Director: Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman
Year: 2018
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Attempting to explain normal psychic frauds, a professor is given a task of investigating several strange paranormal encounters his hero was unable to solve.
Review:
Tony Matthews-Meeting at his workplace, he meets the night watchman who begins relating his experience working at a new building who's troubled history has started to interfere with his job. Convinced something is in the building with him, he soon comes face-to-face with the cause of the hauntings. This was a fantastic segment that really works nicely. The biggest factor here is the main building it's set in, which not only has a strong backstory that has a creepy framework but having a genuinely creepy location that's incredibly chilling. The flickering lights and power going on-and-off has a fine setup here, while the shots wandering in the totally dark hallways using only the flahlight gives off classic old-school thrills, especially when done in conjunction with the child crying in the night. Tying nicely with a fine philosophical message at the heart of the encounter, this is a fantastic entry.
Simon Rifkind-Arriving at his house, the young kid recalls his experience of driving his parents' car back home from a party when he gets into an accident out on the highway. Consumed by guilt, he tries to get out of the area safely only for the spirit he hit to interfere with his plans to do so. Overall, this was a fine if somewhat flawed entry. The opening, with their interactions in the bedroom detailing his squirrely behavior before sharing his tale is rather lame and takes a while to get this going. However, the story starts in earnest from there on as the accident is truly terrifying with the being coming out of nowhere being illuminated only with the car lights and heading into the chilling mechanical failures that halt him in the middle of the outright chilling woods. His later encounters with the woods are shorter and less interesting but still creepy enough, giving this a lot to really like.
Mike Priddle-Heading into the countryside, the guy begins telling his story about the strange experiences inside his house while his wife is in the hospital for a medical condition. Soon, he comes to believe that something or someone is in the house with him. This was a problematic overall entry. Most of the problems stem from the fact that the dragging pace doesn't really make this one all that interesting. There's way too many scenes of him wandering around the flat looking for noises or something calling out from the darkness that don't arrive at any kind of creepy action. The one genuine scare here with the ghostly being appearing out of nowhere which looks really creepy and outright terrifying which is the best part of the segment.
Wrap-Around-This makes no sense overall. The flashbacks to his childhood when the kid got into trouble and died offers no real purpose due to not really offering a point for inclusion by being a traumatic experience that doesn't connect to anything, the speechifying grows old when it keeps trying to hammer a point numerous times over and all the identity switches are seen coming a mile away. The length could've really been given to one of the other segments and really outdoes the overall setup of his journey.
Overview: ****/5
While it does end up becoming a case of diminishing returns the longer this goes on with each story coming off just a little bit less than the one before it, the quality of such is that the drop-off still leaves this one wholly enjoyable. Heartily recommended to any and all fans of omnibus stories or European style anthologies in general, while those that don't appreciate the genre overall should heed mild caution.
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