Directed by
John Landis. In a small town, disgraced detective Dwight Faraday (
Brian Benben) and his friend Officer Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith) are given the opportunity to investigate a series of mysterious deaths where the victim was apparently trampled by an unknown animal. All the victims were male and were last seen while in company of a mysterious, beautiful, Native American woman (Cinthia Moura).
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Of folklore and animal-based slashers. The Deer Woman from the legend is portrayed with no irony (except for the scene where she becomes a deer in the headlights, maybe), but the characters (and by extension the writer and director) can't wrap their heads about how silly the premise of the monster is.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: One of the Deer Woman's victims was already a bit drunk when the Deer Woman shows up to lure him to his death and then only gets more wasted.
- All Men Are Perverts: Almost to the point of exaggeration, any men approached by the Deer Woman instantly decides to go with her.
- Bambification: Imagining how the first murder could have happened, Faraday pictures a ridiculously small, cute fawn blinking outside the victim's truck while the trucker and his fling scream in terror. Obviously there are more formidable deer in real life.
- Bittersweet Ending: Reed has been killed, the Deer Woman has claimed her victims, and vanishes when Faraday tracks her down. There's no indication that she won't come back, but at least won't kill any more people for the time being.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Faraday seems like a well-adjusted guy for most of the episode, but when a guy on the street tries to rob him, he plants the guy's own knife in his shoulder after overpowering him, even forbidding him to take it out before letting doctors do it. Makes for a great Brick Joke later on.
- Black Widow: The Deer Woman is an express version, killing men as soon as they are alone with her instead of waiting for the altar.
- Brick Joke: "Do any of you guys know anything about this guy who claims he was attacked by a cop with a knife?"
- Butt-Monkey: Detective Fuchs.
Every other character, including his partner: Shut up, Fuchs!
- Coconut Superpowers: We only see the Deer Woman's deer legs for quick glimpses at a distance.
- Cute Mute: The Deer Woman (before she reveals her intentions). She's apparently incapable of speaking, so she lures in her victims with smiles and suggestive glances.
- Fanservice: The Deer Woman always goes topless before she kills.
- Fauns and Satyrs: The Deer Woman has the upper body of an attractive woman, and the lower body of a deer.
- Femme Fatale: The Deer Woman's MO is to lure men with the promise of carnal relations, then stomping them to death before it gets to that point.
- For the Evulz: Just like in the original legend
, the Deer Woman kills horny men for no reason. This is lampshaded by Faraday when he is first introduced to the legend. - Furry Reminder: While the Deer Woman is smart enough to blend in amongst humans by hiding its legs, at the end of the day it's still a Half-Human Hybrid. When Faraday catches it trying to cross the road while pursuing it in his car, the Deer Woman has a literal "Deer in the Headlights" moment and freezes.
- Gorn: The aftermath of the Deer Woman's victims, most notably when Faraday picks up what's left of the trucker's lower jaw at the beginning.
- Imagine Spot: In a particularly funny bit Faraday muses about the possible scenarios that could have resulted in the crime scene where the trucker got stomped into a bloody pile with hoof prints all over it, not to mention the door to the truck being kicked out from the inside. The first involves a skimpy girl beating the inexplicably helpless trucker to death with a fake deer leg ("...Stupid"), another the girl and the trucker being attacked by a Bambified deer ("...Retarded"), and the third the trucker being killed and the girl abducted by a humongous Deer Man ("...Fuck").
- Locked Room Mystery: What draws Faraday's attention to the trucker's death beyond the strange hoof prints on the victim's body is that the door to his truck was kicked out from the inside. While it's conceivable that the trucker could have been trampled to death by an aggressive buck, an animal of that size would not have been capable of the latter feat of Super-Strength, nor would a sufficiently large animal (like an Alaskan moose or a cryptid that nobody has seen before) been able to fit inside the truck to begin with.
- Magical Native American: Subverted Trope. While the person that provides the clue to solving the mystery is a Native American, he's just a casino worker who thinks that the legend is stupid.
- Mugging the Monster: A mugger tries to hold up Faraday, who overpowers and stabs him with his own knife.
- Native American Casino: Faraday and Reed go to one on their off time, then solve the mystery because a member of the staff knows the legend.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: The Deer Woman is a vengeful Native American spirit who seduces men in the guise of a beautiful woman, then tramples them to death with her powerful deer legs.
- Oh, Crap!: Having picked up a date, Reed freezes in horror when Faraday asks him "Have you seen her feet?", as the Deer Woman can be recognized by her hooves.
- A Rare Sentence: Faraday discusses the first Deer Woman murder with Dana, the medical examiner. He pauses for a moment when she proposes that the victim was beaten to death with a prop deer leg, because murder by taxidermy isn't something you hear very often.
Faraday: That is just one of those sentences you never expect to hear.
Dana: How do you think I feel saying it?
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: The first indication to the Deer Woman's identity.
- Stylistic Suck: Faraday's possible "reconstructions" of the trucker's death are filmed in an intentionally ridiculous way.
- Shout-Out: Suspecting an incidence of animal transformation, Faraday cites the events of An American Werewolf in London, also directed by Landis, as a documented case.
- Too Dumb to Live: Reed, knowing full well that there might be a mythological monster woman running around killing hapless men, doesn't bat an eye when a gorgeous, mute, girl whose feet he hasn't seen swoons over him, and wants to come back to his place with him. When Faraday calls him up and points this out he finally realizes, but it's already too late.
