Director: Rusty Apper
Year: 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Arriving at an antique store, a pair of teens looking for decorations for an upcoming Halloween party hear a trio of stories told by a malevolent fortune-teller box.
Review:
Story 1-Waiting alone for her date, a woman receives a call informing her of his vehicle troubles and to leave, where her journey home brings her into contact with a strange masked man who begins following her through the city until she makes it to safety. Sensing a connection between her encounter and the string of brutal murders, she tries to look into the case which may soon feature her as an unwitting participant. Overall, this is a pretty enjoyable start to this one. The opening premise is solid enough with the masked figure appearing menacingly and chasing her through the darkened streets of the city which reveals the backstory of the killer as well her police investigation into the other murders said to be taking place at the same time. This allows the use of the crime-scene footage where the killer carving into and dismembering the bodies of several victims turns this into a brutal form of torture as a lead-up to the arrival at her apartment and subsequent chase through the building. While it ends rather abruptly, there’s still quite a lot to like here.
Story 2-Obsessed with the story of an old witch, a man visits a woman who supposedly holds the skull of a woman said to be the witch he’s looking into. Preparing to stay at her house to look into the skull, he soon finds himself drawn into a returning curse from the witch that soon turns the trip into a nightmare. For the most part, this is a decent enough if somewhat flawed segment in the story. The main setup here, involving the witch back when she was alive and the incidents that occur there which correspond nicely to his obsession for it that drives him to the house to study it, all come off rather nicely and give this a great starting point to work with. The Gothic archetypes at play, while he’s studying it and tormented by unearthly howling or frightening visions back to the time when she was killed showing her powers at work, is fun enough as it serves as motivation for a decent enough twist to be had. That’s the main drawback here, though, as the twist doesn’t come off as necessary and could’ve been fine without it so this comes off as needless filler despite the positives.
Story 3-Meeting up with a friend, a pair of men who’ve just gotten the news of their friend’s death, and their postmortem task to deal with his remains left behind arrive at the house to get started. When he discovers Satanic artifacts and evidence of black magic in his belongings, they find themselves faced with the supernatural ramifications of his past. This wasn’t bad but does have the most issues of the segments. The initial setup here is quite rushed with no real context as to who the two are so it all lacks the emotional resonance necessary to make the story engaging, which the flaccid pacing does no favors with barely any real context or scares to what’s going on. Once it does, though, this picks up considerably as the supernatural visions and hallucinations come fast and thick leading to all manner of fine scares here involving the truth bout the torments his friend succumbed to, although cheap and flimsy, manages to give this some decent scenes overall.
Wrap-Around-Arriving at an antique store, a pair of teens looking for decorations for an upcoming Halloween party find a possible candidate in a just-purchased story-teller box that tells macabre stories as a trick. As they listen to the machine’s stories and what they expect of the device, soon find themselves in great danger the longer they’re in the shop. As a whole, this is a really fun and solid piece that has a lot to like about it. The normal function of a wrap-around segment in an anthology is to set up the need for the stories to be told and come about logically, which is ably accomplished here with the friends listening to the stories told on the machine as a means of testing it out for their park so it all comes together logically. With the especially sleazy salesman doing his best to appear suspicious at every turn and a chilling if slightly protracted final resolution coming to pass rather nicely, this is a rather fun part of the film to get a lot to like about it.
Overview: ***.5/5
An enjoyably effective British indie anthology effort, there’s a lot to like here as each segment is enjoyable and even the bad one is only weak by comparison against the others. This is recommended to fans of the style, who appreciate this kind of low-budget indie effort, or enjoy the creative crew while most others who don’t appreciate these factors should heed caution.
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