Anchor Bay has recorded two completely different commentary tracks for this DVD. The first track is with director Don Coscarelli who is joined by script writing cohort Stephan Romano. This track is fairly technical in nature as the two men discuss some of the changes that they made to the book, revisions to the script, and a lot of pre-production planning. They talk about some of the effects work that KNB rigged up for the cabin scene and interestingly enough they tell us where the corpses were recycled from (they were meant to appear in a certain big budget remake of Clonus that shall not be named…!).

The second commentary track is with Lansdale again, though this time he's joined by the champion mojo storyteller himself, Joe R. Lansdale. One of the most disappointing aspects of the Bubba Ho Tep DVD was that there was no Lansdale commentary track, and thankfully Anchor Bay have seen fit ensure that this time around he was brought in to give us his take on the adaptation of his work. He and Coscarelli obviously get along really well. Considering that he's an author by trade it shouldn't shock anyone to learn that this track is primarily concerned with the story itself and again, some of the changes that were made along the way. Lansdale explains where some of the ideas came from as he wrote the original short without belittling Coscarelli's alterations (in fact he seems pretty impressed with the way that his material was further fleshed out). This is a thoroughly enjoyable and completely entertaining track that should appeal not only to Lansdale fans but to anyone interested in the very principals of storytelling.

From the commentaries we move on to the featurettes, and there are three unique pieces to explore here. The first featurette, Predators And Prey is a nice sit down discussion with Coscarelli who gives us a nice overview of his career starting with early and less popular films such as Jim: The World's Greatest (his first feature as a director) and Kenny & Company, both of which predate Phantasm by few years. Speaking of Phantasm it's interesting to hear how he initially decided to do a horror film primarily to make some money after his first two features didn't do so well. He talks about how Beastmaster was taken out of his hands and how he wasn't happy with the final product and he talks about how Mick Garris got him on board to collaborate on Masters Of Horror where he finally got the chance to bring Incident to life. There's some repetition here what with all the information given on the commentary track but it's a really fun and engaging discussion none the less with some great clips from throughout his career.

The second featurette is entitled Working With A Master and it's a series of interviews with those who have worked with Don Coscarelli, past and present. Everyone in here from early collaborators like Marc Singer to Coscarelli main stays like Angus Scrimm give their thoughts on the man and his work and wouldn't you know it? They all pretty much agree that he's one of the nicest director's you could hope to work for in addition to having a lot of talent and being able to make the most of a low budget. Lest you think that this is nothing but twenty minutes of various people kissing Don't ass, it's not, it's actually very interesting and very informative as each of the interviewees has a story to tell about what project they worked on with Coscarelli, so as such it functions as a sort of scrapbook look at his filmography.

The third and final featurette is a twenty minute behind the scenes segment. Presented without much in the way of a narrative context this isn't quite as interesting as the two that came before it but if you want to get a feel for life on the set of this movie, this does the trick. Most of the emphasis here is on the stunts and the effects work, so this does do a nice job of showing us 'how they did it.'

Anchor Bay has also included two quick interview segments. The first is with John De Santis and he explains to us how much work went into getting him in make up for the shoot and what it was like to worth with that much latex on you face. The second one is with Ethan Embry who talks about his character for a little bit but otherwise doesn't say much of note. Rounding out the supplements on this release are a Don Coscarelli text biography, trailers for the first batch of six Masters Of Horror entries and a few other Anchor Bay horror titles, a still gallery, a storyboard gallery, and if you're DVD-Rom equipped you'll find the screenplay, and a screensaver.

While Coscarelli's entry isn't the high point of the first season, Incident On And Off A Mountain Road is a very strong exercise in grisly suspense and visceral horror. It's well paced, well acted, and wonderfully composed from a technical stand point. Anchor Bay's DVD delivers in the audio and the video departments and has a wealth of great supplements that makes this one come highly recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.