Director: Dan Brownlie, David V.G. Davies, Andy Edwards
Year: 2016 (2012 release as Three's a Shroud)
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Three's a Shroud on original release before the unauthorized reissue
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Staying late with her charge, a babysitter tells her charge a series of horrific stories to put him to bed, told by a slew of talented genre filmmakers.
Review:
Don't Open the Door-Trying to work through their struggling marriage, a man tries to make sense of his wife’s cryptic request one evening. This was a decent enough segment with some positive points. The idea of the marriage being strained through their interactions and conversations with each other, which includes hints at previous infidelities, is a fine touch to give them a strong grounding before getting to the main phone call with the titular instructions, trying to ensure something terrifying doesn’t happen. This creates some increasing tension with the frantic responses to the cryptic message and the exasperated guest on the outside trying to get in that builds this along rather well, if only it had the time to develop something coherent with it not having much room to breathe or explain what’s going on which is what brings it down.
Over Developed-Working on a new shoot, a photographer obsessed with one of the models tries whatever he can to silence the murderous voices in his head. This was a bit of a misstep, but it has enough to be somewhat worthwhile throughout here. The central concept about the murderous voice in his head trying to drive him along to make sure he can have the woman of his dreams is the kind of short-sighted psychological mindset that this type of segment thrives on, especially with the implications that everything’s being driven by an unfaithful relationship. It feels appropriately dark and eerie, but it’s not nearly as warranted as it seems with the revelation that the murderous clown demon is the one responsible for everything, which is so cheesy and unthreatening that there’s little about it worth saving.
The Time Traveler's Knife-Hosting a special party after hours, a barmaid and her friends find themselves terrorized by time-traveling versions of themselves. This was a mildly disappointing, if overall intriguing, segment to end this on. The central idea of the various interactions taking place with a time-traveling doppelganger of themselves is a great touch, making it unclear who’s from which timeline and what they know as we spy on the group at different times throughout the night, and how events are manipulated by going through time. It’s just immensely confusing and hard to keep everything straight about what’s going on, as the shortened running time and brisk ending hardly ever allow the time to ensure we know what’s going on.
Two's Company-Staying late with her charge, a babysitter tells her charge a series of horrific stories to put him to bed. Overall, this was a decent enough if somewhat problematic wraparound. The main setup of this one provides the perfect opportunity for a launching pad in an anthology with the potential for using the stories to the child as the lead-in for the shorts to appear from these conversations. It might have a predictable ending twist, but there’s still enough fun to be had with the resolution, and there's a lot to like. It feels way too bizarrely cast where the babysitter is far too old for this kind of perk, being supposedly a teenage character played by someone far older, much like the mother in her brief appearance. These are the slightest issues present, keeping it down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A fairly fun and likable enough indie anthology, there aren’t too many issues here to keep it down, which makes this a rather strong and overall enjoyable indie anthology effort. Give it a shot if you appreciate this style of genre fare, enjoy anthology films overall, or are a fan of the creative crew, while most others out there should heed caution.
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