay with her. Feldman is occasionally seen grabbing her which is very much against the rules and speaking of Shanna, she is simply disgusted by him because he always ‘stinks – just like rotten flesh’.
The next scene shifts to a father-son duo Jeb ‘Pa’ Jameson and his son Larry. They are clearly trappers and judging them by their conversation, they have worked with Feldman in the past. The duo is in the middle of what looks like some kind of wood and suddenly the son realizes that they are inside Mother Mater’s private property.
He confirms it with his father who tells him how Mother Mater has been spreading stories for generations with the sole purpose of scaring people off. Well, her stories have had no effect on Jameson and that is why he is there on her land to hunt and trap animals. By the looks of the property, it seems to be some sort of an ancient burial ground with stone structures everywhere.
The duo reaches the place where Jameson had set traps the previous night and is overjoyed to see every trap containing raccoons inside them. Jameson makes Larry run through the process one more time – turn the raccoons over on their backs, step hard enough on their windpipes with shoes to crush them, and in spite of that if they somehow manage to survive, use the baseball bat to crush their skulls.
Jameson even gives Larry a demo and they start killing the animals one by one. Back home, after they are done processing the fur, Jameson tells Larry that he will call it a night post calling Feldman.
No points for guessing where Feldman is. He is enjoying a strip performance of Shanna, absolutely enthralled by her dance moves when he gets a call from Jameson who obviously tells him about the raccoon pelts. Jameson seems to have disappointed Feldman in the past given the subpar quality of his products but he assures Feldman that what he possesses currently is something that no one has ever seen before.
Jameson tells him to come and buy the pelts from him before he changes his mind. In the meantime, something inexplicable happens to Larry. He gets so bewitched by the hanging furs that he picks up the baseball bat, goes inside the room of his father, wakes him up, and bludgeons him to death.
Feldman arrives with his assistant Lou the very next morning. At first, when they knock at the door, no one opens but when they find the door unlocked, they enter inside. While looking around, they come across the beautiful pelts hanging and are literally speechless. It is true, they have never come across anything like this before. Feldman is already lost in his thoughts of making money when they hear a noise.
As they go to investigate, they come across Larry’s bloodied cadaver. He seemed to have ripped off his own face by voluntarily sticking it inside a trap. A flashback scene shows the audience exactly how he caused his own death. Feldman also finds the body of Jameson upstairs in his room. Nonetheless, he decides to steal the pelts and flees from the crime scene with Lou.
The duo goes straight back into their workplace, hands over the pelts to the workers, and are convinced to have one of the world’s most extraordinary fur coats ready by next week. Feldman visits the strip club and tells Shanna of a business proposition. He tells her about a coat he is making and that he wants her to wear it at the furrier’s expo. With Feldman offering Shanna both fame and fortune, the latter agrees.
Soon, horrible things start occurring to the workers one after the other. It begins with Sergio, the fur trimmer, who guts himself using the same scissors he had used while cutting the pelts. The next in line happens to be Sue Chin Yao, the seamstress, who suffocates herself to death when she ends up sewing her nose shut first followed by her eyes and mouth.
As for Feldman, he goes back to Jameson’s house and is able to lay his hands on a map, one that will lead him to find more pelts. The map leads him to the private property of Mother Mater, who tells Feldman how she has been keeping the people off her land to protect the animals who are sentinels of the lost city.
But when the sleazy fur trader ends up asking her for a few raccoons, the old woman gets furious and drives him away saying that the animals are not yet finished with him. Feldman comes back to his workplace to find the dead body of Sue Chin Yao but the only thing that actually bothers him is that the coat gets finished.
With Lou suggesting that the coat is cursed, Feldman disregards him and brings the coat to Shanna’s apartment. There are no second thoughts about Shanna getting absolutely spellbound by the beauty of the coat. So much so that she literally agrees to sleep with Feldman just so as to keep the coat to herself.
Shanna keeps wearing the fur coat throughout the whole time and after they are done, Feldman asks her where the bathroom is. He also tells her that he needs something sharp. On the way to the washroom, he picks up a knife that he sees on the table and takes off his shirt. Next, he skins his own torso and creates what looks like a vest.
In the meantime, Shanna is seen enjoying a smoke when a bloodied Feldman comes up to her and shows him his custom-made skin vest that he calls his ‘work of art. A horrified Shanna screams her way to the elevator being followed by Feldman who falls down through the elevator shaft to pursue her. Of course, Shanna tries to escape but before she can, Feldman gains his consciousness and grabs her by the ankle. A petrified Shanna gets her hand crushed in the elevator door.
The cops eventually find their bodies. Lou is also there and tells the detective that Feldman was his friend. The episode ends with a petrified Lou looking at the bloodied corpses.
Want To Know What Do We Think Of?
It would not be completely wrong to say that this episode here can actually be observed as a dark satire, especially on the fur industry. If we stress the death scenes here, let’s say the disembowelment, the sewing up and the skinning part – all of these deaths are symbolic in the sense that they are literally based on what furriers actually do to the poor animals.
Seriously, commendable on the part of Italian director Dario Argento to shed light on it. Now, speaking of the storyline, the private land owned by Mother Mater does have this uncanny, similar resemblance to Stephen King’s Pet Sematary but then again Argento has his own tricks up his sleeve. Stressing on the high points of the episode here, it is the bloody content on display right from the opening scene that sets the mood.
Right at the very beginning of the episode, we quickly get to see two bodies; while one is a topless woman soaked in blood, the other looks like a skinless man. Oh, there is plenty of innovatively brutal kills on display – one sticking his face inside an animal trap, a woman sewing her face up, or say a man skinning his torso with a knife all of these hintings at the sole fact that Argento has clearly not shied from anything. Thanks to the hour-long limited time frame that made Argento go all explicit with the gore content.
Pelts has Meat Loaf playing the role of Jake Feldman. Needless to say, he does a pretty decent job as the lusty, crooked fur trader, one who just cannot keep his hands to himself. The supporting cast deserves a special mention too, especially, Ellen Ewusie, who for your information was not the first choice to play the role of Shanna.
It was Asia Argento who was the primary choice but her exceedingly busy schedule did not let her play Shanna and it was eventually passed on to Ewusie. But the one who conclusively steals the spotlight in this episode has to be the late veteran horror icon, John Saxon, portraying the cantankerous Jeb ‘Pa’ Jameson. He was brilliant and to watch his cameo was nothing short of a sheer treat.
We at Marvelous Videos highly recommend that you give Pelts a shot if you still have not. And, if you are into all things gory, just add Pelts to your watchlist right away. Mind you, this episode is categorically not for the squeamish. So, don’t tell us that we did not warn you before!
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