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MASTERS OF HORROR
Season 2 Episode 9
“Right To Die”
Written by John Esposito; directed by Rob Schmidt
Clifford Addison (Martin Donovan) is a dentist who’s just been caught cheating on his wife Abbey (Julia Anderson). The troubled couple are driving up to their cabin to try and work things out when they get into an accident, which leaves Abbey in an unresponsive coma, and horrendous third-degree burns over her entire body.
Initially filing for a Do Not Resuscitate Order, Cliff doesn’t anticipate Abbey’s vindictiveness, as she begins to manifest as a charred, skinless grotesque—looking a lot like the skinned Julia from Hellraiser II—every time she flatlines. To Cliff’s cold horror, he realizes he can’t let Abbey die, or she may come back as a ghost and just end up killing him (or worse).
In the second suggestively-titled entry of the season (after John Carpenter’s “Pro-Life”), Rob Schmidt’s “Right To Die” plays like one of those E.C. horror comic stories where the cheating spouse gets into a whole lotta trouble at the hands of their vengeful partner.
This one though, isn’t nearly as entertaining as some of those classics.
Not only is the idea tired and familiar, but the introduction of Cliff’s lover, Trish (Robin Sydney), turns things vaguely ludicrous. The woman is so annoyingly transparent (she actually called Cliff a “mercy f*ck”), one wonders what Cliff saw in her in the first place. Was married life with Abbey so terrible that he not only risked everything for a tumble with Trish, but resorted to the things he does at the top of the story?
And that’s the other, major crime of this episode.
Narrative omission can be a tricky thing, and if bungled, merely leaves the audience feeling tricked and cheated, which is exactly what happens here. There seems to be no good reason for the episode’s opening to be edited the way it is, just so we don’t get to see the whole truth.
After all, it’s not like the opening sequence was being narrated by someone, who could pick and choose what and what not to tell—and show—the audience. From start to finish, the episode’s narrative is third person omniscient. So why don’t we get to see the entire truth from the get-go? (And shouldn’t we have learned about Abbey’s condition at the hospital?)
It’s an annoying narrative choice that sounds the death knell on this episode.
Granted, Schmidt is responsible for the “nothing really new in here” horror in Wrong Turn, and screenwriter Esposito penned the forgettable adaptation of Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift, so I really don’t expect much from either of them. (And how exactly did they rate as “Masters of Horror”?)
You’d think though that Martin Donovan—who’s come out in some excellent indie fare like The Opposite of Sex and Saved!, as well as Christopher Nolan’s remake of Insomnia—would have known better.
Not only is the episode itself sub-par, but he’s asked to play an entirely unsympathetic character who is not only ruled by his libido, but is stupid enough to have saved an incriminating video on his cell phone. And the excuse he spouts to Abbey is so lame, it’s laughable.
Oddly though, it’s almost as if Donovan was having some secret fun with this role, as if he was playing it as the blackest of black comedies.
Arguably, that could be some kind of saving grace, though it doesn’t change the whole “why didn’t you tell us the whole story up front?” issue, which then leaves us back at Square One: this wasn’t a very good episode.
Parting shot: Pixies die-hards may want to know that Joey Santiago did the score for this episode. (Though it really isn’t one to write home about. Sorry, Joey. Loved your work on Undeclared, though. And Robin Tunney shaving her head to “Free” is still one of the best scenes in Empire Records.)
(Right To Die DVD cover art courtesy of anchorbayentertainment.com.)
Season 2 Episode 9
“Right To Die”
Written by John Esposito; directed by Rob Schmidt
Clifford Addison (Martin Donovan) is a dentist who’s just been caught cheating on his wife Abbey (Julia Anderson). The troubled couple are driving up to their cabin to try and work things out when they get into an accident, which leaves Abbey in an unresponsive coma, and horrendous third-degree burns over her entire body.
Initially filing for a Do Not Resuscitate Order, Cliff doesn’t anticipate Abbey’s vindictiveness, as she begins to manifest as a charred, skinless grotesque—looking a lot like the skinned Julia from Hellraiser II—every time she flatlines. To Cliff’s cold horror, he realizes he can’t let Abbey die, or she may come back as a ghost and just end up killing him (or worse).
In the second suggestively-titled entry of the season (after John Carpenter’s “Pro-Life”), Rob Schmidt’s “Right To Die” plays like one of those E.C. horror comic stories where the cheating spouse gets into a whole lotta trouble at the hands of their vengeful partner.
This one though, isn’t nearly as entertaining as some of those classics.
Not only is the idea tired and familiar, but the introduction of Cliff’s lover, Trish (Robin Sydney), turns things vaguely ludicrous. The woman is so annoyingly transparent (she actually called Cliff a “mercy f*ck”), one wonders what Cliff saw in her in the first place. Was married life with Abbey so terrible that he not only risked everything for a tumble with Trish, but resorted to the things he does at the top of the story?
And that’s the other, major crime of this episode.
Narrative omission can be a tricky thing, and if bungled, merely leaves the audience feeling tricked and cheated, which is exactly what happens here. There seems to be no good reason for the episode’s opening to be edited the way it is, just so we don’t get to see the whole truth.
After all, it’s not like the opening sequence was being narrated by someone, who could pick and choose what and what not to tell—and show—the audience. From start to finish, the episode’s narrative is third person omniscient. So why don’t we get to see the entire truth from the get-go? (And shouldn’t we have learned about Abbey’s condition at the hospital?)
It’s an annoying narrative choice that sounds the death knell on this episode.
Granted, Schmidt is responsible for the “nothing really new in here” horror in Wrong Turn, and screenwriter Esposito penned the forgettable adaptation of Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift, so I really don’t expect much from either of them. (And how exactly did they rate as “Masters of Horror”?)
You’d think though that Martin Donovan—who’s come out in some excellent indie fare like The Opposite of Sex and Saved!, as well as Christopher Nolan’s remake of Insomnia—would have known better.
Not only is the episode itself sub-par, but he’s asked to play an entirely unsympathetic character who is not only ruled by his libido, but is stupid enough to have saved an incriminating video on his cell phone. And the excuse he spouts to Abbey is so lame, it’s laughable.
Oddly though, it’s almost as if Donovan was having some secret fun with this role, as if he was playing it as the blackest of black comedies.
Arguably, that could be some kind of saving grace, though it doesn’t change the whole “why didn’t you tell us the whole story up front?” issue, which then leaves us back at Square One: this wasn’t a very good episode.
Parting shot: Pixies die-hards may want to know that Joey Santiago did the score for this episode. (Though it really isn’t one to write home about. Sorry, Joey. Loved your work on Undeclared, though. And Robin Tunney shaving her head to “Free” is still one of the best scenes in Empire Records.)
(Right To Die DVD cover art courtesy of anchorbayentertainment.com.)
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