Directed by: Ox Johnson
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
Oh my… With the caveat that it can’t be easy making a film, especially for newcomers, this is just really so amateurish that it ticked all the wrong boxes for me.
It is a horror anthology, it is clearly meant to be a comedy but it had sound issues, technical faux pas, bad wigs, awful dialogue, rubbish acting, a lack of narrative vision – the list can go on and on.
So, the premise is that a couple of girls get a group of guys over for a party (clearly during the day by the light spilling through the front door). Some dancing and they tell each other scary stories (the segments) and then (no surprise) become embroiled in their own massacre. There are two specific stories we are looking at; Anna the Vampire and Bella the Demon Succubus. Yup the titles are that imaginative.
So looking at Anna (Heather Pritschau) we start with two guys walking down the street. They spot a girl, Anna, and one dismisses his homie and talks to the girl, getting her to come with him for a photography session. He gets her to partially disrobe and then throws clothes at her and tells her to get changed in the bathroom. In the bathroom she apparently has no reflection (the angle wasn’t great but that was clearly the aim).
What we also get through this is him repeating to her “You strange, aren’t you? You strange” It is the primary dialogue that is repeated ad nauseum and, when his friend appears at the apartment he also says “She strange”. That isn’t good dialogue… at all… it shows that there was no imagination used (and might have been poor adlibbing). Anyway, he and his friend are going to rape her – and this isn’t a bold move to have a rape revenge movie, the film just trades in misogyny. The plot doesn’t change when a third friend arrives.
So, after her not showing up on the digital camera, the film contrives to have her alone with each man in the tiny flat and she kills them, with her fangs showing. Blood effects being some of the worst post-production SFX blood spatter I’ve seen. The photographer is last and he manages to shoot her (underpowered gun sound and post production wounds, though to be fair Heather Pritschau actually moved as though being hit), after reacting to the ‘carnage’ of his friends’ corpses in the most underwhelming way. She eats him. Fin.
It’s hardly a story so let us turn to Bella. A flash of light and Bella appears in our world at night, naked. A man happens across her and she sucks the lifeforce out of him – so energy vampire activity. Five nights later (we get intertitles to tell us the passage of time in each story, even down to telling us that it is 2 minutes later) she is now clothed and walking with her boyfriend. He promises her a surprise… which is giving her over to two friends so they can rape her – see what I mean about a run of misogyny. We also get rape or rape fantasy in other stories, as well as sexual assault.
So she runs away and then essentially kills each one as they come looking for her. Sucking the life out of two and blowing her boyfriend up (who is the second she gets). And that’s it. Fin. Yes, essentially the same story, probably because there is barely a story. The acting in every segment is risible, there are so many bad wigs (as the same actors recycle through the segments) that it is untrue and the dialogue is awful. The sound does drop out, I just wish it had in the parts where a beep (clearly from a fire alarm whose battery was dying) peppered the film.
So, not great, not by a long shot. Indeed, it is absolutely blooming awful on every turn and so will probably, somehow, develop a cult following – it has spawned a sequel. I really have no choice. 0 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
It is a horror anthology, it is clearly meant to be a comedy but it had sound issues, technical faux pas, bad wigs, awful dialogue, rubbish acting, a lack of narrative vision – the list can go on and on.
 |
| party |
So, the premise is that a couple of girls get a group of guys over for a party (clearly during the day by the light spilling through the front door). Some dancing and they tell each other scary stories (the segments) and then (no surprise) become embroiled in their own massacre. There are two specific stories we are looking at; Anna the Vampire and Bella the Demon Succubus. Yup the titles are that imaginative.
 |
| no reflection |
So looking at Anna (Heather Pritschau) we start with two guys walking down the street. They spot a girl, Anna, and one dismisses his homie and talks to the girl, getting her to come with him for a photography session. He gets her to partially disrobe and then throws clothes at her and tells her to get changed in the bathroom. In the bathroom she apparently has no reflection (the angle wasn’t great but that was clearly the aim).
 |
| not on camera |
What we also get through this is him repeating to her “You strange, aren’t you? You strange” It is the primary dialogue that is repeated ad nauseum and, when his friend appears at the apartment he also says “She strange”. That isn’t good dialogue… at all… it shows that there was no imagination used (and might have been poor adlibbing). Anyway, he and his friend are going to rape her – and this isn’t a bold move to have a rape revenge movie, the film just trades in misogyny. The plot doesn’t change when a third friend arrives.
 |
| attack |
So, after her not showing up on the digital camera, the film contrives to have her alone with each man in the tiny flat and she kills them, with her fangs showing. Blood effects being some of the worst post-production SFX blood spatter I’ve seen. The photographer is last and he manages to shoot her (underpowered gun sound and post production wounds, though to be fair Heather Pritschau actually moved as though being hit), after reacting to the ‘carnage’ of his friends’ corpses in the most underwhelming way. She eats him. Fin.
 |
| sucking energy |
It’s hardly a story so let us turn to Bella. A flash of light and Bella appears in our world at night, naked. A man happens across her and she sucks the lifeforce out of him – so energy vampire activity. Five nights later (we get intertitles to tell us the passage of time in each story, even down to telling us that it is 2 minutes later) she is now clothed and walking with her boyfriend. He promises her a surprise… which is giving her over to two friends so they can rape her – see what I mean about a run of misogyny. We also get rape or rape fantasy in other stories, as well as sexual assault.
 |
| Bella the Demon Succubus |
So she runs away and then essentially kills each one as they come looking for her. Sucking the life out of two and blowing her boyfriend up (who is the second she gets). And that’s it. Fin. Yes, essentially the same story, probably because there is barely a story. The acting in every segment is risible, there are so many bad wigs (as the same actors recycle through the segments) that it is untrue and the dialogue is awful. The sound does drop out, I just wish it had in the parts where a beep (clearly from a fire alarm whose battery was dying) peppered the film.
So, not great, not by a long shot. Indeed, it is absolutely blooming awful on every turn and so will probably, somehow, develop a cult following – it has spawned a sequel. I really have no choice. 0 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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