This is a movie that I got the chance to check out when one of the co-writers/co-directors of Phil Herman reached out to see if I would review this anthology. Since I enjoy seeing and helping to get the word out on independent works when I can, I agreed. I'll be honest, outside of that bit of information, I came into this one blind.
Synopsis: guess who is back? The Burglar (Joel D. Wynkoop) is once again back for more stories. All new ones that promise more mayhem, gore and Horrortales.
Now I'm going to be honest here, I haven't seen the previous two in this series. This kicks off where the last one left off from what I gather. If The Burglar reads the last story, a ghost tells him he can leave. This story is called He Who Laughs Last. Wynkoop takes on the character of the husband in this one. M. Catherine Wynkoop is his wife. She is agoraphobic and doesn't want him to leave. He must though since they're running low on money and food. There might be people messing with her and not just her fears.
The Burglar wants what was promised after completing. This will be the wraparound as well. He can't leave though. A witch, played by M. Wynkoop, tells him to continue reading. This next story is Death is the Only Option. This one tells the tale of Jimmy (Justin Bower) who is a criminal. He is quite ruthless and wants to cut out another guy, Cortez (Mike Rutlin), from a deal. The job is more dangerous than he imagined though.
Our next story deals with Tom (Phil Herman) who wants to leave his wife for Judy (Debbie D). She is also married to an abusive husband. Things might be as they seem though as Judy comes up with a plot to get away. Tom has one of his own. Both prove to be quite deadly.
The one that follows is The Vessel. This is an interesting one that we have two women who live together. One of them is deaf and her best friend since grade school knows sign language to communicate with her. They buy a vase that might have a supernatural entity in it. Ellen (Windy Hamilton) is called in to help, but this might be more dangerous than she expects.
Our last story is a modern take on a silent film about a vampire that moves to a new area and is struggling with the need to feed.
That should be enough to recap the stories that we are getting here. I'll be honest, I went a bit light here with this as I waned in interest. I'm not going to destroy this movie because I'll give credit to everyone involved for getting up and making this while I sit at home watching movies.
With that out of the way, this isn't necessarily for me. I like low-budget movies to an extent. From the looks though, this is micro-budget. If you are into works like this, I would recommend it. What I'm gathering is that these are shorts that were made independently and compiled together. Each has a different tone and feel. I would say that for the most part, they fit together well. I noticed it when some seemed to have titles in the beginning where others I didn't know what it was until the credits. I do think that the wraparound works well to flow them together. My problem there was that it was too repetitive.
To delve a bit more into the shorts themselves, they seem to be going for that EC comics vibe. The only issue there is that they are lacking that punch at the end that made those great. The reveal of the stories were expected so it makes them all a bit flat. I think they could work, there just needs to be a bit for them. Again, I will give credit for making them though. I'd even say that for what they're working with, they are made well enough.
Since we are working with a large cast of characters here, I will say that the acting is fine. No one necessarily stands out, but I'm not going to pick them apart either. They are most likely people that have other jobs that they do and this is something they did for fun. It worked in general and they brought their characters to life. I did want to comment though on M. Catherine Wynkoop. Her screaming that she does in this made me laugh. It wasn't during the opening short, but more of when she was the witch and it is used to get The Burglar back to watching. I wanted to give her credit there.
There's not much that I need to say here. In conclusion, this is a micro-budget anthology. This is set up with stories and a wraparound. I would say that for the budgets they are working with, the filmmaking is fine. The performances fit and I don't have much negative to say there. My only issue is that they're going for EC comic style stories, but they're lacking the punch that you need to make them effective. If you are into movies like this, I'd say to give this a watch. If not, temper your expectations and I'd say for most people, avoid this. It takes the right kind of fans for sure.
My Rating: 4.5 out of 10.
