While John Landis might not be associated with the horror genre in the way that guys like Stuart Gordon, Dario Argento or John Carpenter are, the guy did make An American Werewolf In London and Innocent Blood so he's not really that strange a choice given the influence of Werewolf in particular. Throughout all of Landis' work, however, there's been a sense of humor. Sometimes it's flat out goofy like in Kentucky Fried Movie or The Blues Bothers, other times, like in Werewolf, it's darker, but it's pretty much always there and his contribution to Masters Of Horror, the bluntly titled Deer Woman, continues that tradition.

Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben of Dream On) is a cop with a problem. He's been assigned to 'animal attacks' and recently a string of murders taking place in his area have started to draw some attention. It seems that all of the victims, each of whom happens to be male, dies in a state of arousal and almost appears to have been trampled or 'hoofed' to death if the prints on what's left of the bodies are anything to go on.

Dwight and his partner, Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith of Tales From The Hood), start investigating despite getting some flack from the homicide detectives assigned to the case, and the only thing they can find to link the killings, aside from the method, is that witnesses saw each of the victims leave with a gorgeous brown-haired woman. While our two heroes are out having dinner at the local native Indian casino, one of the employees hears them talking about the case and jokingly tells them the legend of the Deer Woman – imagine his surprise when he finds out that the two cops are treating the legend as a legitimate theory in the case…

The best way to describe Deer Woman is as a quirky black comedy. This one sets the tone early on and while it provides some supernatural elements and some gore, it's never scary nor is there really a whole lot of suspense. It's definitely an odd story though, with some odd characters and an odd premise. That being said, Landis makes it work. While it's definitely a stretch labeling this as a 'horror' effort, it is never the less a lot of fun and it's never boring. A lot of the credit for this has to go to Brian Benben, who is consistently funny in a very dry, sarcastic manner. The scene in which he's imagining different scenarios in which the murders could have happened is hilarious, macabre, and inventive. Landis even throws in some self referential humor – at one point Dwight's superior tells him 'This isn't 1981 and this isn't London!' – proving that the whole thing is being done with tongue placed firmly in cheek.

Anthony Griffith is also quite good in his supporting role, playing off of Benben's dry wit while Cinthia Moura, who plays the titular character (this is hardly a spoiler as her face is plastered on the cover right under the words 'Deer Woman' – how much more obvious can you get?) without ever saying a word is strikingly beautiful enough that you can see how she would have no problem whatsoever seducing the odd drunken truck driver from time to time.

If the production has one flaw it's that the aforementioned lack of suspense is coupled with the fact that the story, or the catch, is pretty easy to figure out. While it isn't as important to keep the viewer on the edge of his or her seat when the emphasis of the movie is on comedy rather than horror, it still would have been nice for there to be some reason to get nervous or squirm a bit – this is Masters Of Horror after all. Regardless, Deer Woman is a fun and entertaining little short that should find an audience with those who enjoy off the wall storytelling.

Video:

The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer presents the movie in its original aspect ratio and for the most part, the image looks very good. There is some edge enhancement present in a few scenes as well as some shimmering and aliasing in spots but there's very little to complain about otherwise. Black levels are strong and deep, there are no issues at all with print damage, dirt or debris on the picture and there's a very pleasing level of both foreground and background detail present throughout the picture. It should be noted that this episode isn't nearly as dark, visually at least, as the other three that have hit DVD so far, so it's nice to see the color reproduction looks as strong as it does on this disc. Skin tones look lifelike and natural and the reds are well defined without bleeding through.