Masters of Horror/Incident On and Off a Mountain Road

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	October 28, 2005
Written by	teleplay Don Coscarelli, Stephen Romano story Joe R. Lansdale
Directed by	Don Coscarelli
— N/A	1x02 → Dreams in the Witch House
Masters of Horror — Season One

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is the first episode of the first season of Masters of Horror.

Ellen must recall the survival skills she learned from her husband if she is to escape a crazed killer named Moonface in the woods off a mountain road.

Cast: Bree Turner (Ellen), Ethan Embry (Bruce), John De Santis (Moonface), Heather Feeny (Young Woman) Angus Scrimm (Buddy)

Plot Overview

Ellen, driving on a dark backwoods road, is nearly killed when her car crashes into a stalled car. Looking to help anyone hurt in the crash, she find the other woman at the bottom of a gulch being dragged by a pale menacing mute, who we later come to call Moonface.

Rushing into the woods, Ellen reflects on her relationship with Bruce. Bruce, a survivalist, is obsessed with preparing Ellen for the worst. Having taught her survival skills as well as handling a knife and gun, Ellen is able to evade capture from the pursuing psycho and leaves behind several traps, including a dead fall pit and small crossbow. The other woman mistakenly falls into the pit and Ellen, while fighting the creature off, gets hurt by her own crossbow. Chased to the killer's cabin near the edge of a cliff, she is overcome with the display of bodies as scarecrows around her and faints.

Waking up in the basement of the cabin, she finds herself chained up with the other woman and an old man named Buddy in a permanent state of delirious shock. Although able to provide clues about Moonface, such as offers of sex repulse him and that he likes to remove the eyes of people, the old man is in no shape to help her. Moonface eventually returns to deal with the other woman, whom he straps to a table and drills out her eyes with an industrial drill. Drawing from later lessons of Bruce, who later in their relationship and marriage grows increasingly paranoid and falls in with a white supremacy survivalist group, Ellen is able to remove the crossbow bolt in her shoulder and pick the lock of her chains. Escaping up top after superficially stabbing Moonface, she is later cornered and stuns him by swinging the dessicated skeleton of a baby at him. Taking his knife, she slashes him several times before sending him out of the window and over the cliffs beyond.

After gearing up with a gun and knife, she returns to her car and removes from the trunk the body of Bruce. As it is revealed, Bruce had reached a breaking point when she threatened to leave him and had raped her. She got the upper hand and strangled him. Returning to the cabin, she drills out his eyes and puts him up with the other scarecrows after killing the raving old man. Secure that Bruce has been disposed of and no suspicion will be on her, she drives off into the breaking dawn.

Notes

• Deaths and Gore: An unnamed woman gets a stake through the leg and both eyes removed with a drill press. Ellen gets a makeshift crossbow bolt in her shoulder. Moonface suffers a stab in the leg and several knife wounds before being sent crashing to the rocks. Bruce is strangled and then has his eyes removed. Several eyeless bodies up as scarecrows around the cabin.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Don Coscarelli is best known for directing the Phantasm movie series, which stars Angus Scrimm as the enigmatic Tall Man. He has more recently directed cult favorite Bubba Ho-Tep.

Quotes

• Ellen: Hell of a night, huh Moonface?

• Buddy: Don't know any songs, huh?