Incident On and Off a Mountain Road (2005, TV movie) - Coscarelli violently opens the Masters of Horror ball

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A home video cover with a portrait of director Don Coscarelli next to the vicious monster in his Incident On and Off a Mountain Road

A young woman driver skids out on a mountain road in the dark and is soon after assaulted by a sadistic, pale monster, who deals with those that cannot stay on the road ...

 

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is written by Stephen Romano (Our Mother's Secret Affair (2024, TV movie)) and co-writer/director Don Coscarelli (Jim, the World's Greatest (1975)), adapting a short story by Joe R. Lansdale's (Dead Aim (2013)).

Coscarelli opens Mick Garris' Masters of Horror TV movie series with a grim tale that halfway works: The scenes of the young woman and her dubious man don't really work, as we fail to grasp - and believe - that the two are married. But the raw and somewhat humorous scenes in the monster's basement of horrors with the well invented Buddy character are eerie and good. SPOILER The ending, in which the woman does a 180, is hard to swallow. 

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is a noisy and not at all bad TV horror movie.

 

Related posts:

 

Other Masters of Horror TV movies: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Fair Haired Child (2006, TV movie) - Malone turns out another weak Masters of Horror TV movie 

Dance of the Dead (2005) - Hooper's ugly Masters of Horror nonsense
Chocolate (2005) - Flavors, visions and eroticism in Garris' TV movie thriller
Deer Woman (2005) - Landis and son's solid Masters of Horror entry 
Cigarette Burns (2005) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie    

Haeckel's Tale (2006, TV movie) - Another bland Masters entry 

Pick Me Up (2006, TV movie) - Cohen's so-so Masters of Horror entry

Imprint (2006) - Venture far, far abroad with Miike's hard-to-watch Masters of Horror entry 

 

Watch a clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV movie

= Uncertain

[Incident On and Off a Mountain Road premiered 28 October (Showtime channel, North America) and runs 51 minutes. Shooting took place in British Columbia. Coscarelli returned with John Dies at the End (2012). Bree Turner (Wakey Wakey (2012)) returned in 1/4life (2005, TV movie). 6k+ IMDb users have given Incident On and Off a Mountain Road a 6.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Incident On and Off a Mountain Road?

John Dies at the End (2012) - Tempting drug-induced horror-fantasy-comedy sees you zoning out ...

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The retro-styled, gritty, disorganized poster for Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End

QUICK REVIEW:

A young guy and his good friend discover a new drug called soy sauce, which allows you to see and do things that otherwise aren't possible.

John Dies at the End is a grotesque and far-far-out acid-trip, which unfortunately looks a lot more funny in its trailer, than it really is. The film seems as though it was written by two guys, who were high on grass and sometimes LSD and simply kept all the movie-ideas that they got.
Reason or a comprehensible plot is lost pretty fast here in this obscure, weird, structurally flat and exhaustingly maniacal film. It doesn't help that the lead, John's friend, is played insanely irritatingly by Chase Williamson (The Guest (2014)), who mostly delivers varied versions of the same 'intense' look throughout the lunacies.
I was sporadically amused at the drug/horror/fantasy/comedy-insanity, and the amount of work involved in making this (for a reported just 6-figure budget) fart-in-the-sky has to be respected. But it is, essentially, a bad film.
John Dies at the End is the latest from psych-out film-maker Don Coscarelli, the man behind the Phantasm movies (1979-98) and other weird (like John Dies at the End), but better films like Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). He is in post with the fifth and final Phantasm film at the moment, which he has co-written, (and is directed by David Hartman), and he is still looking for financing for his Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires. (!)

Related review:

Don Coscarelli: Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) or, Old Elvis & Black JFK vs. the Soul-eating Mummy!

Another appropriately trippy poster for Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End

Watch the awesome trailer here

Cost: Unknown, but reportedly just six figures (100,000-999,000 $)
Box office: 0.1 mil. $
= Big flop
[John Dies at the End was never out on more than 19 screens in the US and is a niche product if ever there was one. It has, reportedly, found a cult following, but hasn't turned this into gold in any way, despite considerable attention for its insanity.]

What do you think of John Dies at the End?
And of Coscarelli's other films?

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) or, Old Elvis & Black JFK vs. Souleating Mummy!

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The weirdly attractive poster for Don Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep

QUICK REVIEW:

Elvis is alive! - In a retirement home with cancer in his prick, alone. In the home we also find JFK, who claims to have been colored black and had a sand bag operated into his brain. Now a Southern mummy, who sucks the souls out of the old people's assholes, threatens!
One of the weirdest and most bizarre, American stories (based on a novella by Joe R. Lansdale) here comes to life with a fiery Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead (1981)) and a just as enthusiastic, 86 year-old Ossie Davis (Do the Right Thing (1989)) by his side. The inordinate lines and consciously ridiculous situations go along with a cool mummy by Howard Berger (Day of the Dead (1985)) and crew, atmospheric-sentimental music by Brian Tyler (Eagle Eye (2008)) and true independent DIY-spirit.
At times the story is only gruff and miserable, and the visual part of Bubba Ho-Tep only has few values; the beginning is for instance flooded by some awful flash-sequences.
The movie is directed by Don Coscarelli, maker of the four Phantasm films (1979-98) and most recently the psych-out John Dies at the End (2012).
Ho-Tep achieved cult-status and much positive notice, and a joke post-script in the movie announcing a sequel thus became a real project. Coscarelli penned a script for Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires long ago, and Campbell left the project over creative differences. Paul Giamatti is now attached, and possibly Ron Perlman as Elvis. But the backing for the film isn't secured yet.

Related review:

Bruce Campbell: Army of Darkness (1992) or, Medieval Death

Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis as Elvis and JFK in Don Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep

Watch the trailer for the weird treat that is Bubba Ho-Tep right here

Budget: 1 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Unspectacular

How do you like Bubba Ho-Tep?
Would you like to see sequels in which Elvis battles she-vampires, aliens ... ?