George Wendt is best known for playing a regular at the bar where everybody knows your name. Yet other than Norm on Cheers, I mostly — and fondly — remember the late Wendt for two of his horror roles. Firstly, it’s hard to forget him as the nosy neighbor in 1985’s House; playing opposite William Katt, Wendt’s supporting character offered much-appreciated laughs in that rather tense horror-comedy. Then over a decade after closing out his tab on Cheers, Wendt landed not only a part in the anthology series Masters of Horror, he was, on this somewhat rare occasion, actually playing the lead.
After delivering the first season oddball “Deer Woman,” director John Landis returned with the more straightforward yet also comedic “Family.” This time, however, the story packed in some gruesome imagery and sick ideas that you wouldn’t normally associate with its star. It wasn’t until Stuart Gordon’s King of the Ants, an indie horror film released just a few years before “Family” first aired, that Wendt got the chance to be so frightening and cruel. Likewise, that former Cheers barfly was transformed into a depraved murderer in Masters of Horror.
Where else but the wholesome suburbs could a story about an undetected serial killer be set and still hold some shock value? The opening of “Family” quickly juxtaposes the two worlds of Harold Thompson (Wendt), not bothering to pretend he’s as mild as he looks. There in his basement, and away from any prying eyes, the unassuming and clean-cut Harold prepares the latest addition to his growing family; an elderly dead man is treated to an acid bath before he’s finally reintroduced as “Grandpa.”
Image: Meet the Thompsons in Family.
The whole of Harold’s madness is on display as we take a seat behind his eyes and witness how he sees the world. At home, he converses with dressed-up and posed skeletons, the remains of his past victims. These skeletal stand-ins for family members “talk” back to him, although really they’re just articulating Harold’s own thoughts. Out in the real world, Harold puts on a good show of normalcy, but his mask slips whenever hunting for new kin — he imagines teen girls lewdly enticing him as he searches for another “daughter” — and chatting with the new neighbors.
The story kicks in once Celia and David Fuller (Meredith Monroe, Matt Keeslar) accidentally knock down Harold’s brick mailbox with their car. Suspiciously, Mr. Thompson rebuilds the structure by the following morning — so as to hide the human bones inside — and he doesn’t even respond to the Fullers’ note left on his front door. It’s only when the Fullers directly introduce themselves and apologize does Harold have no choice but to take an interest in this affable couple from California.
This episode would be classified as “grief horror” these days, seeing as how the story’s element of grief is so central and pronounced. The lonely Harold grieves for a family he never had and always wanted, whereas the Fullers are still getting over the death of their daughter. And Harold can’t help but notice, at least from a distance, that this young couple is constantly arguing about having another child. Or so he thinks. Unlike the total script flip in his film Frailty, writer Brent Hanley gave us a major plot twist in that third act of “Family.” David has suddenly gone missing — and not at the hands of Harold — and the distraught Celia turns to her only friend so far in the neighborhood for support. Little does Harold know, the Fullers aren’t as normal, harmless or enviable as he first pictured.
Image: Matt Keeslar and Meredith Monroe in Family.
(There are spoilers below)
The Fullers’ sense of loss runs deeper and darker than they first let on; the daughter they claimed died of cancer was really taken from them by what David colorfully equates to cancer: Harold! In that startling reveal found towards the end, the Fullers prove themselves to be equally methodical killers. As part of an elaborate plot to get back at their daughter’s murderer, David and Celia tracked down the man who abducted their girl back in California, then befriended him. And with David being a doctor, he can now keep Harold alive for up to two weeks as he and Celia work out their grief in the only way they see fit. It’s a rude yet gratifying conclusion that helps this episode become even more memorable.
Not every horror-comedy is as effective as the next, but “Family” impresses with its combination of the absurd and the horrific. The result here approaches the morbidly funny tone that the classic Tales from the Crypt series employed as well as nailed. And more often than not, the humor does improve the story, including its ghastly parts. My own brain was caught off guard multiple times throughout and I wondered whether to laugh or shudder.
When Hanley came up with “Family,” he envisioned William H. Macy as Harold. Knowing that factoid, and without downplaying Macy’s abilities, this episode simply wouldn’t have been the same without George Wendt. He shined so brightly here, in this very anti-Norm part, that it’s nearly impossible to imagine a version of “Family” without him. And after watching this one performance of his, I can’t help but wish Wendt had been given more opportunities to play similarly dark and nuanced characters. He showed just how well he could negotiate the creepy and charming qualities of someone like Harold, even going so far as almost making you root for him. That’s not an easy feat to pull off, however, as his fans all know, Wendt was hardly a mere actor.
Image: The poster for Family.
The post From Barfly to Butcher: Revisiting George Wendt’s ‘Masters of Horror’ Episode appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
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