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Deer Woman (Masters of Horror episode)
Encyclopedia
Deer Woman is the seventh episode of the first season of Masters of Horror
. It originally aired in North America
on December 9, 2005.
mythological creature wreaks havoc in this horror comedy.
The story opens in a lodge where several drunk truckers are finding their respite in booze and women. One of these truckers leaves the lodge to urinate and overhears a fellow trucker screaming in pain inside one of trucks. Curiosity piqued, the drunk trucker checks the truck out but walks away after it goes quiet. Moments later, the door is kicked out.
With a background set, the opening title opens up with selective shots of pictures on a mural of Native American folklore. The scene then transitions to Detective Dwight Faraday (Radioland Murders
Brian Benben), a burned-out detective whose main priority is dealing with animal attacks. He and his partner, Officer Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith), are sent out on a call to investigate a strange call about a possible animal attack/murder. Upon arriving, the officers are shown the truck from the opening sequence, and determine that the door to the truck was kicked out by something extremely powerful.
Detective Faraday enters the truck with the formerly drunk trucker from last night, and determines from a jaw bone that the unrecognizable mass of blood and pulp was human. Faraday then questions the locals as to what happened and determines that the now pile of pulp was seen with a beautiful, Native American woman before he died who had the "eyes of a deer caught in headlights". Then, Detective Patterson (Alex Zahara) takes over the investigation and after a verbal battle with Faraday sends Faraday back to the station to deal with a "royal rumble" between a woman whose dog was bitten by a monkey and the man who owned the monkey.
Back at the station, Faraday is nonplussed by the monkey-dog case before him and obviously distracted by the mystery of the dead trucker, and comes to the realization that the victim was trampled from the groin upwards, leaving the dog-monkey case people in a state of comedic confusion.
Faraday then goes to see the body and exchanges banter with Dana (Sonja Bennett
), the attending coroner, and determines that the man died in a state of arousal and has hoof prints on what is left of his body.
Elsewhere, a business man encounters a beautiful, albeit silent Native-American woman (Cinthia Moura) who takes the man to a hotel and proceeds to give him fellatio with the man leaning back, saying "Today is my lucky day." His statement is proven ironic, as he is later labeled the second victim of this murder mystery. Afterward, Dana and Faraday ponder how the murder occurred; thinking about having a deer in the cabin, or even that a woman used a deer leg as a weapon.
Faraday goes home and tries to figure out the possible cause of the event, but dismisses all of his theories as implausible.
Elsewhere, the same mysterious Native American woman walks into the shop of a blond Southern man and uses her charm to seduce this man. This is the first time when the Deer Woman is alluded to directly as the camera captures her standing in front of a deer head, making it seem that she has antlers.
In the morning, Reed confronts Faraday about finding a new dead body and tries to ask Faraday why he seems so burned out and listless. Faraday dismisses the possibility of opening up to Reed, and the audience learns that he is divorced and still traumatized by some occurrence in his life. Then, Faraday and Reed go down to the morgue to examine the new cadaver. The cadaver is that of the business man, and the same markings found on the previous victim are noted: state of arousal, trampled, deer hooves. However, small deer hairs are found and the team makes the perpetrator out to be a deer. In addition, they determine that the same beautiful mysterious woman was seen before the crime occurred. Then the body of the Southern shopkeeper is carted in, without an arm, and in a brief awkward comedic moment, Reed and Faraday head off the new crime scene.
Upon arriving, they discover the arm of the dead shopkeeper on the roof and are confronted by other investigators about their presence at the scene. While Reed and Patterson are fighting about Faraday's right to be there, Faraday measures the distance between the bloody hoof prints left at the scene. The two are quickly kicked out of the scene and leave for home. Faraday decides to walk home. As he passes the Native American mural, seen in the beginning of the episode, he stops at several places where the Deer Woman image is portrayed. A mugger attempts to attack the detective, which he foils, and in anger at the stupidity of the criminal, stabs the would-be mugger in the arm with his own knife. In the background watching the entire scene, the Deer Woman watches in cautious awe and disappears into the shadows.
Faraday tries to convince his skeptical boss about the presence of a so-called 'deer creature' living within the city, mentioning a mutant wolf-like creature that was shot dead in Piccadilly Circus
, London
in 1981, (a reference to the film An American Werewolf in London
, which John Landis also directed). The police chief is skeptical, but can't come up with a better explanation and gives Faraday the case. Faraday and Reed travel to a casino on a local Indian reservation, where they learn from the casino pit boss about a Native American legend about the Deer Woman
—a malevolent forest spirit resembling a beautiful young woman with deer legs, who sexually arouses and kills men just for the ultimate thrill of it. The open-minded Faraday believes the story, but the skeptic Reed doesn't and wanders off. Faraday travels back to the police station to look up more history about the Deer Woman. Reed then unknowingly runs into the Deer Woman right at the casino, and offers to play the game of craps to impress her.
Later that evening, Reed returns to his apartment with the Deer Woman when Faraday calls from the station and informs Reed that he's found old news reports that happened over a hundred years ago when eleven loggers in the woods were found trampled to death. Reed tells Faraday that he's got a woman with him and asks to call him tomorrow. Suspicious, Faraday asks Reed if he knows the woman and if he's seen her feet or legs. Reed suddenly realizes that the woman is the Deer Woman and yells to Faraday to send backup. The Deer Woman overhears the conversation and attacks Reed.
Faraday races to Reed's apartment, but is too late, as Reed already dead, bludgeoned to death on his living room floor. The Deer Woman approaches Faraday, who instinctively shoots her in the shoulder. Examining the Deer Woman's body, Faraday pulls up her long skirt to reveal deer legs. Reviving, the wounded and angry Deer Woman kicks Faraday across the room with her powerful legs and flees. Faraday runs to his car and gives chase which leads to a lonely road into the woods. Faraday catches up to the Deer Woman and rams his car into her, pinning her to a tree. Incredibly, the Deer Woman tries lifting Faraday's car off her, in which he shoots her several times, until she suddenly disappears without a trace. With the unexplained disappearance of the Deer Woman, Faraday ends up laughing hysterically at the irony of his being assigned to "animal attack", the statement he keeps repeating.
on June 27, 2006. The episode was the fifth to be released on DVD. The episode appears on the second volume of the Blu-ray compilation of the series.
Masters of Horror
Masters of Horror is an informal social group of international film writers and directors specializing in horror movies and an American television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network.- Origin :...
. It originally aired in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on December 9, 2005.
Plot
An ancient Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
mythological creature wreaks havoc in this horror comedy.
The story opens in a lodge where several drunk truckers are finding their respite in booze and women. One of these truckers leaves the lodge to urinate and overhears a fellow trucker screaming in pain inside one of trucks. Curiosity piqued, the drunk trucker checks the truck out but walks away after it goes quiet. Moments later, the door is kicked out.
With a background set, the opening title opens up with selective shots of pictures on a mural of Native American folklore. The scene then transitions to Detective Dwight Faraday (Radioland Murders
Radioland Murders
Radioland Murders is a 1994 black comedy mystery film directed by Mel Smith and co-written/produced by George Lucas. Radioland Murders is set in the 1939 atmosphere of old-time radio and pays homage to the screwball comedy films of the 1930s...
Brian Benben), a burned-out detective whose main priority is dealing with animal attacks. He and his partner, Officer Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith), are sent out on a call to investigate a strange call about a possible animal attack/murder. Upon arriving, the officers are shown the truck from the opening sequence, and determine that the door to the truck was kicked out by something extremely powerful.
Detective Faraday enters the truck with the formerly drunk trucker from last night, and determines from a jaw bone that the unrecognizable mass of blood and pulp was human. Faraday then questions the locals as to what happened and determines that the now pile of pulp was seen with a beautiful, Native American woman before he died who had the "eyes of a deer caught in headlights". Then, Detective Patterson (Alex Zahara) takes over the investigation and after a verbal battle with Faraday sends Faraday back to the station to deal with a "royal rumble" between a woman whose dog was bitten by a monkey and the man who owned the monkey.
Faraday then goes to see the body and exchanges banter with Dana (Sonja Bennett
Sonja Bennett
Sonja Bennett is a Canadian actress who portrayed Marcie Brasko in Battlestar Galactica.Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Bennett has acted in various genre series including Eureka, Stargate Atlantis, Painkiller Jane, The Dead Zone, Cold Squad, as well as other Vancouver filmed television...
), the attending coroner, and determines that the man died in a state of arousal and has hoof prints on what is left of his body.
Elsewhere, a business man encounters a beautiful, albeit silent Native-American woman (Cinthia Moura) who takes the man to a hotel and proceeds to give him fellatio with the man leaning back, saying "Today is my lucky day." His statement is proven ironic, as he is later labeled the second victim of this murder mystery. Afterward, Dana and Faraday ponder how the murder occurred; thinking about having a deer in the cabin, or even that a woman used a deer leg as a weapon.
Faraday goes home and tries to figure out the possible cause of the event, but dismisses all of his theories as implausible.
Elsewhere, the same mysterious Native American woman walks into the shop of a blond Southern man and uses her charm to seduce this man. This is the first time when the Deer Woman is alluded to directly as the camera captures her standing in front of a deer head, making it seem that she has antlers.
In the morning, Reed confronts Faraday about finding a new dead body and tries to ask Faraday why he seems so burned out and listless. Faraday dismisses the possibility of opening up to Reed, and the audience learns that he is divorced and still traumatized by some occurrence in his life. Then, Faraday and Reed go down to the morgue to examine the new cadaver. The cadaver is that of the business man, and the same markings found on the previous victim are noted: state of arousal, trampled, deer hooves. However, small deer hairs are found and the team makes the perpetrator out to be a deer. In addition, they determine that the same beautiful mysterious woman was seen before the crime occurred. Then the body of the Southern shopkeeper is carted in, without an arm, and in a brief awkward comedic moment, Reed and Faraday head off the new crime scene.
Upon arriving, they discover the arm of the dead shopkeeper on the roof and are confronted by other investigators about their presence at the scene. While Reed and Patterson are fighting about Faraday's right to be there, Faraday measures the distance between the bloody hoof prints left at the scene. The two are quickly kicked out of the scene and leave for home. Faraday decides to walk home. As he passes the Native American mural, seen in the beginning of the episode, he stops at several places where the Deer Woman image is portrayed. A mugger attempts to attack the detective, which he foils, and in anger at the stupidity of the criminal, stabs the would-be mugger in the arm with his own knife. In the background watching the entire scene, the Deer Woman watches in cautious awe and disappears into the shadows.
Faraday tries to convince his skeptical boss about the presence of a so-called 'deer creature' living within the city, mentioning a mutant wolf-like creature that was shot dead in Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1981, (a reference to the film An American Werewolf in London
An American Werewolf in London
An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 British-American horror film, written and directed by John Landis. It stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne....
, which John Landis also directed). The police chief is skeptical, but can't come up with a better explanation and gives Faraday the case. Faraday and Reed travel to a casino on a local Indian reservation, where they learn from the casino pit boss about a Native American legend about the Deer Woman
Deer Woman
Deer Woman, sometimes also known as Deer Lady, is a shape-shifting woman in Native American mythology, in and around Oklahoma, The Western United States and The Pacific Northwest....
—a malevolent forest spirit resembling a beautiful young woman with deer legs, who sexually arouses and kills men just for the ultimate thrill of it. The open-minded Faraday believes the story, but the skeptic Reed doesn't and wanders off. Faraday travels back to the police station to look up more history about the Deer Woman. Reed then unknowingly runs into the Deer Woman right at the casino, and offers to play the game of craps to impress her.
Later that evening, Reed returns to his apartment with the Deer Woman when Faraday calls from the station and informs Reed that he's found old news reports that happened over a hundred years ago when eleven loggers in the woods were found trampled to death. Reed tells Faraday that he's got a woman with him and asks to call him tomorrow. Suspicious, Faraday asks Reed if he knows the woman and if he's seen her feet or legs. Reed suddenly realizes that the woman is the Deer Woman and yells to Faraday to send backup. The Deer Woman overhears the conversation and attacks Reed.
Faraday races to Reed's apartment, but is too late, as Reed already dead, bludgeoned to death on his living room floor. The Deer Woman approaches Faraday, who instinctively shoots her in the shoulder. Examining the Deer Woman's body, Faraday pulls up her long skirt to reveal deer legs. Reviving, the wounded and angry Deer Woman kicks Faraday across the room with her powerful legs and flees. Faraday runs to his car and gives chase which leads to a lonely road into the woods. Faraday catches up to the Deer Woman and rams his car into her, pinning her to a tree. Incredibly, the Deer Woman tries lifting Faraday's car off her, in which he shoots her several times, until she suddenly disappears without a trace. With the unexplained disappearance of the Deer Woman, Faraday ends up laughing hysterically at the irony of his being assigned to "animal attack", the statement he keeps repeating.
Cast
- Brian Benben as Dwight Faraday
- Anthony Griffith as Officer Jacob Reed
- Cinthia Moura as The Deer Woman
- Sonja BennettSonja BennettSonja Bennett is a Canadian actress who portrayed Marcie Brasko in Battlestar Galactica.Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Bennett has acted in various genre series including Eureka, Stargate Atlantis, Painkiller Jane, The Dead Zone, Cold Squad, as well as other Vancouver filmed television...
as Dana - Julian Christopher as Chief Einhron
- Don ThompsonDon ThompsonDonald Thompson, Donald Thomson, Don Thompson or Don Thomson may refer to:-Sports personalities:* Don Thompson , American player for the Los Angeles Buccaneers in 1926...
as Detective Fuches - Alex ZaharaAlex ZaharaAlex Zahara is a Canadian actor & a voice actor.Alex was born in Northern Alberta, and, according to his mother, has always enjoyed performing for others. He grew up loving the classics in acting, Bogart, Cagney, etc. Got involved with theatre while still in school, performing in a stage version of...
as Detective Patterson
Allusions
- While talking to his superiors, the main character speaks about a creature who terrorized London in 1981 and was shot in Picadilly Circus. This is a very obvious reference to John Landis' 1981 film An American Werewolf in LondonAn American Werewolf in LondonAn American Werewolf in London is a 1981 British-American horror film, written and directed by John Landis. It stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne....
. - In the Indian casino there is a mention of Murph and the Magictones playing. This a reference to The Blues BrothersThe Blues BrothersThe Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
, another John Landis film.
DVD and Blu-ray
The DVD was released by Anchor Bay EntertainmentAnchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
on June 27, 2006. The episode was the fifth to be released on DVD. The episode appears on the second volume of the Blu-ray compilation of the series.