Director: Douglas A. Plomitallo
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Trying to get some inspiration, a struggling writer attempts to use a series of trick-or-treaters who visit her as inspiration for her upcoming work.
Review:
Halloween House-After a haunted house worker and his greedy boss skimp out on paying him because he didn’t follow the rules, a former employee seeks retribution with a gruesome twist. Overall, this was a fairly intriguing and somewhat enjoyable way to start this one. The central story has a solid enough starting point, offering the attempt at firing him going awry and then trying to use the local settings to provide some generally chilling scenes. While it comes off nicely enough with the gore, and it ends in a way that really uses the haunted house attraction to its advantage, this is a bit too short to do anything else here beyond focus on the cliched outcome that can be guessed rather easily, but it’s not enough to really hold this down.
Predator: The True Horrors of Halloween-Meeting up with a stranger on the streets, a kid is lured back to his house for some treats, only to come across a shocking reveal about his true self. This was a fairly simple and rather obvious one-note type of segment, where it’s too obvious to be anything other than the simply obvious route, it’s going the second this tries to introduce any kind of outside element into this story. It works well enough as a short burst story leading into that kind of twist with a series of intriguing enough ideas at play, but the practical effects look super cheesy and don’t land as well as they should, dampening the ending.
Talking to the Dead-Trying to spice up their Halloween night party, a group of girls use an Ouija board to connect with their friend who passed away due to a tragic accident last Halloween. This segment may be the best one out of them and has a lot to like. The simple setup featured here, involving the rude teens and their lack of respect for the traditions of the night, being given their comeuppance and turning a series of secrets on each other, is classic holiday shenanigans. As it slowly transpires what the secret is and how everything is flipped on its head, the different concepts at play and the impact they have on everything taking place offer up some fun. Again, it’s somewhat too short to make much of an impression, but that’s not too detrimental.
Pumpkin Night-Living together after getting married, a man grows to resent his new wife to the point of ensuring he gets away with her inheritance scot-free, only to soon meet with a bizarre supernatural revenge. This was a decent enough effort that comes together well enough. The back-and-forth nature of the different reactions to the revelations about their relationship and how much money they're going to get, which sets in motion how the revenge is going to come off, where the concept plays into the holiday theme rather nicely. While that comes off well enough, its forced reveal and feeling of being brought up out of nowhere make for a generally rushed feeling. Combined with the weak effects featured here, it does have some issues, even though they’re not enough to derail it completely.
Coronaween-Passing out candy on Halloween, a woman who is terrified of the pandemic tries to ensure she stays safe from what’s going on while trying to also stay safe from the escaped killer in the area. This is a pretty dire segment that doesn’t have much going for it. The interactions with the killer and the stalking scenes, focusing on the decent enough gore for this type of brief story, are well enough for what it is, but the rest of this one is underwhelming. The idea of the segment revolving around COVID-19, paranoia, and a sense of justice to what's going on, where she gets a taste of how she treats others, is quite haphazard and pretty bad overall. The story also has too many plot holes, as it doesn’t set up the killer or why they are even there, which leaves this severely underwhelming.
Killer Date-Enjoying a private date at his home, a man and a mute woman, deciding to end the evening, they are constantly interrupted from their true plans as they are each forced to bring out their true selves. This was a decent enough way to end this one, even if there are some slight issues. The central idea about each interrupted attempt to commit murder and generally getting more frustrated by the increasing number of tactics preventing him from accomplishing it does get somewhat comical as the ideas progress, yet that seems to make the whole thing more obvious than it really should. That this goes for an obvious enough version of a twist based on the setup is the problem, since so many have tried thinking this is a twist, so it has little effect, and while it’s got some decent gore, it's a slight letdown.
Overview: ***/5
A rather likable and enjoyable indie anthology, there’s a lot to like here in these segments, while being let down by a few parts that are involved in making for the flawed sections here. Those who appreciate this kind of genre effort in general or who are huge anthology fans will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment