Right to Die (2007)

Well, a man and his wife set out for their cabin one dark night. They have been fighting - for she, Abby, had recently discovered that her husband Cliff had been unfaithful(and pretty stupid it seems as the whole episode was filmed on his camera((By whom?))with his dental assistant Trish. As they go down that dark, deserted, and deadly road, they hit a fallen tree. She ends up being burned all over and covered in bandages except for her haunting eyes and mouth. He wakes up unscathed. The rest of the episode deals with Cliff having such feelings of loss over his wife's condition that he feels he must pull the plug for her benefit as she has no skin - no skin at all. The episode then gets lots of ups and downs, and even some real low points with regard to good taste, and some highlights with both Robin Sydney and even more impressively with Julia Anderson(now Benson). Check out her highlights in that tub scene. That scene has her in all her bare-chested glory, but the director Rob Schmidt also has Ave Maria playing in the background. He uses that music again in the most unorthodox and, for me, disgustingly enjoyable scene in the episode - the flaying. I really thought this episode was done very well. Schmidt obviously has loads of talent. Actor Martin Donovan has enough quirky screen persona and ambiguity to carry off what will by the episode's end be a much more complex role that might be first imagined. The script has some fun with things. Sure there are holes, but this was scary, riveting, and strangely poetic at brief times. And how about Abby's two major contribution as well as Trish's! Corbin Bernsen is here as well as a blood-sucking lawyer given his "burn notice." Wrong show, maybe he was just PSYCHed out.

I'm not entirely sure Rob Schmidt qualifies as a "Master" in the genre of horror, since he previously just directed one horror film called "Wrong Turn" and that one was actually just was slightly above mediocre, but fact is that he made with "Right to Die" one of the best and creepiest episodes of the entire second season of the "Masters of Horror" franchise. There was a similar underdog story in season one, when William Malone made on of the best episodes with "The Fair Haired Child" even though his other long feature films "Fear Dot Com" and "House on Haunted Hill" sucked pretty badly.The story of "Right to Die" cleverly picks in on the nowadays piping hot social debate of euthanasia, but thankfully also features multiple old-fashioned horror themes like ghostly vengeance, murderous conspiracies, pitch black humor and comic book styled violence. Whilst driving home late one night and discussing the husband's continuous adultery, the Addison couple are involved in a terrible car accident. Cliff walks away from the wreck unharmed but his wife Abby is fully burned and needs to be kept alive artificially. Whilst Cliff and his sleazy attorney (Corbin Bernsen of "The Dentist") want to plug the plug on her and sue the car constructor, Abbey's mum sets up a giant media campaign to keep her daughter alive as a vegetable and blame everything on Cliff. Meanwhile Abbey's hateful spirit comes back for revenge and kills someone in Cliff's surrounding whenever she has a near fatal experience with the medical devices. After a few victims, Cliff realizes it might be safer for him to keep his wife alive if he wants to remain alive as well. "Right to Die" is a stupendous episode and exactly the type of stuff I always hoped to see from a TV-series concept like "Masters of Horror". It's violent and gory with a sick & twisted sense of humor and loads of sleaze sequences. The euthanasia theme and the whole obligatory media circus that surrounds it is processed into the script very well, yet without unnecessarily reverting to political standpoints or morality lessons. The atmosphere is suspenseful and the killing sequences are suitably nasty and unsettling. Actresses Julia Anderson and Robin Sydney both have pretty face and impressively voluptuous racks, which is always a welcome plus, and Corbin Bernsen is finally offered the chance again to depict a mean-spirited and egocentric bastard. Great "MoH" episode; definitely one of the highlights of both seasons.

What starts out as a very predictable and somewhat drab affair is in the end quite hilarious and entertaining. "Right to Die" is not very suspenseful but it more than makes up for that with some outlandish set pieces and over the top gore.Spoilers here: Top credits also go to the dead-on performance from Martin Donovan as one of the most despicable characters ever to grace the screen. Playing the character in a great "aloof" fashion, you nearly feel bad for the guy in the end when his grand plan ultimately fails. Corbin Bernsen also chews up the scenery playing a not-so-good-guy who gets his just desserts.End of Spoiler.As a revenge-from-the-dead flick, "Right to Die" benefits heavily from it's performers and is more than an OK way to spend less than an hour.

Why did it sound like the husband kept calling her Appy ? It ruined a great episode and so I can only give it a 6. Proper grammar and pronunciation are essential to a film.It was very Hellraiser what with all the skin ripping though I dunno how anyone can survive without skin the skin is a vital organ to the body the biggest organ actually and without we would die. The more a horror film is true the more creepy it can be and more entertaining.I do admit though that the stories from the great horror directors are very disappointing and very mediocre. 6/10 come on Yankies get your English up to par !