Sometimes I wish I got Showtime

This weekend's Masters of Horror installment:

The episode is adapted from the H.P. Lovecraft classic short story about a college student who discovers a book of ancient evil called the Necronomicon - in its pages he finds horrifying connections between his own studies in advanced mathematics with the legends of black magic.

On of the highlights of episode is the human-faced rat named Brown Jenkins, one of Gordon's favorite Lovecraftian characters. As the director revealed recently at the Chillers convention, Showtime at first balked about having the rodent in the episode, thinking that the digital effects would be too expensive. But since KNB was already providing the practical effects, Gordon simply had a friend of his - an uncredited Ukrainian mime - go into makeup. Blended with footage of a real trained rat, and sometimes an animatronic rodent, Brown Jenkins is brought to life.

This one is directed by Stuart Gordon, who also made Re-Animator, one of my favorite movies. I suppose it will be on DVD eventually.