"Masters of Horror" Homecoming (2005)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Joe Dante

Writers:

Mick Garris (creator)
Sam Hamm (teleplay)

TV Series:

"Masters of Horror" (2005)

Original Air Date:

2 December 2005 (Season 1, Episode 6)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A publicity official for the U.S. Army finds that he might have to be working a lot more than he imagined, when the deceased soldiers of the war come back to life, looking for a few good men.

Plot Keywords:

Soldier | Election | Masters Of Horror | Zombie | Satire

Cast

Jon Tenney	...	David Murch
Thea Gill	...	Jane Cleaver
Wanda Cannon	...	Kathy Hobart
Terry David Mulligan	...	Marty Clark
Robert Picardo	...	Kurt Rand
Beverley Breuer	...	Janet Hofstadter
Dexter Bell	...	Marine Guard #1
Jason Diablo	...	Marine Guard #2
Karen Austin	...	Mom
Daniel Wesley	...	Bobby Earl Beeler
Penelope Corrin	...	Registrar
J. Winston Carroll	...	Rev. Clayton Poole (as J.W. Carroll)
Nathaniel DeVeaux	...	Mr. Baker
Candus Churchill	...	Mrs. Baker
Jason Emanuel	...	Michael

Runtime:

58 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-MA | Italy:VM14 | UK:15 | Germany:16 | USA:Not Rated (DVD) | Finland:K-15 (TV rating) (self applied) (2008) | Finland:K-18 (DVD) (self applied) (2007) | Argentina:16

Company:

IDT Entertainment

Trivia:

At the end when the zombie soldiers coming out of their graves the tombstones have the names of veterans of the horror and zombie genre, easy to read are: Jacques Tourneur, G.A. Romero ( George A. Romero), Jean Yarbrough and Delbert Tenney ( 'Del Tenney (I)'), harder to read are: Lucio Fulci, Victor Halperin and Gordon Douglas. The (readable) graves have this order: Romero and Tenney in the first line, behind them Fulci and Halperin and in the last line behind Fulci is Tourneur, who is in the middle of Douglas and Yarbrough.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The talk show host Marty Clark says that David Murch's brother Phillip is buried in "Silver Springs, Maryland." Although commonly but mistakenly called "Silver Springs," the city is actually "Silver Spring."

Movie Connections:

References I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Decent Horror, Great Political Satire

They parody Ann Coulter, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, and Cindy Sheehan. They use such phrases as "Bring It On", "Mission Accomplished", etc... They give homage to such luminaries as Jacques Tourneur, George A. Romero, Jean Yarbrough and Delbert Tenney.

And there's zombies.

While the horror aspect is minor (no gore or psychological stuff or anything like that), the political satire is brilliant if you have a slightly left-wing bias. The way they present the Iraq War and the Ohio voting machine scam in here is precious.

What to say? It's short, it's funny and it has zombies. Think I covered my bases. Not sure if it will have the long-lasting appeal of Joe Dante's other work (The Howling and Gremlins) but for now it really made me feel good to be an American.