#14 -- Masters of Horror: Incident On and Off A Mountain Road (2005)

Director: Don Coscarelli

Rating: 5 / 5

The Masters of Horror series is wonderful, and a must-see for any horror fan. They are definitely masters of their craft and, in my opinion, this movie is the best example of that. Ellen crashes her car into another - abandoned - vehicle in the middle of the night. There is no one else around that she can see, but she feels that someone might be hurt and she investigates. There is blood on the road and soon enough, she sees a girl running from the woods. She is bloody and terrified, and she almost escapes. A horrible-looking man emerges from the trees and drags her back into the woods with him. Ellen, being the stupid good person she is, enters the trees in hopes of saving the girl. But she soon becomes a victim herself. 

The killer is a man called Moonface. He collects human bodies for reasons unknown, and he keeps them on posts in his back yard (sort of like Vlad the Impaler). We see flashbacks of Ellen and her husband, Bruce. How they met and fell in love, and how he was a complete survival nut. He taught Ellen everything he knew, including how to survive this situation. She stays away from Moonface long enough, but he eventually captures her. She is locked away in the basement of his house with an old man who sings all day and obviously has no idea what is going on. She eventually escapes with her life, thanks to the survival tips that Bruce taught her. 

But Ellen has a dirty little secret of her own. We see more flashbacks of her and Bruce, and these aren't so pretty. Bruce eventually became so obsessed with teaching Ellen his survival tips that she became aggravated with him. They fight all the time, and it eventually leads to Bruce beating her. Ellen uses what he taught her against him, and we realize just why she was on that abandoned road that night. Bruce becomes an item on Moonface's twisted artwork, thanks to his wonderful wife.

There isn't a dull moment in this one. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. The filming, direction, acting and effects are all magnificent. And Moonface definitely has the potential to become an icon among the Horror world. I'm waiting to see more of him, though sadly I'm not sure we ever will.