Director: Ash Hamilton, Dillon Brown, Joshua Brucker, Ben Harl, Michael Gregory
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: F’D: Tales from the End Times
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Looking for a new story, a reporter and her cameraman investigate the goings-on at a suspected cult’s compound leading them to uncover tales of an impending apocalypse.
Review:
The Apocalypse Smells Likes Cookies-Attempting to carry out their plans, a pair of Satanic worshippers are flustered in their desires to see a demon summoning spell come to fruition. This was a generally solid and likable start to this one. The main idea here is immensely effective and likable, offering a chance for the guys to get quite a lot of screentime here going back and forth on the various services required to fulfill their mission that has a fine dose of comedic interactions between them. These features even include a fantastic twist that helps to complete the silly tone present here to give it a lot to like, as the only thing holding it back is the lack of explanation for everything makes for a confusing time figuring out what’s happening,
Bugout-As a means of not going crazy, a doomsday prepper documents the final day of his plan to be ready for the apocalypse. Overall, this was a bit of a disappointment only in the sense of not having much going on for it. The central setup here is immensely enjoyable and has the chance to offer up some fun moments here with the guy waiting around in the woods going through the motions of his plans. However, this one is more about the relentless narration that doesn’t offer up much beyond the final section where his arrival at a secluded building puts him into contact with a series of strange creatures seen only through the night-vision scope of his equipment as the rest of the film is more involved with the hiking in the woods narrating what’s going on with a siren blaring in the background. That’s not all that interesting leaving this one to stall for quite a while.
Apocalypse Eve-Faced with the inevitable, a couple spends their final hours together arguing about their history before realizing the inevitable. This was a decent enough idea but gets held down by a series of minor drawbacks. The main storyline featured here is quite solid, building a rather effective portrayal of their relationship together and making them seem like a genuinely like couple who are genuinely there for each other as the situation unfolds. This is done through an effective mixture of flashbacks and conversation that gives their relationship a lot of heart as it becomes increasingly obvious what’s driving them apart, which sets up the start of the issues here. The whole with the infection and what’s going on is never shown through budgetary limitations so it’s kept to inference through their conversations which leaves it lacking action or style for its running time with everything focused on this couple.
Gramma-Recording her stay, a woman worried about her missing boyfriend grows increasingly more concerned about her grandmother’s irrational behavior. This was a relatively fun way to close things out. The central story is quite chilling as the closed-in framing through the found-footage format keeps the film moving slowly detailing the chilling idea of what’s going on the more she stays in the house due to the conditions outside. As there’s some wholly effective and chilling imagery featured here which helps to keep this one going along instep with the grotesque idea of everything with the grandmother’s deteriorating condition and urgency to get some help in the situation as this one is pretty much only undone by the idea of what’s happening to her being quite mysterious and unexplained in such a brief running time.
Overview: ****/5
A strong and really effective indie doomsday anthology, there’s quite a lot to like here with a major positive in every segment and not much to dislike about it. Give this one a shot if you’re intrigued by the idea of this one, are a massive fan of indie anthologies, or enjoy the creative crew while those turned off by these features should heed caution.
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