Director: Alex Montilla, Ryan Shovey, Cameron Schwartz, Aaron McJames
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Hosting a new radio show, a DJ tries to carry on his usual programming while dealing with a series of strange gifts.
Review:
Overkill-Heading out for a party in the woods, a group of friends find themselves stalked by an unstoppable killer with hilarious results. This was a fantastic way to get this one started. The main setup here is the perfect chance for this one to follow through a traditional series of slasher victim tropes as everyone is quickly introduced and given the traits that allow for a solid series of interactions between them and the fabled killer appearing to start killing them off. The resulting final girl chase and subsequent attempts to deal with the unstoppable killer generate some gut-busting laughs dealing with the situation. Dutifully employing the trope about the killer’s unstoppable and indestructible nature, the increasingly exasperated survivor trying to pull off the final killing blow provides enough gore and solid fun to be a real winner.
Mirrored-After receiving a strange mirror for a package, a man is suddenly confronted by a demonic version of himself that disrupts his life. Overall, this was pretty fun but it has some issues with it. The central setup comes off well enough and the nonchalance of having to live with such a device gives this a fantastically over-the-top comedic bent that forces the kind of tactics to deal with everything going on in his life even without a demonic version of himself at play who taunts and torments him. That there’s never any real threat here with the brevity keeping this one from going any further than introducing the story and going from there, this one still has enough fun to be likable overall.
Rest Stop-Trying to stay in his boss’ good graces, a teacher finds his work unappreciated to the point that he feels compelled to turn into his literary creation. Overall, this one might come off more as a misfire than intended. The main setup just doesn’t have much going for it in terms of genre material as nothing about him is all that interesting, we get no real introduction to him to figure out what’s going on, and nothing makes any sense. We’re only supposed to care about him because his life is so terrible but without any context it’s hard to care as things go on to where he takes matters into his own hands incorporating the work of his novel. This comes off nicely enough but it’s too little too late at this point.
Cocky-Living with his mother, a man’s pet parrot becomes a constant torment when the creature starts to unleash its dark side. This one comes off nicely enough but it does serve a major overall flaw. The fact that the central premise is genuinely cheesy and silly makes for a great comedic touch as the constant interactions with the creature and its relentless swearing offer up some great ideas about what’s going on. However, at that point, it soon becomes obvious that this is a one-note joke stretched out far beyond its usefulness or creativity and it seems rather obvious in how aimless it moves to one contrived means of getting it to swear aggressively that it starts to feel repetitive overall.
Sloppy Seconds-Trying to get away to his mistress, a man has to endure a family dinner with his wife before that can happen. This was a fairly solid and likable segment to end this one on. The whole idea is a solid enough concept that works nicely enough with the series of interactions between the two playing that up which have a quirky sensibility to it all that hides the truth. The whole punchline to this one is fun enough with some great gore and a few solid surprises setup along the way, which makes for a likable time over it’s minor drawback in being so rushed some of these factors that it’s sometimes hard to find a chance to take them in as it could’ve used some more time to let this breathe a bit.
Vinyl Tap-Hosting a new radio show, a DJ tries to carry on his usual programming while dealing with a series of strange gifts. Overall, this was a solid enough wraparound that has some issues. As a means of introducing the stories by having the interludes setup up the next story as the series of gifts spark conversation with the fanatic who left them for him which serves well enough for doing that kind of story. A lot of these interactions go nowhere, though, and there’s an immensely unsatisfying payoff to everything, making this a somewhat odd series of interactions as it has a nice enough setup but ends up being somewhat underwhelming.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely fun and likable anthology effort, there’s so much to like here in most of the segments that it holds itself up over the minor drawbacks featured here. Those with an interest in the style featured here, appreciate anthologies in general, or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like with this one while most others should heed caution.
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