Halloween Horror Tales – review

Director: Jeff Kirkendall

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

Jeff Kirkendall is a budget filmmaker and I have reviewed a few of his films now. I think it a measure of the man that he commented on my review of Terror of the Master, saying that he has enjoyed my reviews of the films – they have not scored high but I always try to give an honest review and see the positives in a vehicle. He directed me to this anthology film that he released in 2018.

a victim

The quality of story varied, and they were clearly budget but it was the final segment that interests us, as that was a vampire tale called The Hunt. Perhaps not as inventive as some of the segments (I was rather taken by The Horror Hostess) it actually made the segments feel cohesive by having the Host (Marie DeLorenzo) of the anthology a part of this story, as Elizabeth, despite this being released as a short three years before the anthology.

Tim Hatch as Darren

It starts with a flash to Elizabeth, a dream of an attack on her by a vampire and being found by her husband Darren (Tim Hatch, Terror of the Master, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter, The Temptress Four Nights at Fear Forest & Sharkula) – it is his dream and he is haunted by her murder. Meanwhile cops are removing a body from a house – one of a series of murders being investigated by FBI agent Leanna Stark (Deana Demko, The Ironbound Vampire & Requiem for a Vampire).

Florence Steinberg as Camille

Graveyard caretaker Cyrus Linden (James Carolus, also Terror of the Master, The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter and Sharkula) knows more than he is letting on – something Darren has realised – and eventually spills the beans about the visit of a mysterious woman called Camille (Florence Steinberg) who he invited in without knowing what she was and is now living out of his shed. She, of course, is the vampire that Darren is determined to kill.

fangs

The story, generally, was fairly simple but was loaded with a nice twist to a motivation, What struck me more than anything was that it really felt that, whilst simple, it could easily have been expanded into a feature and would have worked – indeed the extra time would have allowed for more of an investigative side and exploration of character that would have added to the experience. Of course, it is still low budget and the segment carries that baggage with it, but it showed promise. 3 out of 10 for the segment, with a thought that if extended – even with the lack of budget and the stagy acting – it might well have scored more.

The imdb page is here.