Director: Maggie Levin, Johannes Roberts, Flying Lotus, Tyler MacIntyre, Vanessa Winter, Joseph Winter
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
A series of found-footage shorts set around the end of the millennium.
Review:
Shredding-Wanting to celebrate a special anniversary, a band attempts to sneak into a legendary venue to play a private show, only to meet the ghostly residents trapped there. This was a generally troublesome and uninvolving way to start things. The only things worthwhile here stem from the final minutes when the ghoulish figures of the dead band return and go on a rampage, which has some genuinely gruesome and brutal moments, ripping people to pieces. Beyond that, hardly anything happens as the group we’re following isn’t that likable or good enough to be worth following around, as their music isn’t that good, the atmosphere of the situation is glossed over, and hardly any of the action should be recorded in the state they’re in. It all causes this segment to lose its impact overall.
Suicide Bid-After a horrendous sorority experience, a teen’s last-ditch effort to join includes her undergoing a questionable hazing ritual with a gruesome history behind it. There were some bits to like here, but it still suffers somewhat. The opening introduction to the main ritual is a creepy enough viral challenge that leads into the imitation ceremony, complete with a requisite creepy backstory to set the stage for her being buried alive in the coffin. What goes on inside as she freaks out due to the various incidents that take place, including spiders and a visit by the spirit of the story, which has some genuinely chilling imagery involved. This is only undermined by the finale, which drags on for too long, spells out the twist clearly when it didn’t need to, and serves no purpose being videotaped.
Ozzy’s Dungeon-After having his hopes dashed on a game show, a kid’s parents kidnap the host and force him through an increasingly more dangerous series of games for revenge. This was an absolute waste and has no business being in the film. The nostalgia of the game show and its challenges fit into the time period rather nicely, but that's all this one has. The main point of this one isn’t that scary, the revenge for something that’s unimportant means nothing, and the motivation for seeing it through makes the stakes uninteresting. As it just drags on and on with a further uninteresting series of retribution sequences based on what’s going on, it is a highly problematic factor, even though this does provide the only genre quality here with that reveal, but otherwise, there’s little to this one that warrants inclusion.
The Gawkers-Trying to perv on their next-door neighbor, a group of friends try to sneak peeks at her when they can, unaware of her deadly secret hiding inside that gets triggered. Again, this was an absolute waste that has no point being here. The entire purpose of the group is to merely pull lame pranks on each other or stare at the woman in the neighborhood, which is hardly enough to endear us to them or make us care about them. As well, since none of this action is remotely related to genre activity, this all feels even less removed from the type of content required to be scary or imposing. It’s only the final twist that makes this enjoyable, as the monstrous reveal is impressive, creates some likable action, and has a few solid kills to make this one’s only positives.
To Hell and Back-Attempting to cast a spell, cult members inadvertently summoned into a demonic netherworld are forced to enlist a denizen to make it back to reality safely. This was an enjoyable enough way to end this. The situation about getting sucked into a different demonic locale and being forced to make their way through the hellish landscape with the help of an untrustworthy individual is a fine enough setup here. Giving this the chance to utilize some genuinely creepy visuals as well as some decent gore and a nice bit of comedy in the interactions featured throughout, this was a solid enough outing that is let down only by several minor sequences that never should’ve been filmed due to a person’s sense of self-preservation making more of an impact than a need to film everything.
Overview: *.5/5
An immensely underwhelming and wholly mixed bag of an entry, this is a big disappointment due to the underwhelming or even unnecessary segments and only a few likable factors in here. Those with an interest in this style, franchise, or who are hardcore fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, as most others out there should heed extreme caution.
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