trashgang This episode is carried by Lori Petty (Judith). Her skinny body and her performance gave her indeed the scary and strange looking mother. And The Fair Haired Child even had a great start with the abducting of Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher). That part really looked creepy and the van hitting her bicycle was really well done. Once Tara is being locked up in the cellar we do have some creeping moments with the creature walking around but the end of this episode was so predictable and laughable that my vote went downhill.Tara being an outcast virgin at school and having no friends is the ideal person to disappear. Once kidnapped Tara is questioned by Judith to be sure she's a virgin. That part is creepy only by the characterisation done by Lori. Once locked in the basement she comes across Johnny (Jesse Haddock) who has a dark secret but also tells Tara that the son of the couple abducting her lost their son in a lake drowning but the made a pact with the devil to arise him by sacrificing 12 youngsters. Tara being the last one I thought that I knew where this was going and I was correct. The last 5 minutes I just couldn't believe they wrote it that way and was a let down for me. The Fair Haired Child surely had potential but failed somehow towards the end. Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

harveyrock12 now this is one of the best masters of horror episodes , think it is on the same line as cigarette burns and incident on and off a mountain road. They all follow behind the number 1 episode pick me up, but even so this was by far the creepiest one of all i got pretty scared when i first saw the creature its movements the face , everything about it is shockingly creepy.and i was not expecting to jump as many times as i did , but felt that they should have shown more of the creature and played out the romance between Tara and johnny , but all is fair , great horror flick i have seen better but I have seen a lot worse.

Max Quin Wow! What can I say; I was completely taken aback. Not simply because this was one of the better episodes, up there for me personally with the likes of John Landis's "Deer Women" but simply because I couldn't believe who the director was. You might know William Malone from his infamous "Fear Dot Com" and "House on Haunted Hill" for someone who has quite literally only produced bile so far, his recent addition into the Masters of Horror series "Fair-Hair Child" comes across as nothing other than a complete an utter unexpected gem.The premise of this episode revolves around a young girl named Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher) who is a complete outcast and considered a 'freak' among her peers, is suddenly kidnapped when she is cycling home. She ends up in what appears to be a hospital, but upon trying to escape she is confronted by her kidnapper Anton (William Samples) the nurse who Tara first meet upon awakening is in fact the kidnapper's wife Judith (Lori Petty.) They then throw Tara in what appears to be a basement. It turns out that someone else is also down there, a mute child Johnny (Jesse Haddock.) However as things unfold it turns out the child is the son of both Anton & Judith, whose son recently drowned, but using a ritual of sorts they were able to bring him back, on one condition they were to sacrifice "12" children. Tara is the last of the "12" and tries to survive Johnny's periodical transformations into a monster-like abomination.The films strong points come from its creepiness and pure flat out frights. Johnny's abomination like transformation comes across as scary and creepy, and there clearly has been a lot of thought put into the movement and visual nature of the creature which only makes it creepier. The constant stream of problems Tara has to face and the survival factor of the episode kept me constantly tense. No one likes to be thrown into a basement with a monster and no way out. Malone also uses some brilliant Cinematography, he also uses a wide range of other effects such as the POV shots used in the flashbacks to tell the narrative of Johnny's death and the multitude of other effects such as the Black & White colorization and the smooth 'clinks' and 'tinks' produced by appropriate Sound SFX. This is one of the episodes that uses the least gore but packs more surprises as a result.The plot and characters on the other hand is a little flimsy. While we do feel for Tara due to her current predicament and the bad life she has faced she still sways closely to the stereotypical quiet girl who gets a whole lot more noisy, not to mention the amount of cliché's in the plot from the whole over-the-top psycho parents who want their son back, the whole demonic ritual to-bring-him-back crap and the fact that I personally already knew the Fair-Haired child was Johnny from the moment I saw him but the director kept trying to add mystery on top of things that were clearly quite cliché and obvious. The characters came across as flat and the plot too thin. The acting was decent for the most part William Samples done a decent job as Anton and Lindsay Pulsipher as Tara, but it's nothing extraordinary. The creature reminded me of something out of "The Devils' Backbone" The episode did have a quite unpredictable turn of events when monster Johnny ate Tara, for which there was a gruesome and grotesque scene, I mean who wants to be eaten alive by that 'thing'. The movie ended on a nice note when the parents got there duely deserved dish of revenge as Johnny reincarnated Tara using a similar ritual, however he bargained for the lives of only two people to return her to flesh (in this case Anton & Judith) who were chomped on by a monster Tara at the end leading to a happy cheer from me personally; this fell into the whole cliché happy ending too soon afterwards though, which was sort of disappointing.These facts aside William Malone has proved he can be a Master of Horror especially when other more well received directors, have produced much, much worse episodes such as Tobe Hooper's "Dance of the Dead". Sure the characters and plot are a little flimsy but the scares and creepiness of the episode hits where it counts; let's hope Malone can learn from what he's done here.

Molly Celaschi (carlykristen) Distraught father Anton and mother Judith (played by Lori Petty of Tank Girl fame) try to resurrect their dead son by sacrificing a young girl to a demon.The film opens with young Tara being teased in school, riding her bike home, then getting kidnapped by a man in a van. I could only imagine the fears this scene would conjure up in any parent. After Tara wakes up, she tries to call her mom for help explaining that she has been drugged, kidnapped, and hospitalized in another state to which her mom casually replies, "Can I call you back later?" Malone directs a surprisingly restrained tale of suffering considering his previous outings included FearDot.com, which was oddly gratuitous and devoid of meaning. Fair-Haired Child is a touching story of a mother so heartbroken she is pushed to desperate lengths, a rebellious teen that betrays the ones that love him, and a kidnapped girl that no one notices is missing. The story is a simple one with a nice twist ending and pleasantly reminded me of the old Twilight Zone series.The mood and atmosphere are great with many scenes set to classical music. There are black & white scenes that represent the dark doings of the parents and the little blonde girl looking up from the bloody bathtub through the hole in the basement looks like a lost Alice after falling through the rabbit hole.On a side note, I thought it a curious gesture to add Malone to the list of "Masters of Horror". He did a few low budget creature flicks, followed by the good House on Haunted Hill remake, which was followed by the very bad FearDot.com. I think this TV episode is one of the highlights of his resume now. Another interesting thing I noticed is that while many of the directors chose to push the limits in their episodes, this one seemed tame in comparison and yet was still quite good. Unfortunately, it did not get much attention, as it was not controversial like many of the others.The 55 minute TV show is presented with a 1.77:1 ratio aspect, Dolby Digital 5.1, and Surround Sound 2.0. The creature looked awesome with the stand out image being the aftermath of Tara after confronting the Fair-Haired Child.Favorite Quote: Anton, "Nietzsche said anything done out of love is beyond good and evil. We're not evil. I still love you Judith." DVD Extras: Interviews with Director & Cast, Commentary, Behind-the-Scenes, Trailers, Stills, Malone's Bio, and the Screenplay on DVD-ROM.Bottom Line: Good tale rooted in family values and the price of love. Minimal gore and scares, but well told and acted nonetheless.Rating: 7/10by Molly Celaschi www.HorrorYearbook.com