Director: Troy van Buskirk, Stephen Wolfe, Max Groah, Drew Marvick, Jenn Nangle
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Hosted by Malvolia, The Queen of Screams, a special Halloween Night marathon featuring five gruesome, spine-chilling tales.
Review:
A Samhain Liturgy-Arriving at a charge’s house, a woman begins her babysitting duties looking after a quiet kid while her parents are out at a Halloween party, allowing her to invite her boyfriend over for company. When they realize that something’s wrong inside the house, they try to fight off a series of escalating occult dangers to themselves and their families. Overall, this was a generally fun and enjoyable start to things. The old-school atmosphere from the 80s, from the cheesy setup and atmosphere, makes this highly likable even before the other stuff starts happening where they realize how psychotic and protective the kid is. That he’s doing all this under the guise of being dangerous towards the figure in the basement, only makes for a startling twist when it occurs but the action taken is quite brutal as well. The creature itself looks great, while the later reveal about the antics of the cult and their connection to everything is integrated and explained nicely but it feels like overkill to tack on with little build-up in a short segment like this.
Dead Lift--Enduring a night of rude customers, a ride-share driver manages to keep going for one more passenger before calling it a night and takes home an actor from a local play. As the trip goes on and more details about the passenger are revealed, he realizes the danger he’s brought on for himself by taking on this last passenger. This was a decent enough if still somewhat flawed segment. That everything here comes off as a strong, psychological venture alternating between the old man speaking cryptically like normal and his inner consciousness playing on the insecurities present as a macabre form of a recruitment pitch. The full reveal of what’s going on and all the various actions here to play off what’s going on give this a lot to like, but at the end of the day the segment is overly talky without much in the way of action. It’s also somewhat overlong in the epitaph to finish off the transformation that goes on way too long without offering anything that could’ve been explained in less time despite offering the best gore in the segment.
Apache Hatchet Massacre II-Gathering together for a Halloween party, a group of friends decides to pass the time by telling stories which includes one about the area involving a mystical Indian burial ground. When they realize that the Indian burial ground has brought a savage killer to life, they try to escape the situation alive. There was a lot to both like and dislike with this one. It works best as a simple, straightforward slasher, focusing on the fun setup involving how the spirit gets released and the resulting massacre that follows here which is the typically goofy, over-the-top reactions to everything going on. The main problem is that it lasts so briefly it’s hard to really get a feel for what’s going on, moving from the resurrection to the party, the massacre, and the aftermath so quickly that it can be nearly impossible to keep track of what’s going on, who’s who since we barely have time for names or even the big twist at the end. This one really could’ve been a lot more fun if it had a few more minutes added.
Overkill-After being compelled to kill already, a serial killer stalking the open streets of a small town on Halloween night finds his next target to be a pervy teenager babysitting at a house before a party. When he spots another killer attempting to scout the girl as his next target, they must decide who's going to kill her if it even gets to be one of them. This was a gloriously fun and goofy entry. The first part stalking the couple who are closed up for the night is a fantastic series of stalking goodness featuring a strong old-school style, tons of atmosphere, and great, gory kills. The later scenes at the babysitters' house are immensely fun and silly, featuring the two going back and forth in a one-sided conversation of his increasingly pathetic pleas to a stoic killer not reacting to anything which is immensely entertaining and hilarious. The only issue here is a strangely underwhelming and off-beat ending that comes off as a great gag in concept but is weirdly executed with the morning Sun rising up betraying the pitch-black nighttime setting moments earlier. Otherwise, this was a lot of fun.
Sister Mary-Tormented by various demonic forces, a woman living in her home finds the same figure again coming after her once she’s believed to be in the clear. Forced to confront her past trauma in order to stop the demonic being from torturing her, she realizes that she’s never going to be free from the creature and his threats. This was a rather confusing segment to end this one on. The fact that the demonic torture is genuinely unnerving and terrifying, making her either believe that she’s murdered her husband or taunting her with the memory of doing so which is all incredibly fun to watch carry out with its dynamic visual creations. However, it’s too confusing to tell what’s happening with the mostly-dialogue-free setup that never explains for sure what’s going on, and with the brief running time that doesn’t let enough time develop for that to happen, this comes off rather disappointing.
Overview: ****/5
An incredibly fun anthology that has quite a lot to like with the various segments featured throughout here and only a few minor issues with the segments as a whole, this is a worthy and enjoyable follow-up here. Give this a look if you’re a fan of the original, enjoy the other work of the creative crew, or those who are curious about this overall style of indie anthology efforts while most others should heed caution with this one.
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