Indie film directors Jakob Bilinski (13 After Midnight), Nathan Thomas Milliner (Encyclopedia Satanica), John Kenneth Muir (A Little Pick Me Up), P. J. Sparks (Ghastly), and Lee Vervoort (That's a Wrap) bring you 5 tantalizing tales shot in 1 location.
Not gonna lie, Tony McKee offers an incredibly juicy original score for this film. The instrumental jams are quite deliciously groovy.
We have 4 main stories and a very . . . Fleshed out . . .frame story, especially toward the end. But before we jump into any of that we are treated to 3 incredibly quick and varied shorts that set up the frame story and offer minimal exposition. Using only practical effects, these tales cover several subgenere's of horror such as: supernatural, paranormal, creature feature, slasher, body horror, and dark comedy.
Here's the main gist:
Four friends gather in the school library in order to share their own folklore stories that they've written for a classroom project. One catch: they must all take place within the same Library setting.
The humor for most of the movie is spot on, considering the setting and characterization, but will most likely create two camps: one that finds immature high-school humor to be "childish, superficial, and lame," perfectly exemplified by Sidney (Paige Ward) and her boyfriend Norman (Grant Niezgodski) in the tale "13 Past Midnight." The other camp may find a certain piquant charm to the confluence of waggish banter and banal drollness present throughout the film. P. J. Sparks in "That's a Wrap" is so damn hilarious. If you look closely, especially around the "A game" part, you'll even notice several actors breaking character - they just couldn't keep it together.
The cinematography is mostly cogent. The steady shots are quite crisp, but the dynamic shots are slightly shaky and of lower quality overall. You'll notice this the most during frame story segments. That said, there are a plethora of techniques that are effectively used to tell the stories, set the scenes, or mix up the action. There's also considerable effort - sometimes to poor effect, but largely to great effect - placed into covering their weaknesses with clever camera angles and skillful jump cuts. There are several scenes in "Encyclopedia Satanica" that capitalize on these camera effects to cover its weaknesses, whereas "Ghastly" tells the story almost strictly through camerawork. These are examples of the cinematography coming in clutch, and the movie is riddled with this kind of camerawork. It's solid stuff.
The writing and acting are quite good together, propping each other up for a solid, unified front. However, the scripting falls into two camps as well. On one hand, the scripting utilizes charming banter, realistic exchanges, and several sharp-witted one-liners, and is on the whole very coherent and compelling. I think the frame story does a good job with this. On another hand, the scripting can be a bit cheesy, offering lines that no one would actually say, adding in lines when they shouldn't have, or even completely ignoring engrossing scenes altogether, thus diminishing the potential of the more powerful moments. Derek (Kevin Roach) in "Encyclopedia Satanica," sets a prime example of this. With thespian maleficence, he really sells his role very well, but there are certain moments where the dialogue is just too uncanny to hit home.
But the biggest sin of all, in my opinion, comes from "Encyclopedia Satanica" as well. There is a scene between the librarians Paige (Kristine Renee Farley) and Travis - played by Todd Reynolds and boasting a somewhat stiff performance that feels like his only direction was "guy with exposition" - where he tells her a story about a daisy in order to console her. It's a long and drawn-out scene. The story has a clear message in it that is extremely pertinent to Paige's situation, but then they render it inert and ineffective by just sweeping it under the rug and completely ignoring it! For some reason it just really sat wrong with me.
The sound design has a very respectable 90's straight-to-DVD finish. In cases like "Pick Me Up," it does a great job of building a tense atmosphere and cuing us in on what to pay attention to and how to feel about it. But, ultimately, the sound design seems a bit generic and limpid in its attempts to buttress the atmosphere of the scenes.
Anyway, solid stuff. While the finished product is a bit lacking in some areas, it is still a strong entry into anthology horror, and an amazing effort by some very talented indie developers. Definitely worth a watch, especially for the ending!
Below are brief Plot Summaries:
Before we get the 5 featured shorts, we are treated to 3 side pieces, all of which play some part in the frame story:
80's Sequence:
An 80's style slasher tale featuring two love birds at a make out point.
Very cheesy and somewhat unenjoyable to watch due to stale acting and weak scripting, but the good news is that it doesn't last long and offers a very clever transition into the next scene. Actually, it may have been intentionally the way it is.
Cutting Class:
Setting up our frame story, this short is a love letter to "After Midnight." Today's lesson is on urban legends.
Cutting class has a good deal of humor and a decent script. It sets up the frame story very well.
Torture Porn:
Straight up body horror right here folks.
Short and sweet, with hints of subtle exposition and potential allusion.
And now for the featured shorts:
A Little Pick Me Up:
Between job and school, this young woman has had no time to sleep. With a paper due soon, exhaustion building up, and the hours ticking away, she needs a pick-me-up: the brand new energy drink Ka-Pow!
Ghastly:
It's closing time at the local library. The customers are gone, and the librarian has some books to shelve, including one simply titled, "Ghosts," which doesn't seem to want to cooperate.
13 After Midnight:
She's got a paper due tomorrow, and so she forgoes the Halloween festivities and holes up in the library after hours to finish it. But she may not be alone.
Encyclopedia Satanica:
Guilt-ridden by the recent death of her ex boyfriend, a young librarian uses an archaic book that can recall the dead.
That's a Wrap:
With a certain meta-dark-comedy-horror approach, the Director of this film has a huge breakdown mid-production. While the movie itself is a hot topic, in the local news it shares the spotlight with a series of gruesome murders that have been going on recently. Coincidence?
