The Ezzera & Gore-Girl Horror Anthology – review

Director: Brandon Rhiness

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

Another anthology made of shorts, although in this case the shorts were all previously directed by Brandon Rhiness and he is bringing those together into one vehicle.

The surround sees a woman looking through the belongings of her deceased parents and finding a video of a cable TV show hosted by Ezzera (Julia Van Dam) and her sidekick Hellenore the Gore-Girl (Paige Hounsome). Making the shorts fit the VHS nature and cable sourcing does help hide some of the budget issues with this and the stories tend to the interesting, though some are too short for their own good.

the date

There are two that particularly interest us. The first is Bloodbath, which sees Victoria (Julie Whelan) and her unusual condition. The first time we see her she is on a date with Roland (Rohit Kataria), which does go well. There is an unspoken timing stipulation to her dates, which we become aware of as she wakes in his bed. He asks, shocked, what has happened to her face (we don’t see).

the solution

Her condition only gets worse, first there seems to be spots or sores and eventually we see that she seems to be actively rotting. There is a cure, of course, and the clue is in the title and there is a reason why we are looking at the film here. This is, then, a riff on the Erzsébet Báthory story. Beyond that the segment does nothing new or shocking but it is always good to see this story tackled.

suffering from the hunger

The second segment that interests us is The Hunger. Cora (Sarah Louise), a young woman estranged from her mother (Cathy Long), has just split with her boyfriend (Riley Andrews). She is asked if she is ok, looking pale, and replies that she has a hunger. As the segment progresses she is eating obsessively but can’t seem to satisfy it. Strangers seem to be approaching her telling her that she is hungry and should eat… There is a way to satisfy it and, suffice it to say, this relies on The History of Sidi Nu’uman, from the Arabian Nights, and its Western reinterpretation by Hoffmann, Vampirismus.

Julia Van Dam as Ezerra

The two stories work but are not the most interesting in the film. They do belie their own low budget, especially The Hunger, which has a great sense of unease as the strangers approach Cora. I think 5 out of 10 for them is fair. The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK