"Garris' premise for Masters of Horror, which debuted 20 years ago, was optimistic and nostalgic: let legendary genre filmmakers tell stories without the restraints usually imposed by Hollywood. The budgets wouldn't be exorbitant, but they'd be enough to tell proper, terrifying, and most importantly, creatively liberating stories. And while not all of them would be classics, one can see why many of these directors are regarded as cinema legends."
"The era had been indifferent to many of these filmmakers, even if it was amid a new wave of horror (which included mega hits like Scream, Saw, and a parade of remakes reverential to past horrors or made by folks who owed their careers to a love of the "masters"). 2001's Ghosts of Mars was such an exhausting experience, and so savaged by critics and moviegoers alike, that John Carpenter considered retirement."
Mick Garris organized a 2002 dinner where Guillermo del Toro invoked the "masters of horror" before a crowd including John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, and Stuart Gordon. Garris launched Showtime's Masters of Horror three years later to let legendary genre filmmakers tell stories without Hollywood restraints, with modest but sufficient budgets for creatively liberating, terrifying films. Many of the featured directors had faced industry indifference despite fandom esteem amid a new horror wave. High-profile setbacks like Ghosts of Mars and Phantom of the Opera had damaged reputations. Tobe Hooper later reflected on Los Angeles as "the ghosts of things that could have been."
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