On a secluded mountain road, Ellen (Bree Turner) loses control of her vehicle following a commentary distraction causing her to collide with an abandoned car. Checking the surroundings Ellen encounters a deformed albino serial killer named Moonface (John DeSantis) whom she must now elude. Intercut with Ellen's harrowing struggle for survival are flashbacks to her relationship with a crazed survivalist named Bruce (Ethan Embry) and the events that drove her to this point.
The inaugural episode of Mick Harris' Masters of Horror anthology program, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is directed by Don Coscarelli noted director of The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep, and the Phantasm series and written by noted writer Joe R. Lansdale and based on Lansdale's short story of the same name. This marks Coscarelli and Lansdale's second collaboration following their previous project, cult horror-comedy Bubba Ho-Tep. While the story is effective, it definitely feels like something that's been stretched from a short story and I wasn't a fan of the resolution.
Bree Turner as Ellen is really good in the lead role of Ellen and sells it both in the present day settings using her acquired survivalist skills to outfox Moonface and also project vulnerability and optimism in the flashback scenes with Ethan Embry's Bruce that are gradually eroded over time and replaced with a hard edged cynicism. Moonface was admittedly not a point I liked, while the make-up is good and DeSantis is clearly giving his all, the character design just comes off as really silly looking with his silver teeth and bright white skin, especially in his introduction shot where he jumps into the air in front of the full moon. While the story is well told, I found a lot of the flashbacks tended to undercut the tension of Moonface stalking Ellen and probably would've preferred a "less is more approach". While I understand the episode had to fill 50 minutes, the episode feels like something that could have gotten away with a 30 minute runtime. I also wasn't a big fan of the ending where the movie almost seems to imply that Ellen has now become similar to Bruce or Moonface and it just kind of makes a head scratching not to go out on.
Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is just okay. It's got a good lead in Bree Turner and some nice intensity and supporting performances, but it's also clearly stretched from a short story and has an ending that I didn't care for. Not peak Don Coscarelli or Joe R. Lansdale, but not an embarrassment either. Very much middle of this "Mountain Road"
