Pelts is the sixth episode of the second season of Masters of Horror

Masters of Horror

Masters of Horror is an informal social group of international film writers and directors specializing in horror movies and an American television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network.- Origin :...

, first aired December 1, 2006, based on a short story by F. Paul Wilson

F. Paul Wilson

Francis Paul Wilson is an American author, primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was Healer . Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to Analog while still in medical school , and continued to write science fiction...

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Plot

A story about supernaturally beautiful raccoon

Raccoon

Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...

 pelt

Fur

Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...

s (called "pine lights") that cause anyone who seeks to profit by them to commit horrendous acts.

Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf

Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...

 stars as fur trader Jake Feldman, who finds these beautiful raccoon pelts and makes a coat out of them as a gift for the beautiful dancer Shanna (Ellen Ewusie), in order to fulfill his fantasy of sex with her. As a result, people end up committing brutal murders and suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

s appropriate to their positions in relation to the pelts whenever around them.

Synopsis

Jake Feldman is a fur trader who desperately wants to have sex with a stripper named Shanna, but although she dances topless, she refuses to give it up. One of his trappers/suppliers, Jameson and his son, go onto Mother Maters land to trap animals. They find each trap containing a raccoon, and Jameson senior schools his son on the proper way to kill them: crush their windpipes with a boot, and if they survive, crush their skulls with a baseball bat. All the raccoon pelts after processing are perfect, and Jameson senior calls Feldman to arrange a sale. Jameson junior pulls out the baseball bat, wakes Jameson senior, and beats him to death. Feldman and his assistant arrive the next day to discover the beautiful pelts and both Jamesons dead. (Jameson junior opened a trap and stuck his face in, ripping it off.) They steal the pelts and proceed to make a coat, which Feldman asks Shanna to model at the furriers expo. Inspired by his assistant, Feldman figures out where the Jamesons got the pelts, and visits Mother Mater to ask for a few raccoons to breed for fur. Mother Mater states the reason she warns people off her land is because the raccoons, 'pinelights' have taken up guardianship of the ruins on them. When Feldman asks, she rages that hes the one who killed the pinelights the other night and chases him off, screaming that they have not yet had their say. The fur trimmer Sergio disembowels himself with his scissors after cutting the pelts, and the seamstress Sue Chin Yao sews her nose, eyes and mouth shut after finishing the coat. Feldman is only concerned that the coat is finished, and takes it to Shannas apartment. She is entranced by the coat, and eager to model it, but Feldman says he is still considering other models. Shanna sees this as a request for sex, and agrees. But Feldman says he needs the bathroom, and, taking a knife with him, skins his own torso and brings out the disgusting vest this creates to Shanna. She panics and runs to the elevator, managing to take it down one floor before Feldman falls down into the elevator after her. She tries to run, but Feldman grabs her leg and her hand is caught and crushed in the doors. Police find their bodies, and the film ends on one of the cops making a bloody bootprint outlined with black.

Themes

The story can be seen as a dark satire on the fur industry; the means of the victims' deaths all being based on what the furriers do to the racoons. This is unusual for a film by Dario Argento, since he normally avoids political undertones in his films.

Deaths

• Jeb Jameson – Fur trapper. First encounters raccoons and crushes one's skull underneath his foot. At night, his son Larry becomes possessed by the mystic powers of the raccoon
  Raccoon
  Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
  
   pelts and beats Jeb's head in with a baseball bat
  Baseball bat
  A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher. It is no more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches in length. It typically weighs no more than 33 ounces , but it...
  
  , as Jeb taught him to do with the raccoons.
• Larry Jameson – Fur trapper. Slices his head in half by falling face first into an animal trap after killing his father.
• Sergio – Pelt cutter. Disembowels himself with scissors
  Scissors
  Scissors are hand-operated cutting instruments. They consist of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting various thin materials, such as paper, cardboard, metal foil, thin...
  
  .
• Sue Chin Yao – Head seamstress
  Dressmaker
  A dressmaker is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Also called a mantua-maker or a modiste.-Notable dressmakers:*Cristobal Balenciaga*Charles Frederick Worth...
  
  . In charge of sewing the pelts together, Yao is compelled by the pelts to sew up her nostrils, her eyelids, and her mouth, resulting in her death due to suffocation
  Asphyxia
  Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally. An example of asphyxia is choking. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which primarily affects the tissues and organs...
  
  .
• Jake – Furrier
  Fur clothing
  Fur clothing is clothing made of the fur of animals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing; thought to have been widely used as hominids first expanded outside of Africa. Some view fur as luxurious and warm; others reject it due to moral beliefs...
  
  . Slices off his own skin to make a vest
  Vest
  A vest is a garment covering the upper body. The term has different meanings around the world:Waistcoat :. This is called a waistcoat in the UK and many Commonwealth countries, or a vest in the US and Canada. It is often worn as part of formal attire, or as the third piece of a lounge...
  
   out of himself for Shanna; chases her into an elevator
  Elevator
  An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
  
   and falls down the shaft.
• Shanna – Stripper
  Stripper
  A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
  
  . Blood loss
  Bleeding
  Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging or haemorrhaging is the loss of blood or blood escape from the circulatory system...
  
   due to her hand becoming trapped in and severed by a closing elevator door.

Trivia

As Jake was walking through the city and walks by the theater, there is a poster of Dario Argento

Dario Argento

Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....

's film Suspiria

Suspiria

Suspiria is a 1977 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi. The film follows an American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy in Germany, only to discover that it is controlled by a coven of witches. The film's score was...

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DVD

The DVD was released on February 13, 2007. It was the nineteenth episode to air and the fourteenth to be released on DVD.