Director: James L. Edwards and Brad Twigg
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Arriving for work, a lawyer at a Satanic law firm reviews several case files to determine where new clients are determined to stay for eternity.
Review:
First Date-Arriving at a slow diner for a date, a man and woman meet up to begin their formalities of a first date and get to know each other .while they try to let their real personalities show. as the date goes on, a series of issues and red flags can’t prepare them for how much danger the two eventually find themselves in. This was a rather intriguing starting point to the film. That it goes from a light-hearted comedy to just sheer awkward with the more they have to say to each other and how it eventually progresses serves this pretty well, especially when the red flags begin to show up that make it obvious something isn’t right about their relationship. As the date turns into something far darker than expected where everything gets turned into a legit threat to his life, this one becomes rather fun as the psychotic side stands out as being quite nicely where the faulty logic for how everything comes to pass, yet that does mean the segment is highly talkative involving the massive gaps in reasoning justifying the action which can be a slight issue overall.
Mama’s Boy-After meeting up together, a man decides to take his new girlfriend home to meet his mother to get her opinion on their relationship. As they carry on with the meeting, as she tries to win her over throughout the night, a series of secrets come to light that few see coming. Overall, this was a pretty solid and enjoyable outing. The stalking scene here featuring the first woman getting attacked and killed in a rather alarming matter to get this going on a nice note, which is enhanced rather well with the flashbacks to later encounters with a vicious killer attacking and killing others. Getting into all the various back-and-forth digs at each other while trying to get onto her good side tends to play out like a generally expected relationship that works out between an over-protective mother and burgeoning girlfriend trying to win her over. Combined with a fantastic twist that makes for a fun time, there’s quite a lot to like although the whole epitaph that takes place is highly underwhelming and undoes a lot of the impact it had which is the main issue.
Skunk Weed-Stuck in his apartment with agoraphobia, a man takes a look at a care package sent from a friend in order to help inspire a new jingle to write for his employers. As he finds himself going on a far more extreme drug trip than expected, something begins to affect his faculties as something or someone overtakes the apartment. This wasn’t that bad of an effort but does feel slightly weaker than the others. Most of this is due to the one-person, single-location setup that serves as the entrance point for the segment, where if it isn’t interesting or compelling then it takes a lot to overcome that which is what this suffers from. Dropping us immediately into a situation with a stranger that wasn’t introduced in the previous segment leading into the piece makes for a confusing time, and the scenes of him fiddling around the apartment don’t have any real interest. Given the bizarre nature of the drug trip and how it works, it's all a mystery what's going on so the graphic body-horror meltdowns, as cool as they look visually, just come out of nowhere with little build-up and lose some impact. They're great to look at but what it all means is the main issue.
Tempter and Associates-By taking on a series of cases for work, a lawyer for an infernal corporation tasks his charges with the details to their death in order to understand where they fit in with the company. As he goes through the various clients and their personal stories, he discovers something that could put the entire operation in jeopardy. This is a pretty decent if overall flawed wrap-around segment. As a means of instigating the main stories to be told and getting all the different figures involved, the setup works quite nicely and is a generally serviceable effort. The main issue here is that most of the twist reveals for the story proper are revealed here instead of in the segments proper, especially the last two which reveal their twists in the meeting rather than within the flashback so they come off as afterthoughts filmed at a later time than the main part of the segment. While the overall layout of the service as a law firm looking at the cases of their clients and all the legal operations that play out from this makes for a fun time, it does have a slight factor about it that lowers this slightly.
Overview: ***.5/5
With a lot to like in all the segments and a few minor issues that crop up, this is a rather fun anthology effort that keeps it going quite nicely and has a lot to like overall. Give this one a look if you're a fan of anthologies, indie films of this style or the creative cast and crew's previous works, while those who are turned off by any of those aspects might want to heed caution somewhat.
Comments
Post a Comment