Masters of Horror was an admirable attempt as an anthology by filmmaker Mick Garris to have most of the famous horror movie directors each episode. Directors such as Stuart Gordon, John Carpenter, John Landis, Dario Argento and Garris himself, took at stab at contributing to the anthology. Unfortunately, it only lasted two seasons from Oct. 28, 2005 to Feb. 2. 2007 before it was canceled by Showtime.
Part of the problem with the series was some of the episodes didn’t really work shorten to an hour or even stretched that long. Some episodes were just horrible or they were too violent, especially against women. But there were some good moments “Homecoming” directed by Joe Dante premiered on Dec. 2, 2005, but it’s relevant today, Nov. 1, as it’s four days away from the 2024 General Election. The premise is a little too on the nose at times that some of its content seem too obvious and topical.
The episode is set in the weeks leading up to the 2008 Presidential Election. America is at war with an unnamed country and the President, who isn’t named but kind of resembles George W. Bush when shown from far away at a campaign rally, is up for re-election. David Murch (Jon Tenney) is a speech writer who goes on a political talk show hosted by Marty Clark (Terry David Mulligan) with radical right-wing pundit Jane Cleaver (Thea Gill).
Cleaver seems to be a parody of Ann Coulter, but lately, you could say she’s also more like Megyn Kelly, Tomi Lahren and even Laura Loomer who uses sex appeal to get attention. But all she really does talk about is how bad the left is. With a satellite video to a Cindy Sheehan-inspired mother Janet Hofstader (Beverly Bruer), whose son was killed in action, he almost breaks down when memories of his brother, Phillip (Ryan McDonnell), who died during Vietnam, gets him upset. But he soon regains and says a statement about he wished the military personnel who died could come back and tell us what they really thinking.
His statement comes true when dead soldiers, Marines and Navy sailors begin to start showing up at polling precincts where there’s early voting. David sees them at the cemetery when he and his mother (Karen Austin) go to pay their respects to Phillip. Kurt Rand (Robert Picardo) is a Karl Rove-inspired advisor to the President who tells David the re-animated military can’t be killed. He shows David a lab where one soldier zombie is cut in half. They tried to amputate him but the leg kicked the doctor in the ass, Kurt said.
Kurt even fires a few rounds from a handgun in the soldier’s chest much to David’s surprises. Kurt likes the idea of having military that can’t be killed and comments how they wouldn’t have to pay disability. Picardo is a regular actor who appears in Dante’s works. He plays the vile creepiness of this type so well but offers the same humor slant he also does. Picardo might just be one of the most underrated actors we have currently working. He works well in everything. It also says a lot about how the U.S. government, mostly civilians who never served in the military, feel about actual military. You only have to look at VA hospitals and the bad treatment to see the way they’ve always treated military.
They soon learn there is a way to kill the undead military – by letting them vote. This leads to Jane going on TV to support the military’s right to vote arguing are they dead or undead. And other conservative Christians push to give them the vote even though they’ve been pronounced dead. But during a televised appearance, an undead soldier says they will vote for whoever stops the war.
And most conservatives take this to be that the Democratic challenger will be getting the votes. This leads Jane and others to denounce the soldiers. This aired a year and a month after the 2004 election in which conservatives mocked how John Kerry, a Navy vet, the Democrat nominee, was injured while serving during Vietnam. Vets of Vietnam former Swift Boats for Veterans in attempt to discredit Kerry. The term “swiftboating” has been coined as a political smear campaign.
Gen. Wesley Clark, who is a four-star general and graduate of West Point, was also attacked by the right and Bush’s campaign for his views. Clark also ran as a Democrat candidate in the primaries. We’ve seen more of this over the years, especially with the public treatment of Pat Tillman who had played football for the Arizona Cardinals but left to join the Army. He was killed on April 22, 2004 by friendly fire. At first the right-wing media portrayed him heroically. Yet when they realized Tillman was opposed to the Iraq War and was an atheist, the right assaulted his character.
The same thing was done to former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Georgia) who had served in the U.S. Army during Vietnam obtaining the rank of captain. When he ran in 1996 for the U.S. Senate, there was a smear campaign of misinformation of his injury with a live grenade. Later in 2002, he lost re-election to Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss, whose campaign ran an ad comparing him to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The political ad was pull after criticism by John McCain and Chuck Hagel, two Vietnam vets themselves. However, the damage was already done.
“Homecoming” was written by Sam Hamm, most famously of the 1989 Batman movie. It’s based on a short story “Death & Suffrage” written by Dale Bailey and published in the February 2002 issue of the The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Giving the episode a political slant avoids the issues movies like Civil War had. In a post-9/11 era, there was a lot of gung-ho military talk as the Bush Administration tried to create a link between bin Laden and Hussein. So, if your politics lean right, you’re probably not going to like this as it is critical of the weapons of mass destruction that weren’t found.
Dante has always been one of a director who seems to have fun with his movies while presenting a satirical approach even if they go a little too far. His other episode in the series “The Screwfly Solution” also written by Hamm was too violent as it deals with men becoming agitated easily and killing women. It isn’t one of his best works. Movies like The Howling and the Gremlins movies have a nice blend of dark comedy and macabre.
The episode does seem to fall apart as it delves too much in David’s backstory and how Phillip really died as it seems to switch gears about gun control. But the show’s ending has echoes of the 2000 election with the counting of the votes in Florida. And as we have heard the same thing during 2020 and since about “rigged elections” and “stolen elections”, it seems more relevant especially after a ballot box was set on fire in Washington state and an 18-year-old was arrested in Florida for wielding a machete outside a voting area as other teens, underaged, were also taunting voters.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 