Director: Joel D. Wynkoop, Derek Braasch, Phil Herman, Anthony Piseno, Marcelo Fabani
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Still stuck inside the house, the burglar is forced to read more stories to allow him to escape.
Review:
He Who Laughs Last-Trying to inherit his wife’s money, a man tries to scare his agoraphobic wife to death to grab her money. This was pretty predictable and doesn’t really go anywhere new, especially with a twist that renders a lot of this somewhat moot, but it’s still fun to get there. The indie thrills are cheesy and charming enough with a few decent ideas that could’ve been worth more had it gone on for more than the under-ten-minute running time it has, but it’s still a solid enough intro to everything.
Death is the Only Option-After supposedly pulling off a hit, several gangsters are dismayed when he reappears with no ill effects of the situation. This was a pretty solid effort with a lot to like. The setup is intriguing enough with the reappearance after the supposed hit, the unknown ability to understand what’s going on and the race to save his friends and family from the misconstrued wrath of his employer all come off well enough to overlook the overt lack of genre thrills until the twist ending.
Devious Strategems-Trying to be together, a couple having an affair try to get rid of their spouses to accomplish their goal. Overall, this was a solid if slightly flawed segment. This has a lot to like with the work of their respective relationships, focusing on him not enjoying time with his wife and her being stuck with an abusive husband who sexually exploits her, the means through which they set about rectifying everything, and the sleazy atmosphere present here, but it’s all too long and tries to throw some twists in here that don’t need to be there.
The Vessel-Bringing home a new antique vase, a woman is convinced that she’s brought something malevolent into her home. This was an intriguing enough idea that manages to score a lot of creative points with how the film works in the concept of her being deaf ad using sign language throughout here to translate the tale of the mysterious entity haunting the home. That’s all enhanced by a lot of effective work here with the shadow-play and eerie incidents happening around her, and while that could get tiresome for some those who can go along with it will be quite well rewarded.
Victoria-Attempting to escape from Europe, a female vampire lands in Uruguay by accident and must adjust to a new threat there. This had the potential for a good time but just ends up missing out due to a rather undeserved convention to make everything as if it were a silent film complete with title card narration and transitions. The brief length and skipping over tons of intriguing ideas don’t help matters, and had this been done in a traditional feature-length format it can be a lot of cheesy fun.
Wrap-Around-Still stuck inside the house, the burglar is forced to read more stories to allow him to escape. As a setup to what’s going on and a means to introduce the next tale, this is quite fun and manages to be enjoyable enough with their interactions together. However, much like the last one the constant whining and complaining do get annoying after a while and easily drag this down. Viewer tolerance for the twist ending here can go either way so it can be taken as a positive or negative as well.
Overview: ***.5/5
A rather fun indie anthology effort, there’s a lot to like here and only a few underwhelming segments so it’s quite an enjoyable series of low-budget stories that make for a fun time. Those who enjoy this kind of style or approach, as well as fans of the creative crew involved, will have a lot to like here while those who don’t like this kind of indie look and feel should heed caution.
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