Masters of Horror: John Mcnaughton - Haeckel's Tale DVD: Review By Mushy

Masters of Horror: John McNaughton - Haeckel's Tale is an interesting if somewhat convoluted story about medical student Ernst Haeckel who realizes that he truly doesn't know everything he thinks he does. This knowledge essentially hits him over the head after his medical credentials are called into question. This begins his course as he seeks out Necromancer Montesquino who Haeckel believes can raise the dead. After being refused, Haeckel than finds himself on a pilgrimage to visit his father. A bad storm places him in the home of a strange man, and Haeckel is very taken by the man's wife. Instructed not to the leave the cabin that they are staying in that night, Haeckel eventually does and finds something much different than he could probably ever imagine.

John McNaughton Featurettes

These two featurettes are titled Breaking Taboos: An Interview With John McNaughton and Working With a Master: John McNaughton. Essentially they cover the same ground but if you are a fan of the director than you will probably enjoy these. McNaughton discusses the kinds of films he likes to make, what he liked about Haeckel's Tale, and we also get to find out what he's like on the set. Overall, I think that these are pretty illuminating, and since I didn't know much about the director before I opened up this DVD (I was just a fan of his other work), I really got a great deal out of this.

On Set Interviews

Here we get interviews with Leela Savasta (Elise Wolfram), Derek Cecil (Ernst Haeckel) and Jon Polito (Montesquino). They talk about the subject matter of this piece, working with McNaughton and each other, and horror films in general. While it seems like if you listen to actors long enough they all start to sound the same, I appreciate that the creators of these Masters of Horror DVDs go out of their way to provide a solid amount of bonus material. These actors seem to bring a fresh approach and perspective to this segment, and that's probably because they haven't yet gotten a taste of the huge success that can have numbing consequences.

DVD-ROM: Screenplay and Screensaver

Making Of Featurettes

The two featurettes here focus on the nuts and bolts of the production. They are Script to Screen: Haeckel's Tale and Behind the Scenes: The Making of Haeckel's Tale. Personally, I was drawn more to the Script to Screen segment because I like to write screenplays, and as we all know, very few films come off as they are written. Making a movie seems to be managing the variables so that the themes that inspired the screenplay come through. The The Behind the Scenes segment sadly felt somewhat redundant as I got to it last in my order of going through this DVD.

Audio Commentary

Director John McNaughton sits back and discusses this film. He talks about how he got involved in it, the themes of the story, working with the actors, and he also gives us anecdotes from the production. One thing I like about hearing horror directors talk about their films is they don't seem to be able to reveal their secrets. There's just something innately in them that allows the stories to be told, and they know how to manipulate the elements and assets so as to maximize that into a frightful experience. Yet, very few ever try to articulate that and it adds an element of honest mystery.

Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TVs. This 1 hour movie looked really good and it actually felt longer than an hour (which was a good thing for this story). McNaughton doesn't seem like he has changed his style that much from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. It seems as if he has modified his working methods to fit in with the subject matter he's putting across on screen. The color tone on this show seemed pretty solid in that the blacks were really black and the reds were harshly red. This DVD seems like it has compressed things but not baked the images.

Dolby Digital. The audio on this DVD was solidly composed. I like how McNaughton simply employs it to tell the story at hand but doesn't rely on it. It could be because of the genre he is creating in, but I found that this worked quite well with everything he was doing here. While some people might have used the soundtrack to get into the character's heads, he seemed to understand that the subject matter would take care of that and he just used the audio to enhance the experience.

This front cover of Haeckel's Tale makes it look like a movie from the 1980s. The left portion of the cover showcases the main star of the film, and next to him we get a glimpse of the horror that pervades this movie. That back has some images from the film, a description of what it's about, a Special Features listing, and system specs. Once again the creators of a Masters of Horror DVD spare no expense in putting across a solid product.

I was a huge fan of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, because it was unlike any other horror film I had ever seen. It was moody and straight forward, and McNaughton seemed to tell the story with a very steady hand. In Haeckel's Tale, that hand is still there but the story is different. I feel that he has still maintained the sparseness that marks his earlier work. He isn't beating people over the head with rapid cutting, and shots that are so redundant they lose their power after awhile. Like in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, It never seemed that I was watching a movie that somebody made. The footage just felt found. This was still the case with Haeckel's Tale, I just think that the story wasn't as strong.

All in all Masters of Horror: John McNaughton - Haeckel's Tale is an interesting and evenly paced film. Based on the work of horror meastro Clive Barker, the tone of this material seems perfectly suited to McNaughton's directorial style.