John Landis best known for AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, Innocent Blood and THE TWILIGHT ZONE MOVIE comes to the plate to direct another episode to add to his television directed horror films. He also directed DEER WOMEN and FAMILY for the MASTERS OF HORROR series, which we all know is now FEAR ITSELF. Landis has been known for adding humor to his films as he is the man behind one of the best comedy films ever made ANIMAL HOUSE. IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH his comedic antics are once again added to the horror genre. But this time it’s a bit more of a serious episode that Landis took on, but still managed to give us a few good chuckles.
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH is about a bride who receives a note that the person she about to marry is a serial killer. She is not sure if it’s a joke or not, so she asks the priest who gave him this note to give to her. The priest simply tells her that a lady gave it to him. The bride tries her best to track down the lady, but has no success. She goes though with the marriage but is hesitant to confront her new husband about it. The Groom on the other hand knows something is up and confronts her about it. The film then takes a bizarre twist in the story as the Bride finds herself in a scary situation and does not know the real truth behind her grooms history.
The script for this episode was written by Victor Salva the writer/director of the JEEPERS CREEPERS films. It’s a decent script and although we really don’t know much about the characters and their past the film reveals the the people they are now in life and the drama they are going though. the plot itself is one that we are bought along for the ride and have no clue what’s going on until the film comes to it’s conclusion. In the sense of some of the greatest plot twists ever in a film, this is one episode where the writing leads you in one direction then hits you with a one, two punch that you never saw coming.
The acting is decent, in this episode and John Landis did really good at directing the actors. But that however is not his strongest feature of this episode. What I found Landis did best was create the suspense needed to make this episode scary while still living up to his comedic antics. The episode was also filmed ands edited very well, and I really enjoyed the dark atmosphere and great sets that really gave this film it’s uneasy feel. it’s very limited in visual effects, but there are some pretty decent make-up effects and one great and uneasy scene that involves a very unusual set. Overall this episode had very good production value that really kept with the look and feel that the script provided.
Overall, IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH is one of the better episodes out of the few I’ve seen so far. It your typical John Landis film and it’s one where the script outshines everything else the film has to offer. I for one really enjoyed the overall plot and everything else came second. It’s a script that is more story driven than character driven, but it works well. The great plot twist at the end really took me by surprise and made me yell out Oh Shit!when we find out the conclusion of this one. It’s a great little episode with a story that will keep you interested till the very end.
– Horror Bob
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