You should know that this is an anthology of small horror stories, much akin to "Creepshow" for example, except that "Dreadtime Stories" doesn't have the same forceful impact as the old "Creepshow" series had.
Given the short time that each of these stories have been granted, it is very limited how much storytelling can be fitted into it, and equally limited how much character development there is room for. And the movie is sort of hurting from this. Director Jacob Grim set out to achieve a bit too much in too little time, and the end result was suffering from this.
There is a feel of low production value permeating the movie, in terms of cinematography and acting. I am not saying that this is necessarily bad, but at least you should take that into consideration before you sit down to watch "Dreadtime Stories".
Now, the stories told in "Dreadtime Stories" deal with very different topics, so the movie does get widely around to many different aspects. That was good, I think, although some might think that it proved to have a no real red line throughout the movie.
The title of the movie "Dreadtime Stories" sort of implies that there should be some dread involved in the stories. That was hardly the case, and I wasn't particularly frightened, scared, thrilled or even horrified by what I witnessed. That being said, don't get me wrong. Some of the stories were still entertaining enough for what they turned out to be. Just don't set the expectation bar up high.
"Dreadtime Stories" had me sorely pressed on my focus and attention on the movie. Why? Well, because nothing much of any interest or even remotely frightening happened throughout the course of all the different stories.
There were some nice enough visuals here and there, so it wasn't all bad. But the overall experience wasn't overly impressive.
This was actually a fair enough attempt to delve into the horror anthology genre by writer Sal Hernandez and writer/director Jacob Grim. However, the end result just wasn't outstanding or memorable.
I wasn't particularly entertained, nor can I claim to have seen anything memorable in "Dreadtime Stories".
