Masters of Horror: Jenifer

Masters of Horror: Jenifer. Directed by Dario Argento. Starring Steven Weber and Carrie Anne Fleming.

The characters may have said "upstate" in an attempt to place the series in New York, but that Second Cup takeout cup sitting on the dashboard of the car in the opening shot places this episode of The Masters of Horror in Canada.

Dario Argento directs this episode, and it was adapted from the classic Bruce Jones and Berni Wrightson story, "Jenifer". It was a pretty standard Tales From The Crypt treatment of the story, which made for an entertaining hour.

Personally, I think that when a shorter work has that kind of O.Henry "shock" ending a half hour is better than a full hour, but Argento managed to keep the narrative moving at a good clip. I thought it was interesting that Argento introduced a new element to the story - Frank Spivey (Steven Weber) seemed to have been literally infected by Jenifer (Carrie Anne Fleming) but Argento drops that thread shortly after Spivey's life starts going downhill.