XX

Somewhere between Southbound and Down. Nope. Somewhere between Southbound (2015) and VHS (2012). I enjoyed more than I didn't but none of these were as good as the best of SB, though none were as bad as the worst of VHS. I followed Jovanka back when she was the editor-in-chief of Rue Morgue Magazine. Good times, good mag. I also used to read Ranger Rick but their horror shorts are generally terrible. Imagine Grizzly meets Harry and the Hendersons. Man, that sounds like the right kind of terrible

The 1st & 4th shorts have interesting premises brought down by pretentious (for lack of a better word) writing & uneven execution. Some of the acting & visuals are straight up amateurish which doesn't help the painfully generic way the stories develop (or don't as the case may be). The 3rd film is the most technically competent yet also blandest & most vacuous. The 2nd one is... unique? I've no hecking clue what it's attempting to do but like the others it's not even remotely scary or funny.

A collection of smart and well-filmed pieces, with some good performances from the not well-known cast. The underlying ideas were generally good, but the short running time perhaps stifled their potential; tension, themes and atmosphere weren't able to really develop, and each piece did feel somewhat truncated. The first and final segments felt the strongest to me, but all the pieces had positive indicators of greater things to come.

The worthwhile format is squandered by scripts stifled by baffling ambiguities and premises either too hokey or under-explored to be fulfilling. Despite that, the shorts are well directed and smartly stylized, and there's probably some interesting commentary on motherhood, domestic management, and femininity hidden in the weeds.

Some really neat ideas; especially Vuckovic's and Kusama's entries, and St Vincent's has a nice sense of dark humour that I wish it could have explored even more. But as with far too many anthology movies, it's uneven and some segments - the third in particular - really struggle to find a balance between what they want to do and the time they give themselves to do it.

Disappointing. Not really bad but the segments feel like the weakest segments on a good anthology film. They're films with cool things about them feel more like a supplement than the main event.

7.10.18(+)

Two segments are pretty good, one is uproariously funny, and none of the four seem interested in conclusively answering their film's question. Lady and the Tiger, which is always hard to do well, feels absolutely blue-bally when it's 4 times in a row.

Entertaining enough little set of short films that do a good job of making one uneasy. The title/framing sequences are probably he best thing about the anthology but it is still great to see some solid female directors in the horror genre get as much attention as his film has received.

The first one was okay, then it just went downhill!

So terrible it could be classified as anti-feminist.

The only purpose an all female horror anthology serves is to show that there's no tangible difference between the male and female "voice" in horror, the themes, the style, the cliches are the same, but there's a lipstick skull on the poster which counts for something I guess. Kusama's segment, which I like to think of as "We Need to Talk about Rosemary's The Omen", is expectedly the nicest. The rest aren't bad, just kinda meh.

Love the intent behind this, but as with almost every other one of these new anthology movies, the quality of these shorts are wildly inconsistent. I think I actually liked Annie Clark's more than everyone else seems to? Aside from some first-timer mistakes and the editing crew trying too hard to make it seem scary in post-production, it feels distinct and interesting. Even at their worst, none of the shorts here go to the same terrible, idiotic depths of ABCs of Death or the last VHS.

trash

Like with most anthology films, it's a mish-mash of quality. The only one I kind of, sort of liked was Annie Clark's. The great thing about this film is its brevity.

not so good

D-

3, 3+, 3, 4-

The Box was very well-told; the Birthday Party was INCREDIBLE. Don't Fall was a little bit of a let-down, and could have gone better, and the final entry, His Only Living Son, was very much a shame. It's quite uneven, as a whole, and I think these would have done better given their own films.

Kusama's Rosemary's Baby ripoff -- a teenage son has to choose between his tormented mom and his father (probably Satan, a famous actor who lives in Hollywood and has a big family), St. Vincent's is just the worst and the other two are just so forgettable.

Stories that go nowhere

Some great ideas but way too soft to be called horror my opinion here : http://bit.ly/2qzHdx9

twilight zone like short stories, quite original

I kept waiting for it to get better but it didn't quite get there. It would be passable for a TV series like twilight zone.

Disappointing.

Forget the second one.

Some of the short films are better than the other ones in this 4 short horror tales film. There are some creeping, interesting scenes and moments. Overall I would recommend this film.