Director: Luz Cabrales
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Looking to lie low after a crime, a group of robbers seek shelter in a strange old man’s house, where his stories about the antiques inside spark their curiosity to check out the other dangerous items in his house.
Review:
Mother-Taking her stepson out to dinner, a couple hosts a dinner date at a strange restaurant where it becomes obvious something supernatural might be haunting the establishment. This was a fairly underwhelming and lackluster way to start this one. The main idea is about ghost children haunting the inner workings of a restaurant and coming to a kid who’s already unnerved by being on a date with his stepmom, before introducing a ghost into the equation with the backstory about the restaurant being haunted. These are atmospheric enough and have a lot to like with the genuinely unnerving encounters having some great moments involved, but it’s all too brief to make much of an impression with little build-up to what’s going on, what they want him for, and much of anything else in the segment, which is the only issue here.
Nancy-Taking care of his daughter for the day, an absentee father brings her along to a special trolley car where he works, but soon confronts a supernatural entity haunting the location. This was a rather confusing entry that does have some positive points. There are some impressive atmospheric touches here included including the different interactions involving the characters obsessed with the trolley car, where the majority of the horror action takes place, which gives this some enjoyable features. Beyond that, this one just had to get into with the timeline here being incredibly hard to make out what’s going on, whether we’re stuck in the present or the past due to the ghost being present, and the whole thing is too short to fully explain what purpose or connection everything has. This one could’ve been more fun if it had had a bit more time to sell everything.
The Dancer-Preparing for a play opening, a woman trying to make sense of her connection to her rival finds that their presence at the theater has triggered a supernatural entity to seek them out. Overall, this was better than expected, with some worthwhile factors. The central idea of the duo is trying to get their relationship under control while being able to find the cursed aspect of the stage that works to her advantage. Once that brings about the opportunity to use it to her advantage, that gives this one the opportunity to go for the surreal performance art that takes place where the possessed dancers are grabbed by the ghost, which is immensely fun and thrilling. Some of the ideas presented here do make this run into an overly familiar and routine setup, especially with the concept where it goes for the unscrupulous underling hoping to knock off the more seasoned lead to get what she wants, but it’s a minor factor.
The Banshee’s Song-Looking to lie low after a crime, a group of robbers seek shelter in a strange old man’s house, where his stories about the antiques inside spark their curiosity to check out the other dangerous items in his house. This was a rather weak way to end the film. The fact that this works as a solid wraparound segment where the means of using the items inside to try setting up the stories to be told is a great touch and is a far better resource for its time than what it tries to do afterward. There are some likable factors here with the ghostly creatures coming after the group, which has a lot to like had it been given a proper segment within the film instead of being presented as the fourth and final segment, which lasts far longer than the other pieces here and stands out for that reason.
Overview: **.5/5
An intriguing if overall problematic anthology, there’s enough to like here, which holds this one up over a few slightly problematic and irritating segments that hold this one back. 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.
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