REVISITING THE ‘MASTERS OF HORROR’: JENIFER BY RICHARD MARTIN

14/5/2021

We are living in a golden age of horror on TV. Shows like ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Supernatural’ and ‘American Horror Story’ have effectively taken the genre mainstream, offering weekly doses of gore and mayhem to the masses. Go back a decade or two however, and genre fans had far fewer options to choose from. Anthology shows, like ‘Tales From the Crypt’, ‘Monsters’ or ‘Tales From the Darkside’ were king during the horror heyday of the 1980s, providing cheesy and cheerful tongue in cheek horror in half hour bites. It wasn’t until 2005 that the TV horror anthology show got serious, and delivered arguably the most consistent, memorable and scary anthology show to date.

The brainchild of horror legend Mick Garris, the show’s title is no hyperbole. ‘Masters of Horror’ brought together the best horror talent Hollywood (and beyond) had to offer. Episodes directed by undisputed genre luminaries such as John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento and Stuart Gordon were like hour long movies brought to your TV screen. High production values, A-List talent and a free reign to do whatever they pleased resulted in some truly unforgettable work from a group of horror legends let off their leash. These are stories that have stayed with me in the fifteen years since many initially aired and, in this series, I’ll be revisiting all twenty-six episodes, one at a time, to shine a light on a fondly remembered and undeniably influential moment in horror TV history.
Join me as I take a look back at;

REVISITING THE ‘MASTERS OF HORROR’: JENIFER

Directed by: Dario Argento
Starring: Steven Weber, Carrie Anne Fleming, Brenda James, Harris Allen
Original Air Date: 18 November 2005
Synopsis: When a police officer saves the life of a young woman who is deformed from the neck up, his life is turned upside down when she begins to kill and devour all those who get to close.

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Masters of Horror is likely to cite this episode as one of the standouts of the shows two-year run. Directed by Italian giallo auteur Dario Argento, Jenifer boasts some truly unforgettable scenes and imagery which have stuck with me vividly since I first watched it in 2005 and of all the 26 episodes that form my rewatch, this was perhaps the one I was most excited to revisit.

Things start off deceptively low-key when we meet police officer Frank (Steven Weber, who also wrote the episode) eating lunch in his car with his partner, and generally having a relaxing afternoon on the job. When nature calls at the most opportune moment and he stumbles upon a scene with a man wielding a meat cleaver about to attack a young woman, he shoots and kills the assailant, saving the girl. When he gets up close to console her, we get a teasing glimpse of her face, with pitch black eyes and malformed jaw, and wonder just what poor Frank has gotten himself into.

So we meet Jenifer (played by Carrie Anne Fleming). Her performance throughout the episode is a brave one, as Jenifer is played as part animal, part human throughout and it’s a demanding role that’s pivotal to how effectively the concept as a whole works on screen. Fleming pulls it off big time and Jenifer comes across as either sympathetic, or horrifying, depending on what the script demands. Kudos also goes to Weber, who is great in this episode and fully commits himself to the madness.

Frank finds himself becoming infatuated with Jenifer (for reasons which are hinted at but, wisely, never overtly explained) and brings her back to his house to stay until she gets back on her feet, much to the chagrin of his wife Ruby (Brenda James) and delight of his rebellious son (Harris Allen).

After Jenifer attacks his wife and eats his cat(!) she finds herself no longer welcome at the house, but Frank is not willing to give up on her and when given an ultimatum by Ruby; her or Jenifer, he chooses Jenifer.

At this stage the episode has succeeded in two big ways. It is incredibly tense, and it’s pretty damn scary. Jenifer is shown to be manipulative and we are already wondering what it is she wants from this relationship with Frank and what she’s willing to do to get it. The practical effects in this episode are absolutely stellar and Jenifer is equal parts disturbing and all too human, making the transitions between vulnerable and bloodthirsty both believable and unpredictable.

At this point in the story Franks relationship with Jenifer has become less altruistic and a whole lot more sexual and now he’s effectively left his wife and son, things get further complicated for him when Jenifer kills and partially devours the sweet little girl next door, and both flee before they can be caught, which pretty effectively rules out a change of heart on his part. Knowing he’s in too deep now, Frank attempts to convince a circus worker to kidnap Jenifer, a plan that goes predictably awry. When Frank finds the circus worker dismembered and carefully packed into his fridge, he decides more drastic measures are required.

Jenifer has racked up a fairly impressive body count at this point and, as this episode is directed by the man behind the infamous gorefest ‘Demons’, we’ve been treated to some very graphic, very gory scenes. The reveal of Jenifer eating the neighbour girl is genuinely chilling and there is good reason why this is, what I believe to be, the only episode of Masters of Horror that had to be edited prior to airing. I urge you to track down the two cut scenes, which are available as extra features on the DVD set, as they go to show that when the show’s producers told directors that they could shoot what they wanted, they really meant it. There is just no way those cut scenes would have ever made it onto network TV.

Frank has now become so embroiled in Jenifer’s murder spree that, as a last resort, he moves her to a remote cabin in the woods where she (supposedly) can’t harm anybody else. He gets a demeaning job at a local store when the owner takes pity on him after he comes into the shop looking like a man who has forgotten what sleep (or bathing) is. The pair hit it off and we begin to wonder if perhaps there isn’t a way out of Franks predicament, and maybe a happy ending is possible after all.

Not a man known for his upbeat endings and happy outlook, Argento has other ideas. Jenifer grows jealous of the time Frank is spending away from her at the store and lures the store owner’s teenage son into the woods. Frank gets home just in time to catch Jenifer in the process of eating him alive.

The ending ties everything together beautifully and in the only way things really could have ended. It’s a strong conclusion to a fantastic episode. While it plays things a little more straight than a lot of Argentos earlier output, it is still a very provocative and challenging piece of work and bears a lot of tell-tale hallmarks and themes of his earlier work, particularly when it comes to gender power dynamics, and the melding of violence and eroticism. Everything about this episode is firing on all cylinders, whether it be the script, direction, performances or the effects. It’s easy to see now why this episode is one I remembered so clearly fifteen years after first watching it.
Join me next time as I’ll be looking at episode five of the first season, Mick Garris’s ‘Chocolate’. See you then!