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Some horror directors seem to become associated with a particular writer’s work during their careers. Maybe they feel a certain affinity with an author, or understand and admire their work to such a degree that they are compelled to bring it to the screen. Two good examples of this are Stuart Gordon’s fascination with the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Mick Garris’ various adaptations of Stephen King material.

I’d like to add another pair to that list, if I may: Don Coscarelli and Joe R. Lansdale. OK, I’ll admit that Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is only the second of Coscarelli’s Lansdale projects, but he continues to demonstrate a marvellous appreciation of the source material. Here Coscarelli expands and refines the original short story into an excellent 60 minutes of horror. Just as with Bubba Ho-tep, Coscarelli appears to be completely comfortable when adapting Lansdale and the end result is a polished, effective piece of work by any standard.

On paper, Don Coscarelli’s offering to the Masters of Horror could sound a little cliched - A woman crashes her car on a dark night, and is stalked through the woods by a twisted serial killer - but Incident has two significant elements which serve to elevate it beyond tired cliche. The first of these is the slick inter-cutting of present day action with flashback sequences, which depict the heart-warming “girl meets boy, boy turns out to be survivalist, boy trains girl” tale of central character Ellen’s marriage. The second is almost certainly the most significant: The serial killer isn’t really important.

Which is almost a shame. Moonface (it’s never made clear if there’s any Enid Blyton connection) is a brilliantly designed antagonist, with just as much iconic potential as Jason or Freddy. Despite what must have been a great temptation, Incident doesn’t concern itself with a backstory for Moonface, and resists the urge to turn him into some kind of anti-hero. John DeSantis is (literally) hugely impressive as the character, and performs everything asked of him with a convincing amount of menace.

The first half of the film is essentially one long chase sequence, in which Ellen sets traps for Moonface and tries to evade capture. Inevitably, our pale-faced friend imprisons her in his spooky cabin alongside Buddy, played by Coscarelli stalwart Angus Scrimm. Even though Buddy exists largely as a force of exposition Scrimm turns in such a wonderfully entertaining performance that he never feels tacked on. The character is so different to his Tall Man persona that, for fans of the Phantasm series, his presence here is worth the price of admission alone.

It’s while she’s held captive that Ellen (and therefore, of course, the viewer) witnesses the film’s most horrific sequence; a gloriously staged feast of optical-horror that will have all but the most battle hardened gore-hound squirming in discomfort. Fans of Fulci’s fascination with the eyes will not be disappointed here as the scene is very reminiscent of his work. Light and sound are both used to great effect to produce what could prove to be one of the series most memorable sequences. As with many of the most effective horror set pieces - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s meat hook scene immediately springs to mind - it’s often what’s left to the viewer’s imagination that’s most disturbing.

The film’s transitions between Ellen’s past life and present situation are implemented with superb timing, and reveal an equally compelling story. Bree Turner is rarely off screen, but is always convincing. She moves brilliantly, managing to convincingly portray her character’s athleticism and survival skills. And she isn’t exactly difficult to look at. Considering her status as a relative unknown it’s impressive that she authoritatively carries the film to its conclusion, and I can’t help but think that we’ll see more of her.

Ethan Embry plays Ellen’s survivalist husband Bruce in a similarly convincing fashion. Despite the character’s transition from loveable hubby to something entirely less pleasant, Embry is never wide of the mark. There’s an intensity about the performance that, as with Turner, is far more authoritative than you’d expect based on his past work.

Incident’s greatest success is it’s ability to wrong-foot the viewer, and play with their preconceptions. Throughout, you’re never entirely sure where it’s going, and the relevance of the flashbacks, Moonface, and Buddy aren’t immediately apparent. Coscarelli proves here that he’s able to convincingly produce action sequences, and I’d like to see him create more like this. It’s always amazed me that he’s as (relatively) little known as he is; the recently rumoured big-budget Phantasm revival would likely have made him significantly better known, but this may well have come at the cost of some of his creativity and individuality. Perhaps it’s for the better that it’s not going to happen then.

Maybe one day we’ll see a Coscarelli directed adaptation of the great Lansdale novel The Drive-In? In fact, why haven’t we had more Lansdale adaptations in general? Perhaps I should just settle for the upcoming Bubba Nosferatu? Be that as it may, Incident is truly a showcase for the talents of three masters of horror: Joe Lansdale, Angus Scrimm, and Don Coscarelli.

DVD:
Incident On And Off A Mountain Road is presented in a 1.77:1 aspect ratio, and features Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround 2.0.

The picture quality throughout is sharp and detailed. A significant amount of the film takes place at night, or in darkness, and this presents no problems for the transfer; it doesn’t lack detail when it’s present, there are no artifacts or other issues. Given that Incident was made for TV (albeit in the spirit of full blown cinema productions) it’s hard to complain.

The audio is similarly impressive considering Incident’s small screen origin. The 5.1 audio track makes good use of the surrounds for atmosphere: Thunder and environmental noise are convincingly pumped out of the rears, and while the sub gets a modest amount of attention from the thunder, there’s nothing here that’s going to take your house down. For the most part, the action takes place firmly in the front speakers. That said, the 5.1 track is well worth having for the film’s previously mentioned “most horrific sequence”; Moonface’s eerie siren fills the room nicely if you’ve got the right equipment.

Extras:
Commentaries:
Lansdale & Coscarelli:
The inclusion of the Lansdale/Coscarelli commentary is a really nice touch. Lansdale’s sing-song Texan accent is a pleasure to listen to, and the two share an enthusiasm and appear to have a good relationship. Coscarelli acts more as an interviewer for Lansdale; occasionally prompting him to talk about the origin of the story. The track as a whole provides a nice insight into Lansdale’s writing process, and topics range from Ozzie Davies and Bubba Ho-tep, to survivalists, and tales of the Incident audition sessions. Lansdale very concisely describes the exact opposite of the Ellen character with the phrase “Root tripper”; a character who exists solely to trip over roots until the killer gets them. Memorable nuggets like this are the key to a good commentary.

Romano & Coscarelli:
After such an entertaining commentary as Lansdale’s, this track starts off a little slowly. DVD Producer Perry Martin hosts a session featuring co-writer Stephen Romano, and Don Coscarelli. The whole thing feels slightly less organic than the previous track, and there are occasional overlaps. That said, things pick up towards the middle, and this track does, nonetheless, provide a good insight into the creation of the screenplay and Coscarelli’s job as director. It’s nice to hear Romano acknowledging his homage to Fulci too - I had wondered if this was a deliberate move since first seeing Incident.

Featurettes:
Predators and Prey - This is a great look at Coscarelli’s perhaps suprising history. He tells of his love of the Universal classics, Invaders from Mars, and surprisingly 2001. From Jim The World’s Greatest, to Phantasm, to Incident, this short featurette covers some similar ground to the commentary tracks. It’s worth noting that P&P does include a couple of very mild spoilers for future episodes.

Working With A Master - Coscarelli - Angus Scrimm (Phantasm), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm), Marc Singer (Beast Master), Joe Landsdale, and Bree Turner discuss working with Don Coscarelli. For fans, this is a must see.

John De Santis interview - A short interview with the man behind Moonface. DeSantis mapped out a mindset and origin for the character, and goes into suprising depth. There are also details on his particularly shiny teeth.

Ethan Embry interview - This one’s a bit poor. There’s more clips of Incident than actual footage from the Embry interview, and Embrey doesn’t actually say anything terribly interesting.

Behind The Scenes - A montage of set building and filming.

Several trailers for other episodes of the series.

Easter Egg 1 - Cabin Set design - This can be accessed by selecting the Masters Of Horror logo on the extras menu (push to the right).
Easter Egg 2 - Roadside Cafe - This can be accessed by selecting the Masters Of Horror logo on the audio menu (push to the right). This home video features some really nice behind the scenes footage, to the extent that it’s actually a better document than the actual Behind the Scenes feature. There’s more Lansdale footage, and more making of and behind the scenes footage.

DVD-ROM Features - Screensaver (a reasonable pretty slideshow type screensaver for Mac and PC)
The shooting script in PDF format (a nice extra for fans - but I can’t help but think that the inclusion of the original short story would have been better)