2 out of 5

Directed by: Various

An anthology film.  The framing story is pointless, generic, and boringly executed, and there’s a general lack of feeling like these shorts belong together besides being presented under one banner – and indeed, they’re apparently from different times and sources, not requested for the film, so that’s that.  What’s frustrating / interesting about this is that none of the shorts are inherently bad (maybe the ABCs of Death entry), but when A and C are slapped together without B, it rankles and affects our faith in either half, regardless of their potential as a solo act.  Too wordy?  Anyhow, we should be thankful that something gives us the ability to see some flicks that otherwise probably would only get viewings at festivals, but the framing forces us to view it as something to be framed, at it shouldn’t have been.  Something something grumble.  Here:

Wraparound tale: a girl finds a VHS tape left on her doorstep, watches it, and it contains the following films.  The creepster who leaves the tape has a “scary” pumpkin mask.  The fact that we even cut back to scenes with this girl is ridiculous.

Jack Attack: If you watch it for anything, watch it for this.  Unexpected, with great effects and the kind of shot setup that has you just waiting for any shoe to drop… and when it does, it’s all out bloody fun.  Babysitter and babysat carve up a pumpkin and discuss scooping out its “brains.”  I know, my quotes and the title make you think you know where this is going.

The Last Halloween: Some type of post-apocalyptic Halloween, with kids you really shouldn’t give candy to.  Great costumes, but there was a lot here that was treated too subtly for a short; shedding some of those details or focusing on others could’ve sharpened the effect.

The Offering: Well executed and acted, but not much else.  Father and son nervously drive to reach a destination before midnight.

M is for Masochist: A carnival where you throw knives at people.  Cheap and dumb.

Descent: A girl gets trapped in an elevator with a man she fears is a killer.  You can sort of sense how this one will end up, but the elevator scene is appropriately tense.  Similar to Offering in that its well made, but too isolated to be notable.

A Boy’s Life: Monsters under the bed.  This one was a drag.  I appreciate the attempt to do slowburn for a jump scare, but the Is It Real? quality never really worked in the way I think the creators intended it, and the short was given way too much runtime for what’s really one of the most traditional horror setups.

Alexia: Facebook is stalking you.  This one was fun.  A lot of horror mines the same territory, so visual flair helps; Alexia actually spruced up chat / computer sequences (while looking like believable chat / computer sequences) and scored its scares with some quality editing and makeup.

Mr. Tricker’s Treat: Man makes realistic Halloween decorations.  I dunno.  The “gritty” filmmaking style turned me off from the start.

So bloopy bloop, not counting the wraparound, that’s 8 bits, 2 out of which were worth the runtime.  Toodle-oo!