Chills Down Your Spine – review

Director: Mathew Kister

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

The portmanteau Shivers Down Your Spine was a good fun, obviously budget restricted, indie horror anthology (with the score being let down as the vampire segment was one of the weaker in the film).

It was also lengthy, coming in at around the 2-hour mark, this apparently set a challenge and this sequel comes in at round about the 2-hours and fifty-minutes mark. It is also a quality step-up from the previous film and whilst it does have its moments (a tendency to gratuitous nudity and a toilet gag opening) it is a worthwhile anthology with some nice fourth wall breaks and even advertising its own, un-shot as of yet, third part.

the killer and the genie

The opening sees a serial killer (Benito Garcia) on the toilet. The audience is offered a view of tp stuck between his cheeks when the toilet doesn’t flush and he investigates to find a lamp in the cistern. He takes it, rubs it and summons genie Sabihah (Megan Shepard) and manages to imobilise her with the first wish. Meanwhile Jeff (Steve Eaton), who had the wishes in the first film, has won enough tickets via an arcade to get another genie lamp. When he rubs it, however, he doesn’t get Sabihah but her sister Mahktoonah (also Megan Shepard). His wish for her to cover her boobs (echoing the first film) fails as something can only ever be wished for once. They go on a road trip to find (and rescue) Sabihah.

June and Tiffany

In this there are two tales that grab our attention. The first being Bed and Breakfast, which sees a woman, June (Anastasia August), arriving at a bed and breakfast hotel in a storm. The place is a sumptuous, gothic building and the butler (Simon Lovell) is full of charm. She has broken down and the storm has taken out the hotel’s phoneline. So, having given her a towel, he offers her a bed for the night – free of charge – and a lift to town in the morning. He mentions that he is preparing dinner for the other guests.

turn in shock

She enters a room but walks in on a woman, Tiffany (Roxcy Rowen), leaving the bathroom in just her panties, and realises it is the wrong room. A brief conversation indicates that she has also broken down – though the butler has charged her for the room – and dinner is to be lobster. June goes to her room and we see her putting a ribbon in her hair, whilst otherwise naked. She thinks she hears a noise behind her, once, twice and then sees a cadaverous visage behind her in the mirror. Turning, nothing is there and, putting it down to tiredness, she goes to bed.

a Tiffany cocktail

On waking, however, there is no water in the pitcher by the bed and so she goes out to find some, wearing an open lacy robe and nothing else – as you do (the nudity in this piece is fairly gratuitous). On finding the butler, sat with his back to her at the dinner table, he eventually says they have no water – the only thing to drink is blood. On turning he is the cadaverous creature and he is holding Tiffany’s severed head with a straw in it. How will June escape…

hunting the thief

Whilst he is not definitively a vampire, we do have a face-changing aspect and drinking of blood and, so, it is as likely as otherwise. The other segment of interest, The Whirlpool of Night, is definitely vampire and shot in black and white, in a way that brings films like Sin City to mind. A thief, Nora (Hannah Dolezal), is being hunted by a gunwoman with a cowl and a cross shaped face-piece. The assassin has been called by a mob boss (Michelle Schrage) in case Nora reneged on a job she had no choice but do.

Julia Farrell as Payne

The job involved stealing something from a politician’s wife, Veronica Payne (Julia Farrell). Unfortunately the grounds are heavily guarded, the security tight and Nora has a tight deadline. She decides therefore to stroll through the front door, applying for a position with the woman despite (or perhaps due to) knowing her predilection for debauchery – with a view to getting into her bed and thus close to the object. Payne, however, is not only debauched but a vampire.

vampire victim

The two shorts we are interested in are strong in a field of strong shorts. Bed and Breakfast is simply sumptuously shot and beautiful to look at, with some great lighting used. It isn’t complicated and does employ an overused trope at the end but it all works rather well. The Whirlpool of Night’s biggest issue is that there was scope for so much more within it. I really liked the idea of the all-female cast in this one and the mob boss, the vampire and Norah herself all deserved further exploration within a longer story. Be that as it may, these were good shorts in an anthology that certainly upped its game. In close to three hours I wasn’t bored and happily give the two vampire shorts 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK