Rob Schmidt directs this tale about a comatose burn victim whose spirit avenges herself against those that wronged her – echoing an interesting twist on the Terri Schiavo case.
Cliff (Martin Donovan) and his wife Abby (Julia Anderson) are involved in a car crash and Abby is burned beyond recognition. Cliff awakens at the hospital to discover this and is told that his wife is severely burned and will need a near whole body skin transplant to survive.
She’s hooked up to life support and Cliff engages his lawyer Eli (Corbin Bernsen) to see that Abby’s wishes to be taken off life support are fulfilled. However, Abby’s mother wants to keep her alive and a standoff in the media and in front of the hospital develops. But things are not as they appear and when Abby flatlines her spirit appears to Cliff and soon he’s switched sides of the debate and wants to keep her alive since things are not what they appear.
Right to Die takes current events like the Terri Schiavo case and uses it as a starting off point and adds a supernatural twist to it that is rather quite creative, in my humble opinion. The film is directed by Rob Schmidt, whose only horror film (up till the time of this Masters) was Wrong Turn. I thought that Wrong Turn was a nice throwback to the monstrous cannibals in the woods films that seem to pop up during the ‘70s. Stephen King called Wrong Turn one of the best movies of the year (I would probably respectfully disagree with Der Kingle, but would need to research that a little more) and since we all know that King is in with Mick Garris – you can see how Schmidt got onto the show.
I sorta complained that Lucky McKee didn’t have the pedigree to be referred to as a “Master” or horror. It really didn’t have much to do with his films but more that he hadn’t gained the gravitas to be called such. You can imagine what I think of relative newcomer Rob Schmidt being called a “master.” I guess his film was pretty good, but one film does not make a master, but I guess Garris didn’t want to start a “Young Turks of Horror” line.
Martin Donovan does a good job as our protagonist, but you have to wonder why the heck he’s [potential spoiler] straying from his wife [/spoiler]. Julia Anderson plays the wife and is she a brick house or what? (Critics head turns into wolf from Tex Avery cartoon and starts howling). The makeup for Abby as she’s in hospital with the burns is particularly gruesome and I thought was rather effective and the other setpiece of grue from the film is also effective. I thought that this was a good entry in the series, even with the relative inexperience of the “master.”
Right to Die is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.77:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director Rob Schmidt. Next is the 14 minute “Burnt Offerings: The Making of Right to Die” which interviews Schmidt, Martin Donovan, writer John Esposito, Corbin Bernsen, Julia Anderson, special effects makeup supervisor Howard Berger, special effects makeup man Jamie Grove, Xantha Radley (who plays the “Abby thing” burn victim), and visual effects supervisor Lee Wilson. “Flay-o-Trish” runs 5 minutes and focuses on the other effects sequence and adds interview footage with Robin Sydney (“Trish”).
The Right to Die script is available as a PDF on the DVD-ROM side of things and a photo gallery. There’s no director bio since Schmidt hasn’t done enough to warrant one (hey he kinda admits it on the commentary, so I have to give him props for that).
I found Right to Die a solid entry in the line even though Rob Schmidt really only directed one other horror film. The extras are worthwhile but they seem to be getting less and less as the series goes along. The makeup this time was rather gruesome with icky kudos going to the hideously grinning burn victim.
Masters of Horror - Right to Die is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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