Trapped Ashes (2006)

Seven strangers on a Hollywood movie studio tour are trapped inside an infamous House of Horror and forced to tell their most terrifying stories to get out alive.

Directors:

Sean S. Cunningham, Joe Dante

Writer:

Dennis Bartok

Stars:

Jayce Bartok, Henry Gibson, Lara Harris

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jayce Bartok	...	Andy (story segments "Wraparound")
Henry Gibson	...	Tour Guide (story segments "Wraparound")
Lara Harris	...	Julia (story segments "Wraparound")
Scott Lowell	...	Henry (story segments "Wraparound")
Dick Miller	...	Max (story segments "Wraparound")
Michèle-Barbara Pelletier	...	Nathalie (story segments "Wraparound") / Martine (segment "My Twin, The Worm") (as Michele-Barbara Pelletier)
John Saxon	...	Leo (story segments "Stanley's Girlfriend")
Rachel Veltri	...	Phoebe (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Richard Ian Cox	...	Doug (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Glynis Davies	...	Nurse (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Scott Heindl	...	Zack (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Rob deLeeuw	...	Ben (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts") (as Rob De Leeuw)
Mina E. Mina	...	Dr. Judith (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Winston Rekert	...	Dr. Larry (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Ken Russell	...	Dr. Lucy (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")

Storyline

The actress Phoebe Kane and her boyfriend Andy, the architect Henry and his wife Julia, the former director Leo and Nathalie receive an invitation for a VIP Tour in the Ultra Studios. When they see the spooky house where the missing director Desmond Hacker filmed "Hysteria", they ask their tour guide to stop the car to visit the infamous house. In a moment, they find that they are trapped in a room without any exit and the guide suggests them to tell the scariest experience of each one like in "Hysteria". Each one tells a spooky tale until they finally discover the end of their stories.

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Plot Keywords:

nipples | female nudity | breast implant | anthology | hollywood | 

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Taglines:

Stories Can Make You Laugh or Cry ... And Some Make You Die.

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, violence, disturbing images and language

Details

Country:

USA Japan

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 July 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Armadilha do Terror

Filming Locations:

The Suisyoin Temple, Izu City, Shizuoka, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Independent Film Fund, Cinema Investment, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Curtis Harrington was considered to direct a segment. Moreover, the wrap-around segment in the first draft of the script took place at a party in Harrington's house.

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Goofs

(at around 15 mins) In the first sequence, where the girl is about to have surgery, they hold the gas mask several inches from her face and never place it against her face.

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Connections

References Black Sunday (1960)

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Soundtracks

Thoughts When Pt. II
Richard White: Piano/Composer
Charlton Singleton: Trumpet/Composer
Produced by : Ian Wheeler
©2006

User Reviews

Creepshow revisited

I don't know why but I used to be a huge fan of Creepshow and Tales from the crypt although the later series were rather lame. "Trapped Ashes" is very much in this tradition and features 4 horror shorts bound together in a surrounding plot of 2 couples and 2 solo people going on a sightseeing on a Hollywood movie site and getting stuck in an hold horror house with an old guy who leads them around. Turns out they can only leave if each tells their most frightening personal story... so here we go... Story 1 is about an actress who doesn't get any new jobs and decides to get a boob job. Now after her life turns around for the positive she soon realizes that her breast are vampire boobies feeding on human blood which doesn't go to well for her lovers. This story is pretty bizarre and trashy and captures the spirit of old "Tales from the crypt" stories best. Its totally idiotic but the end is so over the top its fun. Story 2 is a ghost-story about a couple moving to Japan where the woman is seduced by a monk who dies and takes her to hell where she turns into a succubus. Her husband soon learns he has to free her from there by feeding her a spell. The story is OK, but as frightening or thrilling as a Sesamestreet Episode. At least you get some naked shots and some nice animation sequences of old Japanese paintings which work pretty well. Story 3 is pretty much nothing leading nowhere. An actor and his best friend a scriptwriter regularly meet for chess until a girl appears. Soon the scriptwriter disappears and the actor begins a love affair to find out years later that the girl is some kind of ghost/witch/vampire... honestly I couldn't care less because the episode is boring and makes no sense. Story 4 is another strange one about a girl who grows up in her mothers womb along with a tapeworm and lives with a strange desire for collecting food for her "twin". When she is treated badly by her stepmother the "twin" takes revenge.

What most of the stories suffer from is incredibly long passages of introducing of characters and that is way stretched and often even unnecessary for the plod. So when the action starts most of the time is up and there is not too much time for the horror to happen. Like most of those story collections there is some bad apples in there and I couldn't recommend this average movie just for the vampire boobies and the finale. This is just for real die hard fans of horror shorts... the slow ghost movies won't be too interesting for neither "Tales..." Fans nor others because they don't lead nowhere. Too bad...