The Theatre Bizarre (2011)

Down a seedy city street in her neighborhood, young Enola Penny is obsessed with what appears to be a long abandoned theatre. One night, she sees that the front door is slightly ajar and ... See full summary »

Directors:

Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo,

Writers:

Zach Chassler (screenplay), Richard Stanley (screenplay),

Stars:

Udo Kier, Virginia Newcomb, Amanda Marquardt

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Udo Kier	...	Peg Poett (framing segments)
Virginia Newcomb	...	Enola Penny (framing segments)
Amanda Marquardt	...	Squalid Woman (framing segments)
Amelia M. Gotham	...	Gypsy (framing segments) (as Amelia Gotham)
Jeremy Gladen	...	Naked Man (framing segments)
Liberty Larson	...	Little Girl (framing segments)
Christopher Sachs	...	Groom (framing segments)
Nicole Fabbri	...	Bride (framing segments)
Catriona MacColl	...	Mere Antoinette (segment "The Mother Of Toads")
Shane Woodward	...	Martin (segment "The Mother Of Toads")
Victoria Maurette	...	Karina (segment "The Mother Of Toads")
Lisa Belle	...	The Naked Witch (segment "The Mother Of Toads") (as Lisa Crawford)
Amelie Salomon	...	The Monster (segment "The Mother Of Toads") (as Amélie Salomon)
André Hennicke	...	Axel (segment "I Love You")
Suzan Anbeh	...	Mo (segment "I Love You")

Storyline

Down a seedy city street in her neighborhood, young Enola Penny is obsessed with what appears to be a long abandoned theatre. One night, she sees that the front door is slightly ajar and impulsively decides to sneak inside. But there in the dark, decrepit auditorium, a show unlike any other unfolds before her eyes. Its host is an eerie human puppet named Peg Poett who will introduce Penny to six tales of the bizarre: A couple traveling in a remote part of the French Pyrenees cross paths with a lustful witch; A paranoid lover faces the wrath of a partner who has been pushed to her limit; The Freudian dreams of an unfaithful husband blur the lines between fantasy and reality; The horrors of the real world are interpreted through the mind of a child; A woman addicted to other people's memories gets her fix through the vitreous fluid of her victims' eyeballs; And a perverse obsession with sweets turns sour for a couple in too deep. But as the stories unfold, something much stranger is ...

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Plot Keywords:

theatre | witch | cross | puppet | dream | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Image Entertainment [us] Official Twitter

Country:

USA France Canada

Language:

English French

Release Date:

9 May 2012 (France)

Also Known As:

To theatro tou tromou

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Severin Films, Metaluna Productions, Nightscape Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min 108 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The segment "I Love You" was shot in five days.

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Quotes

Dr. Maurey: What about the girl of your dreams? The one with the Lovecraftian vagina. Is she anybody you know in your waking life?

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Soundtracks

"Ain't We Got Fun?"
Music Richard A. Whiting
Lyric Ray Egan & Gus Kahn
Performed By Marquis W. Howell, II

User Reviews

Hit and Miss Horror Anthology

I will start off by saying that I am a huge horror anthology fan, so I went into this film very excited. There are all up 7 short films- (including the wrap-around story Theatre Guignol) and I will rate them one-by-one.

Mother Of Toads- Visually impressive, and moderately tense short, but lacks depth, and does drag on a bit towards the end-(any time you are watching a short film and get bored, you are doing something wrong). 3/10. Not a good start.

I Love You- COnsidering the fact the story is so derivative and played- out, the clever script and the solid acting saves this short from being a disaster. The ending is very predictable, and the short just did nothing for me. 4/10. At this point... I was sighing very heavily.

Bad Dreams- OK, when I saw this was directed by Tom Savini, I got very excited, and had high hopes it was all good from here. And after the opening dream sequence, I thought to my self "This is gonna be awesome". But I was wrong, what follows is a confusing and extremely dull short that goes absolutely nowhere. 2/10. By this stage, I was falling asleep.

The Accident- Yawning to myself, I saw the next short was directed by Douglas Buck. This also got me interested, as Buck was responsible for the excellent short film "Cutting Moments", but after the Savini disaster, I wasn't getting too excited. However, this was truly a beautiful short. It's not a horror, but just an absolutely wonderfully written and directed short that even your Grandma could truly appreciate. It is by for one of the best shorts I have ever seen, and it is worth getting the DVD purely for it. 10/10

Vision Stains- Brilliant idea that was not done as well as it should have been. Major let down. 3/10

Sweets- Much like I Love You, it's a played out idea, that has enough creepiness to keep you interested. It's all good until the unbelievably tacky final scene where they are sitting at the table. So cheesy. 6/10

Theatre Guignol-(Bizarre)- Udo Kier as a marionette. Nuff' said. That is creepy. 7/10

Was hoping for more, but it is worth getting, purely for "The Accident".