Director: Derek Braasch, Will Devokees, Marcelo Fabani, James Paneta
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Finding a special notebook, a man starts to recite stories about people in the filmmaking industry who suffer bizarre fates.
Review:
The Director's Demise-Tired of his behavior, a woman sets out to make sure he pays for the series of indiscretions and deviant behavior he’s carried out in the past against others in the industry. Overall, this is a nice, short, and sweet entry to get this going. The central premise about getting what’s coming to the host and how their amoral behavior deserves the retribution they receive is a perfectly valid one, shown off by his handling of a film crew on the set of their latest film by mocking, demeaning, and insulting those trying to do their job and being abusive to those who stand up to him. This sets up the revenge portion, where the finale brings his lustful behavior around on him in full force with the reveal about who’s actually in charge and why he’s being taken out, resulting in some encounters throughout here with the outcomes offering some brutal moments. It’s quite short and seems to be over before you realize it, even while telling the complete story, making for a fun, brief starting point.
The Producer's Plight-Trying to get a new movie going, a producer finds herself dealing with an unscrupulous lot trying to make sure the right candidates are chosen for the role. As the longest segment here, this one comes off better than it should, even with some minor drawbacks. The background information on the depraved nature of Hollywood and what goes into a normal casting process makes for a great touch, highlighting the seeds of betrayal, personal profit, and a general backstabbing nature that each individual is willing to go to make their dreams in the business come true. This makes for a solid series of engagements where she tries to make deals with others to get the production off the ground, the nefarious deals she's being forced to entertain to accomplish everything, and what it all means for her to get the project going while featuring plenty of outrageous characters looking for their cut. This is gruesome and bloody enough once the segment starts to feature the humiliated actor coming back for what happened to him, but with so many characters to keep track of, it feels more like something that could’ve been fleshed out a little more or even dropped a few subplots. Still, this one has a lot to like.
The Writer's Woe-Desperate to return to the business, a successful former screenwriter tries to get his career going again, only to find himself stuck writing a puff piece documentary for a bitter producer. This was a fine overall feature if only lacking in urgency. The central setup is fantastic, with a former writer looking to get back into the industry and being forced to work with a shady producer who sells him on working for a sham documentary to make some money for a surgery she desperately needs, only to come across a piece of material in his research that could land him in trouble with the wrong crowd. That’s a perfect starting place for something here, especially once we get the exact purpose and origins of the book in question. It’s just that this takes so long getting to that point, from the scenes of him wandering around his property and trying to feed his pets to meeting with his producer on the phone, which just has so little happening that it can feel a lot longer than it should. As well, some of his actions are a bit confusing, mainly from the desire to make sure the book provides him with monetary compensation for no reason, but a fun coda giving context to everything allows for a nice bit of fun.
The Makeup Artist's Misfortune-Returning home from work, a make-up artist finds a former associate who’s now badly scarred from her handiwork seeking revenge on her for how he ended up. On the whole, this was a pretty solid way to end things. With the fun setup involving the woman coming to the house and meeting up with the scarred visage of her former associate, who’s looking for revenge, setting up a desperate situation to get free of what he wants her to do, setting up a classic revenge scenario where it all comes back to haunt her for a past indiscretion. which makes for a solid and thrilling cat-and-mouse thriller tale that is quite fun to see play out once it involves the sense of revenge coming to fruition. With some nice gore and make-up effects present, this is a lot of fun, even if it does present the weakest connection to the concept at hand. The tenuous nature of her being a make-up artist is really all that makes this connect to the central theme, as everything else could’ve been a jealous ex seeking to get back at his partner, so it all makes the connection here a little flimsy. Otherwise, this was a fairly solid segment.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely effective and likable anthology effort, this one comes together rather nicely and with quite a lot of positives here, with only one segment being disappointing, even with everything having some positives. Those with an interest in this style of genre fare to begin with, who appreciate indie anthologies, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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