Deer Woman (2005) **** (out of 4) John Landis directed episode in the Masters of Horror series is certainly the best I've seen so far. A police detective (Brian Benben) is investigating a series of brutal murders where the men have been aroused at the time of their death. With the help of another officer, the detective begins to think that this is the work of a half deer, half woman. Landis really hasn't touched the horror genre much in his career but when he does the film usually turns out to be quite memorable. This is a terrific little horror film that has the right mixture of nudity, gore and some nice comic touches. The homage to An American Werewolf in London was nice and the performances are all top notch. The film is never too serious, which is why it works so well.

John Landis's Deer Woman, from Season One of Masters of Horror, has little to do with actual horror but it certainly is a laugh riot.A series of bizarre and gruesome deaths plague detective Faraday (Brian Benben) who, while dealing with some heavy personal issues, suspects there may be something mystical and almost supernatural at work here.While I wouldn't recommend Deer Woman as a full blown horror film, I would seriously recommend it for simply having a jolly good time. It's funny as hell, with Brian Benben delivering a top notch performance as the burnt out cop with a shady past. Landis displays a reasonable amount of gore here, but that's also done with a funny undertone. The only thing that can be considered a fault is that it's really too short. Landis could probably have stretched this into feature length and it wouldn't have suffered.SpoilerThe scene where Benben imagined possible scenarios for what happened in the truck had me pausing because laughter made me miss a couple of seconds here and there. In fact, the whole script is a laugh riot.End of spoilerWhile Deer Woman can't be considered true horror, it's damn fine entertainment nonetheless.

When the body of a truck driver is found trampled in his truck, the burnt-out detective Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben) is assigned for the bizarre case. He arrives to the crime scene in a parking area with Officer Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith) and their investigation discloses that the victim had left a tavern with a gorgeous woman and apparently had been trampled by a heavy animal in the truck cabin. Later, two other bodies of men arrive in the morgue in the same conditions, and the coroner Dana (Sonja Bennett) notes that all of them had erection in the moment of death, and Dwight notes hooves in the body. Dana investigates further and finds deer footprints and hair in the corpses. When Dwight and Reed talks to an Indian descendant in a casino, they unravel a Pohancan legend about a deer woman, half woman but having deer hooves and trampling men after seducing them. Without any other lead, they begin to believe that every legend is based on facts."Deer Woman" is a good episode of "Masters of Horror", with a funny story mixing humor and horror but also a very disappointing conclusion. The Brazilian Cynthia Moura is extremely gorgeous, actually one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, but she has no lines along the whole story. Brian Benben has good performance in the role of a cynical detective that sees the chance to motivate his career again. There is a great homage to "An American Werewolf in London", with the reference to a mysterious murder case caused by a wolf in Piccadilly Circus in 1981. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Lenda Assassina" ("Assassin Legend")

The Series "Masters of Horror" was not aired in Germany yet, but i found the "Deer Woman"-DVD (already dubbed into German) at www.amazon.de and the story seems weird and interesting (beside, the Deer is my animal totem :-), and after all the werewolf, vampire and zombie-movies that was made in the last 80 years, it was something new: A kind of were-deer...? Okay, the (under normal conditions) shy and gentle deer is not really suitable for becoming a movie-monster, but Landis movie based on an old native American legend. So the story-core of "Deer Woman" was not his own idea. The best point is, that John Landis did not try to made the film too serious, it was in different reviews compared with his "American Werewolf in London" (wich was referenced in "Deer Woman" too), and this is true. It contains a kind of humor of it's own, bizarre dialogs and ideas. The story flows straight forward in the typical plot of a "X-Files" episode. The only disadvantages are in my opinion the weak ending (there is not really a showdown, and we never find out why the Deer Woman kill all the man) and that we not get more info about the Deer Woman and the Deer Woman legend. Searching on the WWW shows, that the version used by John Landis is only one version. Other versions of the legend depicts the Deer Woman not as a killer, but very dangerous for man too: In these stories, a beautiful young woman meets a young man and entrances him into a sexual relationship. The woman is so beautiful that the young man is often swayed by her beauty away from family, home, community. If the young man is so entranced as to not notice the young woman's feet (hooves) then he falls under her spell and stays with her forever, wasting away into depression, despair, prostitution, and ultimately, death. All in all, a well made short movie, not groundbreaking or spectacular, but a fair 7/10.