I have long enjoyed horror films, though I find the plot twists and atmosphere to be more enjoyable than the gore and the body counts. So I was not certain what to expect from a modern found-footage anthology. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the stories had an underlying theme of duplicity, and depicted people being betrayed by their friends or loved ones. The plot twists were decent, and there was genuine effort to develop some of these characters. I enjoyed most of the segments, but not all of them.:
*"Tape 56" is the film's frame story, and depicts a gang of hoodlums in what turns out to be a suicide mission. A rather forgettable story, featuring interchangeable characters and rather poor dialogue. There was little effort here to depict the characters as individuals, and I found none of them to be interesting.
*"Amateur Night" was a standout. A trio of male jerks pick up two young women for a gang bang, but one of their cuties turns out to be a female demon. I found most of the dialogue here to be painfully bad, but I found Lily the demon to be a memorable character. I love female predators in horror films, and Lily was an interesting mix of a menacing threat and an emotionally vulnerable woman. Great job here by her actress.
*"Second Honeymoon" starts rather slowly, following a vacationing couple in a rather dull sight-seeing tour. But the tensions in their relationship were interesting, as was their habit of never sharing a bed. The story turned out to be a decent variation of the "wolf in sheep's clothing", with the smiling wife having planned her husband's death in advance. The dialogue here was much better, and the execution was genuinely creepy.
*"Tuesday the 17th" is in large part a subversion of typical slasher tropes. A young woman leads her new friends to your typical haunted forest. But they soon realize that she has lied to them about her motivation, and she quickly starts dropping hints about her traumatic past. She is there to confront an old foe, and the "friends" are mere pawns in a lethal game. This is a villain vs. Villain battle, and the "Final Girl" is just as cruel and calculating as the serial killer. The segment has a long list of unresolved questions, but Wendy was a pretty good villain.
*"The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" features a young woman confiding her fears and problems to her long-distance boyfriend. Who turns out to be part of a conspiracy that has been gaslighting her for quite some time. The alien fetus and alien implant in this story would not be out of place in "X-Files", but the tragedy of misplaced trust and misplaced love make this an above average horror story.
*"10/31/98" is a holiday-horror tale, with four partygoers in disguise stumbling into a haunted house, an exorcism attempt, a possessed damsel in distress, and poltergeist phenomena. Much effort was evidently placed in the special effects of this segment, and I appreciated the fact that the damsel quickly started resembling the White Ladies of traditional ghost stories. But there is very little effort at exposition here, and the viewers were left guessing at the motivations of most of the characters. I enjoyed the segment, but I thought it was both too short and too fast-paced.
*"Tape 56" is the film's frame story, and depicts a gang of hoodlums in what turns out to be a suicide mission. A rather forgettable story, featuring interchangeable characters and rather poor dialogue. There was little effort here to depict the characters as individuals, and I found none of them to be interesting.
*"Amateur Night" was a standout. A trio of male jerks pick up two young women for a gang bang, but one of their cuties turns out to be a female demon. I found most of the dialogue here to be painfully bad, but I found Lily the demon to be a memorable character. I love female predators in horror films, and Lily was an interesting mix of a menacing threat and an emotionally vulnerable woman. Great job here by her actress.
*"Second Honeymoon" starts rather slowly, following a vacationing couple in a rather dull sight-seeing tour. But the tensions in their relationship were interesting, as was their habit of never sharing a bed. The story turned out to be a decent variation of the "wolf in sheep's clothing", with the smiling wife having planned her husband's death in advance. The dialogue here was much better, and the execution was genuinely creepy.
*"Tuesday the 17th" is in large part a subversion of typical slasher tropes. A young woman leads her new friends to your typical haunted forest. But they soon realize that she has lied to them about her motivation, and she quickly starts dropping hints about her traumatic past. She is there to confront an old foe, and the "friends" are mere pawns in a lethal game. This is a villain vs. Villain battle, and the "Final Girl" is just as cruel and calculating as the serial killer. The segment has a long list of unresolved questions, but Wendy was a pretty good villain.
*"The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" features a young woman confiding her fears and problems to her long-distance boyfriend. Who turns out to be part of a conspiracy that has been gaslighting her for quite some time. The alien fetus and alien implant in this story would not be out of place in "X-Files", but the tragedy of misplaced trust and misplaced love make this an above average horror story.
*"10/31/98" is a holiday-horror tale, with four partygoers in disguise stumbling into a haunted house, an exorcism attempt, a possessed damsel in distress, and poltergeist phenomena. Much effort was evidently placed in the special effects of this segment, and I appreciated the fact that the damsel quickly started resembling the White Ladies of traditional ghost stories. But there is very little effort at exposition here, and the viewers were left guessing at the motivations of most of the characters. I enjoyed the segment, but I thought it was both too short and too fast-paced.
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