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;
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;
Fair Haired Child
Directed by: William Malone
Starring: Lindsay Pulsipher, Lori Petty, Walter Phelan, William Samples
Original Air Date: 6 January 2006
Synopsis: A grieving couple kidnap a young girl in order to sacrifice her to a dangerous spirit who has promised to return their deceased son to them in exchange for the lives of twelve children.
Directed by: William Malone
Starring: Lindsay Pulsipher, Lori Petty, Walter Phelan, William Samples
Original Air Date: 6 January 2006
Synopsis: A grieving couple kidnap a young girl in order to sacrifice her to a dangerous spirit who has promised to return their deceased son to them in exchange for the lives of twelve children.
Revisiting the ‘Masters of Horror’: Fair Haired Child
I always remembered Fair Haired Child as being the scariest episode of Masters of Horror, which is quite the statement when you consider some of the people that directed episodes throughout its run. It wasn’t the build-up or the premise that got to me when I first saw the episode, it was the creature. The Fair-Haired Child, although not on screen often, absolutely terrified me. I was excited to revisit this one to see if it had the same impact on me now, 15 years and literally hundreds of horror movies later.
The opening scene achieves a lot of things right from the outset. We meet middle-aged married couple Judith and Anton (William Samples and Lori Petty) performing an occult ritual, complete with a full moon, candles, creepy old book and some lightning. We aren’t quite sure what they are doing but, whatever it is, it works, as the camera lingers on an effigy build from mud and sticks, eyes wide and mouth agape, seemingly come to life just before the camera cuts away.
From there we’re introduced to the episodes lead character. Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher) is a bit of an outcast, quiet and introverted and keeps to herself. We are told this by a few scenes, set at the high school she attends, that are a little too mired in tropes (“What are you looking at, loser?”) but gets the message across loud and clear. This whole sequence takes up limited screen-time anyway as it isn’t long until Anton knocks her off her bike with his van as she’s riding home from school and loads her in the back, whisking her away to somewhere no doubt extremely unpleasant.
When Tara wakes up, she finds herself in what seems to be a hospital, with Judith playing nurse. Tara is disorientated and Judith seems, at first, to want to help her, but things feel a little… off, and it’s not long before Tara realises that this is no hospital, and Judith does not have her best interests at heart. Anton reappears and takes Tara to the cellar, where he throws her inside and locks the door. Tara soon finds she isn’t alone when she finds Johnny (Walter Phelan) trapped down there with her.
The core cast are all excellent but Lindsay Pulsipher and Walter Phelan are show stealers. Both having great chemistry together and the episode really picks up when they are (literally) thrown together. Now locked in the cellar with no hope of escape, Tara tries to get Johnny to tell her what’s going on but he seems unable to speak. There are enough clues, however, for Tara to piece some things together. She finds ominous warnings scrawled on the wall (“Beware the Fair-Haired Child”) and before long stumbles upon a bathroom hiding backpacks of other children presumably kidnapped and left down in the same cellar. A blood-soaked bath hints at what their grizzly fates may have been, but who is the Fair-Haired Child these doomed kids seemed so desperate to warn her about?
There is a lot of backstory at this point, switching focus back to Judith and Anton as we find out what their ritual in the episode's opening was all about. Told via some gloriously surreal 1920s style black and white flashbacks, we learn that Johnny was their son. Was, because he drowned when he was 15. The couple have made a deal with an unnamed evil power to bring their son back. The price for this deal is the lives of twelve children, Tara being the last.
So, if Johnny is dead, how is he down in the cellar with Tara? Well, the answer is a little complicated. He is Johnny, but he is only alive due to the fact that he is playing host to the demon that his parents made their infernal bargain with. After a painful transformation, Johnny turns into the creature and attempts to take its final payment; Tara’s life.
So, we finally get to see the Fair-Haired Child in action. Was it as scary as I’d built it up to be in my head?
The opening scene achieves a lot of things right from the outset. We meet middle-aged married couple Judith and Anton (William Samples and Lori Petty) performing an occult ritual, complete with a full moon, candles, creepy old book and some lightning. We aren’t quite sure what they are doing but, whatever it is, it works, as the camera lingers on an effigy build from mud and sticks, eyes wide and mouth agape, seemingly come to life just before the camera cuts away.
From there we’re introduced to the episodes lead character. Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher) is a bit of an outcast, quiet and introverted and keeps to herself. We are told this by a few scenes, set at the high school she attends, that are a little too mired in tropes (“What are you looking at, loser?”) but gets the message across loud and clear. This whole sequence takes up limited screen-time anyway as it isn’t long until Anton knocks her off her bike with his van as she’s riding home from school and loads her in the back, whisking her away to somewhere no doubt extremely unpleasant.
When Tara wakes up, she finds herself in what seems to be a hospital, with Judith playing nurse. Tara is disorientated and Judith seems, at first, to want to help her, but things feel a little… off, and it’s not long before Tara realises that this is no hospital, and Judith does not have her best interests at heart. Anton reappears and takes Tara to the cellar, where he throws her inside and locks the door. Tara soon finds she isn’t alone when she finds Johnny (Walter Phelan) trapped down there with her.
The core cast are all excellent but Lindsay Pulsipher and Walter Phelan are show stealers. Both having great chemistry together and the episode really picks up when they are (literally) thrown together. Now locked in the cellar with no hope of escape, Tara tries to get Johnny to tell her what’s going on but he seems unable to speak. There are enough clues, however, for Tara to piece some things together. She finds ominous warnings scrawled on the wall (“Beware the Fair-Haired Child”) and before long stumbles upon a bathroom hiding backpacks of other children presumably kidnapped and left down in the same cellar. A blood-soaked bath hints at what their grizzly fates may have been, but who is the Fair-Haired Child these doomed kids seemed so desperate to warn her about?
There is a lot of backstory at this point, switching focus back to Judith and Anton as we find out what their ritual in the episode's opening was all about. Told via some gloriously surreal 1920s style black and white flashbacks, we learn that Johnny was their son. Was, because he drowned when he was 15. The couple have made a deal with an unnamed evil power to bring their son back. The price for this deal is the lives of twelve children, Tara being the last.
So, if Johnny is dead, how is he down in the cellar with Tara? Well, the answer is a little complicated. He is Johnny, but he is only alive due to the fact that he is playing host to the demon that his parents made their infernal bargain with. After a painful transformation, Johnny turns into the creature and attempts to take its final payment; Tara’s life.
So, we finally get to see the Fair-Haired Child in action. Was it as scary as I’d built it up to be in my head?
Nope. It was much more terrifying than that. I cannot stress enough how much watching this episode right before bed was an especially bad choice on my part. The creature effects work incredibly well, and it’s a mixture of reasons why this is the case. The design itself is simple but effective, with an abnormally large head and gaping jaw, eyes that catch the light just right, lighting up when it looks into the camera. The jittery movements are so off-putting and disturbing and when it started tilting its head and chasing poor Tara around the cellar and running up walls, I genuinely had a moment where I glanced away from the TV screen just to be one hundred percent sure that there wasn’t a Fair-Haired Child in the living room with me, jittering away in a corner, waiting for the episode to be over. I mean, I was pretty sure there wasn’t but better safe than sorry….
I was fully expecting Tara to escape the cellar (and the monster) and somehow extricate herself from the situation with enough time for a pre-credits happily ever after. Things did not quite go the way I thought. There is a touching scene where Tara and Johnny (teenage boy Johnny, not horrifying monster Johnny) effectively give up on trying to escape their fates and embrace before the screen cuts to black. The cut lasts long enough for you to wonder if the episode is over and that was it, but no. When the camera comes back on it is a truly traumatising scene with shaky movements and flickering lights as the Fair-Haired Child is literally pulling Tara apart with its bare hands. It is such a jarring and horrific moment, completely unexpected and brilliantly done.
I won’t spoil the ending here but rest assured that Tara’s death does not go unpunished. Judith and Anton get what they wanted, but there is a twist still to play out and, just maybe, Tara may get that happily ever after I wanted all along.
Fair Haired Child was another episode that far outstripped my expectations. I recalled the episode being scary, but little beyond the creature itself, but the whole episode is solid. The cast is fantastic, the effects are great and it is a pretty intense affair all around. The creepy setting works wonders and the script (some iffy dialogue aside) is clever, wisely choosing to keep the reasoning behind the characters actions largely secret until the third act and throwing in a fun twist for good measure. Despite all the things that work, it will still be the Fair-Haired Child itself that I remember most vividly about this episode though, as it no doubt haunts my nightmares for another fifteen years until I’m brave enough to attempt another viewing.
Join me next time as I’ll be looking at episode ten of the first season, Lucky McKee’s ‘Sick Girl’. See you then!
I was fully expecting Tara to escape the cellar (and the monster) and somehow extricate herself from the situation with enough time for a pre-credits happily ever after. Things did not quite go the way I thought. There is a touching scene where Tara and Johnny (teenage boy Johnny, not horrifying monster Johnny) effectively give up on trying to escape their fates and embrace before the screen cuts to black. The cut lasts long enough for you to wonder if the episode is over and that was it, but no. When the camera comes back on it is a truly traumatising scene with shaky movements and flickering lights as the Fair-Haired Child is literally pulling Tara apart with its bare hands. It is such a jarring and horrific moment, completely unexpected and brilliantly done.
I won’t spoil the ending here but rest assured that Tara’s death does not go unpunished. Judith and Anton get what they wanted, but there is a twist still to play out and, just maybe, Tara may get that happily ever after I wanted all along.
Fair Haired Child was another episode that far outstripped my expectations. I recalled the episode being scary, but little beyond the creature itself, but the whole episode is solid. The cast is fantastic, the effects are great and it is a pretty intense affair all around. The creepy setting works wonders and the script (some iffy dialogue aside) is clever, wisely choosing to keep the reasoning behind the characters actions largely secret until the third act and throwing in a fun twist for good measure. Despite all the things that work, it will still be the Fair-Haired Child itself that I remember most vividly about this episode though, as it no doubt haunts my nightmares for another fifteen years until I’m brave enough to attempt another viewing.
Join me next time as I’ll be looking at episode ten of the first season, Lucky McKee’s ‘Sick Girl’. See you then!
If you missed any of Richard's previous Revisting The Masters of Horror articles, you can find links to them all here on our handy landing page
Richard is an avid reader and fan of all things horror. He supports Indie horror lit via Twitter (@RickReadsHorror) and reviews horror in all its forms for several websites including Horror Oasis and Sci Fi and Scary
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