Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

*cue catchy jingle*

Three more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.
Three more days to Halloween - Silver Shamrocks!

Welcome Boys and Ghouls to Month of the Living Dead, my thirteen (and then some) day tribute to the best holiday of them all: Halloween! Join me, wont you, as I watch the sinister and the silly, the morbid and the macabre, the violent and gruesome in a two week bloodletting that comes to a boil on the eve of all saints.

*cue thunder and lightning effect*

So sit back, turn the lights down low and get ready for today's presentation of. . . .

MASTERS OF HORROR - HOMECOMING! Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

*cue commercial break*

How did this fly under my radar? Not this particular DVD mind you, but the whole series. Masters of Horror is a horror anthology on Showtime, with each one-hour episode featuring a short film directed by a well-known horror film director. Names like Dario Argento, John Carpenter, John Landis, Tobe Hooper, and Don Coscarelli appear with regular frequency. And of course being on cable, these masters of horror are free to use extreme levels of violence, nudity, and profanity far beyond than that of a normal television program.

It's like the Twilight Zone, but with tons of blood!

I'd heard of the series before, but it didn’t really register with me until a friend of mine brought around a copy of Joe Dante's Homecoming. Since we very badly needed to get the taste of the 3D remake of Night of the Living Dead out of our mouths, he went ahead and put it on.

An unnamed president (but with a distinctive slow-witted mannerisms and a Texas twang to his voice ) is running for reelection during The War. David Murch, one of Pusdo-Bush's speechwriters appears on a Larry King-ish interview show. One of the other guests is Janet Hofstader, mother of a fallen soldier who demands to know what her son died for. Murch gets teary-eyed and explains that he lost his older brother in Vietnam. "Believe me," he tells the grieving mom, "if I had one wish, I would wish for your son to come back, because I know he would tell us how important this struggle is."

And David gets his wish - in true Monkey's Paw tradition. Always be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

Soon, the soldiers killed in The War start returning from the dead - but it doesn't go down in typical Zombie manner, with legions of FLESH EATING SOLDER GHOULS feasting on the warm tasty flesh of the living. No, the Living Dead simply want to be the Voting Dead. "We'll vote for anyone who ends this war," one explains.

Like George Romero, Joe Dante is one of the few horror filmmakers that consistently uses his medium for satire and to speak of the ills of society. The Howling was a werewolf story that poked fun at the mid-eighties California lifestyle fads with it's feel-good pop-culture psychology. And of course Gremlins used dark comedy and comedic violence to subvert the typical Feel Good Holiday movie and turn it on its ear. His entry into Masters of Horror is no different. Here, Joe gleefully harpoons administration spin doctors, rabid talk-show hosts eager for soundbites, hypocritical televangists, and of course unpopular current administration policies (internment camps without due process, convenient re-branding as it suits policy and an overall condemning of an morally bankrupt war).

Oddly enough, Homecoming has no gore typical for a zombie flick - the walking dead don't have feasting on the living on their minds, but democracy. In fact some of the best moments aren’t horror related at all - a café owner and his wife try to make a cold, lonely, zombie comfortable, accepting him as a boy home from the front. It's a surprisingly touching moment in the big picture.

It's a bit heavy handed - pretty much coming right out and wearing it's liberal ideals on it's sleeve: that America's foreign policy is a shameful disgrace, and the present administration keeps its illegal and immoral war going by branding dissenters as unpatriotic and anti-American. Since getting into a political debate is not the scope of the review, I wont dwell on if Dante right or wrong. I will point out that Homecoming does bludgeon you with its political sentiment. Perhaps wielding statements like a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer might have been the way to go.

(One little bit of aside - it's interesting that what Rod Serling did all those years ago still stands true today. He frequently used the science fiction and fantasy settings of the Twilight Zone as a vehicle for social comment, allowing him to fly under the radar of networks and sponsors who previously censored all potentially "inflammatory" views. Being seen as "just another horror movie" probably allowed Joe Dante to take a stand that Hollywood generally seems unable or unwilling to - and get away with it. But I digress. . . .)

Despite the political bent, Homecoming is still an absolutely enjoyable cleverly written flick. The pacing doesn't sag, and the story develops in a interesting way. There are wonderful moments of emotion and some really sardonically funny bits.

Now I have to check out the rest of the series.

TOTAL BODY COUNT: 3
MOST MEMORABLE KILL: Private Hofstadter playing desk basketball with Robert Picardo's head
GALLONS OF BLOOD USED: 0
SPRING LOADED CATS: 0
THE MORON OF THE MOVIE AWARD GOES TO: Would it be predictable to go with W here?.
BREASTS ON DISPLAY: 0

THE DVD -
I don't know what the rest of the series looks like (or what it looked like when broadcast on cable), but at least this disc looks, sounds and plays just fine.

THE EXTRAS -
I loves me that Anchor Bay! They filled up the disc with three hours (more or less) of content. There a bunch of shorts of interviews with just about everyone on the project. Joe Dante is a blast to listen to, with some real passion for his art. He's pretty up-front about his biases and isn't shy about thanking Masters of Horror for letting him take some bold stands. The other extras are all about the technical side of things, some trailers, and some bios. It's a really nice package for really cheap.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
Yeah, it's not exactly subtle in its political views - but there's more to Homecoming than just Red versus Blue. It's got some nice moments that elevate it above your usual zombie movie fare. With a more delicate touch, I'd have given it more stars, but as it is now, it's a pretty good effort.

Join me next time for another journey into the macabre. Until then. . . pleasant SCREAMS! Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

*cue thunder and lightning effect*

My Month of the Living Dead reviews:
* THE EVIL DEAD
* NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
* PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
* THE FOG
* REVELATION OF THE DALEKS
* DAWN OF THE DEAD
* THE LAST MAN ON EARTH/HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
* DAY OF THE DEAD
* RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
* THE OMEGA MAN
* NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D
* THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES
* LAND OF THE DEAD
* MASTERS OF HORROR - HOMECOMING
* 28 DAYS LATER
* WHITE ZOMBIE
* HALLOWEEN



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older