John Landis' first entry in Showtime's Masters Of Horror was a wicked slice of black comedy called Deer Woman. Brought back for a second round, Landis again returns to the horror-comedy well that he's tapped before with films like An American Werewolf In London by casting George Wendt of Cheers fame in a story that feels very much like an episode of HBO's Tales From The Crypt.

The story revolves around a young couple named Celia (Meredith Monroe) and David (Matt Keeslar) who have moved to a small town after leaving the hustle and bustle of life in Los Angeles. Celia is a journalist and works from home, while David is a doctor in the local hospital emergency room. One night, on the way home after a night of drinking, they drive their SUV into the mailbox of the man who lives across the road, Harold (George Wendt). They wake up the next morning to find that he's already repaired it and soon the seemingly kindly man has been invited over for dinner as the couples way of making amends for their carelessness.

As time goes on, we learn that there's a lot more to Harold than meets the eye. It seems he has a penchant for kidnapping people and melting them down to nothing but skeletons and inducting them into his 'family.' With his current wife starting to get on his nerves in a major way, Harold sets his sights on the lovely Celia and he intends to take her whether she wants it or not.

A quirky little slice of suburban life gone horribly wrong, Family is very much in the same vein as lighter Masters Of Horror fare such as Landis' earlier and aforementioned Deer Woman and Lucky McKee's Sick Girl. Although there are a few moments of fairly strong gore the emphasis here is on laughs rather than on any legitimate shocks. Wendt does a fantastic job in the lead and makes the most out of his legitimately bizarre role while Monroe vamps it up incredibly effectively and steals a few key scenes that feed Harold's growing fever dreams. Of course, Landis builds it all to a shocking ending which attentive viewers will probably figure out before they're supposed to, but getting there is at least made enjoyable by some good acting and some very nice camera work.

Ultimately, the film is an enjoyable enough distraction even if it lacks any real substance. Go into this one expecting nothing more than some schlocky thrills and a few decent laughs and you'll walk away from satisfied. It's far from a classic, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do and fans of horror-comedy hybrids should enjoy it enough to give it a shot.

Like every entry in the series so far, Family is presented in an anamorphic 1.78.1 widescreen transfer. For the most part, things look pretty good on this disc. There are some mild compression artifacts present here and there, but aside from that the image is decent if just a little bit soft. Color reproduction looks accurate and flesh tones look lifelike, and there's a pretty solid level of both foreground and background detail present through the majority of the movie. Not a flawless transfer, but certainly a very good one.