Director: Dale Fabrigar
Release date: 2023
Contains spoilers
Release date: 2023
Contains spoilers
Very Frightening Tales is an anthology made up of what seems to be a series (of 5 episodes, according to the series IMDb page) supplemented with a couple of shorts from the same filmmakers – the segment, the Delivery seems to have an IMDb page as a short under the title Lullaby. None of the segments are overtly vampiric but we do get close enough in two segments for me to review the film.
The first I want to look at is the aforementioned the Delivery. Now this is the flimsier of the two, as regards it being vampiric, and it might have been a “Use of Tropes” article had it not been for the second segment. After an intertitle tying the segment to a Philippine heritage, it begins with a mother (Noreen Lanie) putting her baby down. She hears knocking and ringing at the door and opens it to find a package left on the step.
The package has Philippine stamps on it and inside it has packaging in leaf, with something wrapped in leaf also and tied with twine. Unwrapping that she finds a fetish. She rings her mom (Roczane Enriquez, Vampariah), the connection is bad but she describes the statue and mom says not to touch it (too late) as it contains an evil spirit and warns about the baby. We have seen movement and the baby monitor shows movement. She rushes and gets the baby but then we see the lights go out, her eyes glassed over and a flash of a face with sharp teeth and long tongue. This reminded me of aswang, hence looking at the segment, and the ending suggested possession as she weaves before a shrine created with the fetish.
The second segment to look at is Dinner Rush. The boss (Eric Roberts) is sat as a restaurant table and Melody (Madison Ekstrand) pours him some wine. She asks if he needs anything else before her shift finishes and he asks how she likes her job, suggesting she stay and learn more – how the sausages are made. In comes a man, Mike (Christopher M. Dukes), who describes the job he has just done for the boss – and it is clear it was a hit. Melody brings out a bowl of food that Mike takes a spoonful of.
There is something in it and he draws it out of his mouth and then realises the dish is made up of body parts. This, it becomes clear, is the boss’s way of telling Mike he is to be retired. The telling parts here are that he suggests Mike could be turned, made into something like the boss and also Mike empties a clip into the boss, to no ill effect, only to apologies for a force of habit. His retirement is to be provided by the other patrons, who all develop sharp teeth. Flesh eating, immunity to conventional weaponry and sharp teeth – these could well be either vampires or ghouls, the latter being closely related within the genre as mentioned in other reviews (they are credited as creatures).
The full film is some 57 minutes long, meaning that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. There is a general maintained level of quality between the 7 sections (though the creature in Fortune was perhaps a let down after an interesting premise) but they are perhaps too short to be fully narrative in every case. The review scores for the two vampire(ish) segments and I think they deserve a solid 6 out of 10, with the caveat that they are more vignettes than full stories, both.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
 |
| the package |
The first I want to look at is the aforementioned the Delivery. Now this is the flimsier of the two, as regards it being vampiric, and it might have been a “Use of Tropes” article had it not been for the second segment. After an intertitle tying the segment to a Philippine heritage, it begins with a mother (Noreen Lanie) putting her baby down. She hears knocking and ringing at the door and opens it to find a package left on the step.
 |
| perhaps an aswang |
The package has Philippine stamps on it and inside it has packaging in leaf, with something wrapped in leaf also and tied with twine. Unwrapping that she finds a fetish. She rings her mom (Roczane Enriquez, Vampariah), the connection is bad but she describes the statue and mom says not to touch it (too late) as it contains an evil spirit and warns about the baby. We have seen movement and the baby monitor shows movement. She rushes and gets the baby but then we see the lights go out, her eyes glassed over and a flash of a face with sharp teeth and long tongue. This reminded me of aswang, hence looking at the segment, and the ending suggested possession as she weaves before a shrine created with the fetish.
 |
| Madison Ekstrand as Melody |
The second segment to look at is Dinner Rush. The boss (Eric Roberts) is sat as a restaurant table and Melody (Madison Ekstrand) pours him some wine. She asks if he needs anything else before her shift finishes and he asks how she likes her job, suggesting she stay and learn more – how the sausages are made. In comes a man, Mike (Christopher M. Dukes), who describes the job he has just done for the boss – and it is clear it was a hit. Melody brings out a bowl of food that Mike takes a spoonful of.
 |
| sharp teeth |
There is something in it and he draws it out of his mouth and then realises the dish is made up of body parts. This, it becomes clear, is the boss’s way of telling Mike he is to be retired. The telling parts here are that he suggests Mike could be turned, made into something like the boss and also Mike empties a clip into the boss, to no ill effect, only to apologies for a force of habit. His retirement is to be provided by the other patrons, who all develop sharp teeth. Flesh eating, immunity to conventional weaponry and sharp teeth – these could well be either vampires or ghouls, the latter being closely related within the genre as mentioned in other reviews (they are credited as creatures).
 |
| Eric Roberts as the boss |
The full film is some 57 minutes long, meaning that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. There is a general maintained level of quality between the 7 sections (though the creature in Fortune was perhaps a let down after an interesting premise) but they are perhaps too short to be fully narrative in every case. The review scores for the two vampire(ish) segments and I think they deserve a solid 6 out of 10, with the caveat that they are more vignettes than full stories, both.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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