Pelts (DVD)

Meat Loaf Aday stars as Jake Feldman, a frazzled furrier who's struggling to keep his small business afloat while being wholly consumed by his obsession for a sultry, unattainable stripper. His fortunes change when he comes into possession of some ill-gotten luxurious raccoon hides, which he believes will turns his lady's head when he makes a coat for her to wear on the legitimate fashion-world catwalk. Unfortunately, everyone who comes in contact with the cursed skins is driven to mad acts of self-mutilation and extreme violence. Read the entire Horror.com review here.

This is the first episode from the Masters of Horror second season to come out on disk. It's directed by Dario Argento, who thankfully takes part in the additional release material. While the goodies aren't quite as prolific as last year's go-round, this DVD is still well worth the price of purchase.

The two main featurettes, All Sewn Up: Mastering the Effects Sequence and Fleshing It Out: The Making of Pelts, both go into great detail about the story, the actors, director, writing, and actual making of the technically complex episode. Argento actually speaks a little English (!); Meat Loaf talks about playing out such gory scenes; Ellen Wussie enthuses on her bare-ly there role; and series creator Mick Garris says, "It's our wettest episode. I love it." We also hear from cinematographer Atilla Szalay, and actress Elise Lew (she of the sewn-shut eyelids). My only complaint: the behind-the-scenes footage shows small dogs dressed in raccoon costumes, but doesn't explain it. I would have liked to've known more about how the creatures were conceived for the show.

The commentary by Matt Venne is the cream of the extras. He is reading from prepared notes which I don't normally like, but not fortunately it doesn't sound too stilted. He talks about adapting the original short story (by F. Paul Wilson), admits that working with Dario Argento is "a film geek's wet dream", and shares his own personal experiences from being on set throughout the shoot. He discusses the changes and similarities from the source material, what Arengo changed or embellished, and even shares a few trivia tidbits — for example, a scene showing a reflection in the raccoon's eye is an homage to the reflection in the raven's eye in Argento's 1987 film, Opera.

Special Features:

• All Sewn Up: Mastering the Effects Sequence
• Fleshing It Out: The Making of Pelts
• Audio commentary with writer Matt Venne
• Storyboard gallery
• Still gallery
• Dario Argento bio
• Screenplay (DVD-ROM Only)

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