Right To Die Year: 2006 Director: Rob Schmidt Written by: John Esposito Threat: Ghost Weapon of Choice: Fire Based upon: none Color/B&W/3D: colour Language: English Country of Origin: USA IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Please see the Masters of Horror series page.

Rish's Reviews
In Right To Die, Martin Donovan plays a beleagured husband who, during a drive with his estranged (and ridiculously good-looking) wife, gets into an accident which leaves him shaken, but her horribly, horribly burned. Kept alive by machinery, he has to make the decision of letting her "survive" that way and hoping for a miraculous tissue donation, or pulling the plug and letting her go. Suddenly, he's in the middle of a nightmare with the press, and armies of angry proponents line up on both sides. And then, things take an even worse turn, when his wife's vengeance-fueled ghost begins to appear . . .
We've taken quite a break in watching "Masters of Horror" this year. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but tyranist and I have been checking out episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (and its brother series "Angel") every Wednesday for months now, and it tends to slake our thirst for Horror a lot of the time.
But honestly, another reason we haven't watched this whole series (we absolutely DEVOURED the first season, usually getting each installment the day it was available on DVD) was because Season Two has, in our opinions, not been very good. Right To Die began, as all in this series do, with previews for other installments, and I remarked to tyranist that Pelts was the best one of the second season. He recoiled at that statement, since he was not a big fan of Pelts . . . and then recoiled a second time when he realised that he agreed with me. Family, Pro-Life, The Damned Thing, they've all been disappointing, so we've not had much incentive to finish the series.
Until now.
Folks, Right To Die was really, really good. The unseen half-dozen had better be pretty damned impressive to replace this one on the top of the list. I enjoyed this one from beginning to end. The nudity, boys and girls, was among the best I've ever seen. The script, while darker than Marilyn Manson's pantyhose, was also really funny, when it wasn't surprisingly effective as a horror story.
Sadly, the ending may leave something to be desired. I was pretty satisfied with it, but that's just me. I've been told that they considered ending the film in a different manner, and I'm not sure why they didn't go that way, but it might have been a better way to go. Might, though. You never know.
I hate to constantly repeat myself, but calling Rob Schmidt a "Master" of Horror is really liberally interpreting that word. Don't get me wrong, I loved this film, and liked Wrong Turn enough to see it again along with its sequel, but I suspect they were way down on the Horror filmmakers list when they called up Schmidt for this one.
But hey, after seeing this, I will check out his next film as soon as I can. Maybe they're onto something.
Best Scare: The oozing corpse was actually really scary. And there was a great moment where our hero's mistress was phoning him sexy pictures of herself, and he can see his dead wife creeping closer to her in every one.
I'd Recommend It To: Fans of the series. Even if it's the only one from this season you can catch.
Posted: October 30, 2007

Total Skulls: 12

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?