Hi-Fear (2023)

Director: Todd Sheets, Tim Ritter, Anthony Catanese, Brad Sykes

Year: 2023

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Anthology

Plot:

Tasked with creating new sketches for an upcoming comic book, an artist up at the deadline tries to find the biggest fears she can imagine as inspiration for her upcoming stories.

Review:

Losing It at the Devil's Whorehouse-Wanting to help their friend, a group of guys decides to visit a local brothel to help one of them lose their virginity, but when the workers there get wind of his status they find that his soul might be included in their festivities. Overall, this was a solid way to open things with quite a lot to like. There's a spectacular amount of cheesy, silly atmosphere present here with the group going through the guise of trying to make him lose his virginity with a group of women who are clearly way too experienced for him but are still forced to go through it. With some great gore gags and goop-filled prosthetics brought to bear on this one through the reveal of their true intent with the facility and the dark ritual at the center of everything, this one plays out incredibly well including a solid ending gag for a solid laugh. The reveal of their purpose there isn't as big of a twist as it thinks it is since it's quite easy to guess what's going on but that doesn't dampen the fun of this one in the slightest.

When Shadows Come Alive-After finding his wife is having an affair, a preacher and a dirty cop team up to kill her and dispose of the body, but when they do so manage to incur the wrath of a vicious serial killer prowling the area. Frankly, this was a highly effective and likable feature. The main setup here is perfectly suited to this kind of simplistic slasher setup about the killer running free in the area and then finding out the others who have stumbled into the area are trying to cover their tracks after they've supposedly committed the perfect crime against his wife. This leads into a solid series of cheap but endearing indie-style slasher scenes that include some great gore gags. The action here is fun, but the story is a bit underwhelming with little coherent thought about the nature of the alliance between the two which is quite weak, and no real clue behind the killer so it's slightly disjointed but not enough to knock it down.

The Streets Are Alive-Living alone on the streets, a group of homeless youths decides to test the theory about a crazed individual that's rumored to be a genuine killer, but when they learn the truth about everything find a far more disturbing answer than they expected. This was a slightly disappointing if still enjoyable enough segment. What works nicely here is the gritty atmosphere of being out on the streets and engaging in the local urban folklore surrounding the origins of the crazed homeless man they begin to encounter who's shown to be dealing with schizophrenic visions and hallucinations turning him into a killer. That, though, exposes the real lack of story here with no time to build anything so none of the perceived happenings make sense much like the inclusion of fanciful camera work and a jazz score that straight-up have little connection to the franchise's shot-on-video origins. It's the weakest of the segments but is still watchable enough.

Day Out of Days-While attempting to film a low-budget movie, a couple joins another member of the crew at a cabin close to the shoot, but the longer they're there and strange events continue they believe something otherworldly is occurring around them. This was an overall fun segment but seems slightly miscast as the finale to end things. Rather than go out with a bang on a wild, high-energy ride this one tends to go for moody atmospherics and tension-building the longer the couple stays there and it can be a solid time in the right mood, especially for those that enjoy this sci-fi-heavy storyline. This leaves a slow-burn type of story that focuses more on setting up how off things feel without going for anything here with the lack of explanation for the invasion or their impending transformations which ends up giving this some admittedly suspenseful moments as for how this one plays out even if they don't make sense. It's the visuals that work well here despite not a lot of time being given to how they play out which is what lets this one down.

Overview: ***.5/5

A highly enjoyable indie throwback anthology that works more often than not, there’s quite a lot to like here in most of the segments and the weaker ones aren’t so bad either helps to elevate this one. Those that appreciate this style of filmmaking, enjoy the previous installments in the franchise, or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here while those that don’t like any of these factors should heed caution.