| "Pelts" | |||
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| Masters of Horror episode | |||
DVD cover for Pelts |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 6 |
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| Directed by | Dario Argento | ||
| Written by | Matt Venne | ||
| Production code | 206 | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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Link Baker |
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| Episode chronology | |||
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Pelts is the sixth episode of the second season of Masters of Horror, first aired December 1, 2006, based on a short story by F. Paul Wilson.
Contents |
A story about supernaturally beautiful raccoon pelts (called "pine lights") that cause anyone who seeks to profit by them to commit horrendous acts.
Meat Loaf stars as fur trader Jake Feldman, who finds these beautiful raccoon pelts and makes a coat out of them as a gift for the beautiful dancer Shanna (Ellen Ewusie), in order to fulfill his fantasy of sex with her. As a result, people end up committing brutal murders and suicides appropriate to their positions in relation to the pelts whenever around them.
Jake Feldman is a fur trader who desperately wants to have sex with a stripper named Shanna, but although she dances topless, she refuses to give it up. One of his trappers/suppliers, Jameson and his son, go onto Mother Maters land to trap animals. They find each trap containing a raccoon, and Jameson senior schools his son on the proper way to kill them: crush their windpipes with a boot, and if they survive, crush their skulls with a baseball bat. All the raccoon pelts after processing are perfect, and Jameson senior calls Feldman to arrange a sale. Jameson junior pulls out the baseball bat, wakes Jameson senior, and beats him to death. Feldman and his assistant arrive the next day to discover the beautiful pelts and both Jamesons dead. (Jameson junior opened a trap and stuck his face in, ripping it off.) They steal the pelts and proceed to make a coat, which Feldman asks Shanna to model at the furriers expo. Inspired by his assistant, Feldman figures out where the Jamesons got the pelts, and visits Mother Mater to ask for a few raccoons to breed for fur. Mother Mater states the reason she warns people off her land is because the raccoons, 'pinelights' have taken up guardianship of the ruins on them. When Feldman asks, she rages that hes the one who killed the pinelights the other night and chases him off, screaming that they have not yet had their say. The fur trimmer Sergio disembowels himself with his scissors after cutting the pelts, and the seamstress Sue Chin Yao sews her nose, eyes and mouth shut after finishing the coat. Feldman is only concerned that the coat is finished, and takes it to Shannas apartment. She is entranced by the coat, and eager to model it, but Feldman says he is still considering other models. Shanna sees this as a request for sex, and agrees. But Feldman says he needs the bathroom, and, taking a knife with him, skins his own torso and brings out the disgusting vest this creates to Shanna. She panics and runs to the elevator, managing to take it down one floor before Feldman falls down into the elevator after her. She tries to run, but Feldman grabs her leg and her hand is caught and crushed in the doors. Police find their bodies, and the film ends on one of the cops making a bloody bootprint outlined with black.
The story can be seen as a dark satire on the fur industry; the means of the victims' deaths all being based on what the furriers do to the racoons. This is unusual for a film by Dario Argento, since he normally avoids political overtones in his films.[1]
As Jake was walking through the city and walks by the theater, there is a poster of Dario Argento's film Suspiria.
The DVD was released on February 13, 2007. It was the nineteenth episode to air and the fourteenth to be released on DVD.
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