"Jenifer" | |
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Masters of Horror episode | |
![]() DVD cover for Jenifer | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 4 |
Directed by | Dario Argento |
Written by | Steven Weber |
Story by | Berni Wrightson Bruce Jones |
Featured music | Claudio Simonetti |
Production code | 104 |
Original air date | November 18, 2005 |
Running time | 58 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
Harris Allan Jasmine Chan Carrie Fleming Brenda James Steven Weber | |
"Jenifer" is the fourth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror . It originally aired in North America on November 18, 2005. It was directed by Dario Argento and written by and starring Steven Weber. "Jenifer" is loosely adapted from a 10-page black-and-white comic book story, written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, that originally appeared in issue #63 (July 1974) of the horror anthology title Creepy . [1]
Police officer Frank Spivey (Steven Weber) is eating lunch in his squad car when he happens upon a crazed man with a meat cleaver forcing a young woman (Carrie Fleming) onto the ground. When Spivey intervenes, the man tells Spivey that he "doesn't know what she is," forcing Spivey to shoot the man before he kills her. As he begins to console her, he first notices that although she has an attractive body, her face is horrifically disfigured. Despite his initial revulsion, when she cuddles into his arms, he finds himself affectionately drawn to her.
At the police station, his partner continues to joke about the whole situation, trying to get him to forget about the shooting and the woman. Still oddly drawn to her, Spivey excuses himself from his partner. That night at home, his wife Ruby (Brenda James) attempts to console him after learning of the shooting. As they begin to make love, he keeps picturing the woman and attempts to anally rape his wife, losing himself in his fantasy of the woman before his wife eventually forces him off her.
The next day, after a female detective interrogates the mystery woman, the detective tells Spivey that the girl's name is probably Jenifer, since it was on a note in the man's pocket, and that she's not talking and possibly intellectually disabled. Spivey visits Jenifer at the mental hospital to check on her. A male orderly comments that she has been frightening the male staff. When Frank enters her room, she is still in the shower and runs to embrace him despite being completely nude. Frank takes her to his home because he cannot find anywhere else that will take her. That night he dreams of a non-disfigured Jenifer seducing him. When he awakes, he finds her standing in the room. Frank's wife and his son Pete (Harris Allen) react to meeting her with varying degrees of disgust.
Frank's wife issues an ultimatum that either Jenifer be made to leave or she will, so he goes out to search for somewhere for her to stay once more. This time, instead of looking, he is seduced by Jenifer in his car. When he brings her home, she frightens away Frank's wife and son, devours his cat, and murders and eats his young neighbor Amy (Jasmine Chan). Frank finally attempts to get a carny to kidnap her and put her in his freak show. When Frank arrives home, he finds Jenifer covered in blood and the carny's dead body in his refrigerator. Frank takes Jenifer and flees to an abandoned cabin in the woods, where he hopes he will hide her and she will not hurt anyone else because of it. Frank gets a job at a small market, and Jenifer's hold over him begins to lessen.
One day, Jenifer sees Frank with the attractive owner of the store. She follows the shop owner's teenage son to a party, lures him into the woods, and chokes him into unconsciousness. While looking for Jenifer in the cabin cellar, Frank discovers her devouring the boy's genitals and snaps. Frank ties Jenifer's wrists together with rope and drags her through the woods to kill her. Just as he's about to strike her down, a deer hunter shoots and kills Frank. The hunter moves to comfort Jenifer, and the cycle begins anew.
This episode was shot in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The gore and make-up effects were done by KNB Effects and were received mostly positively by critics and fans. The DVD featurette "Howard Berger and the Make-Up of Jenifer" detailed the process Carrie-Anne Fleming went through to transform her into the beast.
This was the only episode of the first season to require cuts, though Takashi Miike's "Imprint" was entirely rejected for TV. [2] Two shots were removed from the final film, both involving graphic depictions of oral sex: the first one occurred during the sex scene in the car between Frank and Jenifer; the second occurred at the end of the film and actually showed Jenifer castrating—and then eating—young Jack's penis. The deleted scenes are featured in the "So Hideous My Love'" documentary on the DVD. [3]
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Jenifer was released to mixed reviews on its value as a film. Favorable reviews focused on Argento's ability to mix eroticism and repulsion with the sensuality of the film's sex scenes, often comparing it to his other films such as his version of the Phantom of the Opera and Sleepless . [4]
Anchor Bay Entertainment released all the Masters of Horror DVDs with massive extra features for each episode. Their treatment of the DVDs were extremely well received, winning a Saturn Award for "Best Television Series Release on DVD" in 2006. [5] The extra features for Jenifer's DVD release include:
As with most of the first season of Masters of Horror, Best Buy had an exclusive release which included a featurette called "Script to Screen".
It was originally packaged separately, but later releases packaged it with "Haeckel's Tale" and then the entire first season. Each DVD release has contained all the features the initial release did.
Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over one hundred theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films run through a variety of different genres, and range from violent and bizarre to dramatic and family-friendly movies. He is a controversial figure in the contemporary Japanese cinema industry, with several of his films being criticised for their extreme graphic violence. Some of his best known films are Audition, Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, the Dead or Alive trilogy and various remakes: Graveyard of Honor, Hara-kiri and 13 Assassins. He has directed over 100 movies and also plays as an actor in 20+ more.
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The Stendhal Syndrome(Ital. La Sindrome di Stendhal) is a 1996 Italian giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento and starring his daughter Asia Argento, with Thomas Kretschmann and Marco Leonardi. It was a critical and commercial success in Italy, grossing ₤5,443,000 Italian lira.
Masters of Horror is an anthology television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network.
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Phenomena is a 1985 Italian giallo-horror film directed and co-written by Dario Argento, and starring Jennifer Connelly, Daria Nicolodi, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Patrick Bauchau and Donald Pleasence. The plot concerns an American girl at a remote Swiss boarding school who discovers she has psychic powers that allow her to communicate with insects, and uses them to pursue a serial killer who is butchering young women at and around the school.
Inferno is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento, and starring Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi and Alida Valli. The plot follows a young man's investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who had been living in a New York City apartment building that also served as a home for a powerful, centuries-old witch. The cinematography was by Romano Albani, and Keith Emerson composed the film's musical score.
Tenebrae is a 1982 Italian giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Anthony Franciosa as American author Peter Neal, who – while in Rome promoting his latest murder-mystery novel – becomes embroiled in the search for a serial killer who may have been inspired to kill by his novel. John Saxon and Daria Nicolodi co-star as Neal's agent and assistant respectively, while Giuliano Gemma and Carola Stagnaro appear as detectives investigating the murders. John Steiner, Veronica Lario, and Mirella D'Angelo also feature in minor roles. The film has been described as exploring themes of dualism and sexual aberration, and has strong metafictional elements; some commentators consider Tenebrae to be a direct reaction by Argento to criticism of his previous work, most especially his depictions of murders of women.
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Deep Red, also known as The Hatchet Murders, is a 1975 Italian giallo film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Bernardino Zapponi. It stars David Hemmings as a musician who investigates a series of murders performed by a mysterious figure wearing black leather gloves. The cast also stars Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril, and Clara Calamai. The film's score was composed and performed by Goblin, the first in a long-running collaboration with Argento.
Carrie is a 1976 American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay written by Lawrence D. Cohen, adapted from Stephen King's 1974 epistolary novel of the same name. The film stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy teenage girl who is constantly mocked and bullied at her school. The film also features Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P. J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta in supporting roles. It is the first film in the Carrie franchise.
"Imprint" is the thirteenth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror. Directed by Takashi Miike, the episode was scheduled to premiere on January 27, 2006, but was shelved by Showtime over concerns about its graphic and disturbing content. It was later released to DVD on September 26, 2006.
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Killing Birds is a 1988 Italian horror film starring Lara Wendel and Robert Vaughn. The film is set in Louisiana where Fred Brown returns from the Vietnam War to find his wife in bed with her lover and slaughters the whole family sparing the newborn son. After the massacre, he is attacked by and blinded by a falcon. Twenty years later a group of students led by Steve and Anne meet Brown, and begin their search for a nearly extinct breed of woodpecker and come across grisly occurrences including boys being killed by vengeful zombies.
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The Devil's Carnival is a 2012 American musical horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Briana Evigan, Jessica Lowndes, Paul Sorvino, Emilie Autumn and Terrance Zdunich. The film marks the second collaboration of Bousman and writer/actor Terrance Zdunich, their previous work being the musical film Repo! The Genetic Opera. The film also brings back several of the cast members of Repo!, such as Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Bill Moseley and Nivek Ogre. The Devil's Carnival has Aesop's Fables and other folklore at the core of its story, with the main characters each representing a fable. Flanery's character John represents "Grief and His Due", Evigan's character Merrywood represents "The Dog and Its Reflection", and Lowndes' character Tamara represents "The Scorpion and the Frog", an animal fable that seems to have first emerged in Russia.
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