"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 16: “Giving a Little Love to the Anthology Film”

Week 16: “Giving a Little Love to the Anthology Film”

Like many horror fans we all have a love-hate relationship with the anthology film.  Films which are made up of shorter films which are sometimes interconnected but for the most part are unrelated and can stand on their own.  Since I generally like the genre I wanted to take a few moments to speak about them especially since they’ve come back in style with the popularity of the V/H/S and ABCs of Death franchises.

A lot of the times anthology films are a showcase for several directors to tackle short material as is the case with Tales From the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Two Evil Eyes (1991), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and more recently V/H/S 2 (2013).  I love the idea of letting directors of all walks of life contribute to a disturbing vision of horror.  Three…Extremes (2004) had three directors from all over the world contribute or the massive undertaking of The ABCs of Death (2013) which is probably the largest collaboration of directors from all over the world assembled with 26 in all.  It was not always like this though.

Anthology films were originally a way for established directors to be able to tell multiple stories like George A. Romero’s collaboration with Stephen King in Creepshow (1982).  The name Stephen King is also associated with the anthology Cat’s Eye (1985) and Creepshow 2 (1987) and even Quicksilver Highway (1997), which included a short story from Clive Barker.  Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963) is a gothic classic that showcases some of the director’s best work as is Freddie Francis’ Tales from the Crypt (1972) and Roy Ward Baker’s Vault of Horror (1973).

Many times you just can’t beat a good anthology film that just wants to have fun like Grindhouse (2007),  Nightmares (1983)and 4bia (2008).  I love a great fun anthology which is why I’m a huge fan on Dan Curtis’ Trilogy of Terror (1975) and its sequel Trilogy of Terror II (1996) which were both made for TV films but transcended its meager TV trappings.  The same can be said for John Carpenter’s Body Bags (1993) and Terror Tract (2000).  These may not have been given the luxury of being able to go to the extremes (a hindrance of broadcast cable standards) but they make up for it with strong storytelling and great performances.

Sequels also play a hand with anthology films.  It’s a rare occurrence when an anthology gets a sequel but it does happen.  Creepshow 3 (2006) is an in name only infamous sequel to the popular King-Romero collaborations but there is also 3 Extremes II (2002), ABCs of Death 2 (2014), and V/H/S: Viral (2014) in addition to the ones previously mentioned.

For the independent filmmakers there are the two George A. Romero presents Deadtime Stories films (part 1 in 2009 and part 2 in 2011) in addition to Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8) (2013), in addition to a plethora more.  I love the spirit of the independent film maker and there are a lot of short film collections out there that help get the word out on rising talents (so be on the lookout for them).

I have a lot of guilty pleasure anthology films that not only include Grindhouse and V/H/S 2 but also Tales from the Hood (1995), Torture Garden (1967), Grim Prairie Tales (1990) and The Offspring (1987).  There are also those films I think are classics like Dead of Night (1945), Kwaidan (1964) and most recently the surprise hit Trick ‘r Treat (2008).

Anthology horror films are not an easy thing to succeed at.  There are more unsuccessful films then there are successful ones and unfortunately there are more that succeed on a small level  (meaning that maybe one out of all the other stories are any good) than on the whole.  We should not forget the contributions that this genre has in the horror genre and that without it we may not have had those few amazing displays of genius.  I’ve mentioned a lot of different films and hopefully there are a few that will have you searching them out.

Film Review: SHARKNADO 2: THE SECOND ONE (2014)

What do you expect from a film called Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014)?  Nothing good, but at least you can hope to be entertained in how ridiculous the whole thing is.  That is exactly what you get (and more) from this sequel to the infamous Sharknado (2013).  Not long after the events in the first film, Fin Shepard and his ex-wife April Wexler (Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, respectfully) are trying to patch things back up while on April’s press tour for her book about the events of the first film that have made them both celebrities.  On a plane ride to New York Fin is paranoid that it’s all happening again when he sees a shark on the fin of the plane (great nods to The Twilight Zone).  

 

There is indeed a new sharknado happening in New York and before they can even rest on the ground Fin and April’s plane is brought crashing to the earth but not before several passengers die and April loses an arm to a shark bite.  Before Fin can stay with April in the hospital he has to go rescue family members at a baseball game before the sharknado hits ground and New York’s streets are swarming with sharks out for human flesh.  Fin is in a lot of trouble as an old flame Skye (Vivica A. Fox) also returns to add a little complication to Fin’s reconciliation with April but April isn’t going to lie still in a hospital bed this time as she’s gone through this once before and survived and she’s going to do so again.

The cast and filmmakers of this sequel are having much more fun with this film as they are intentionally making a bad movie but are trying their hardest to make it one of the most entertaining ones you will ever see.  And they’ve brought all their celebrity friends in on the joke as well since there are more star cameos in this film than has been seen in a long time from Judd Hirsch, Downtown Julie Brown, Billy Ray Cyrus, Andy Dick, Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton, Robert Hays, Robert Klein, Matt Lauer, Biz Markie, Kelly Osbourne, Kelly Ripa, Al Roker, and Tiffany Shepis, to name a small few.

This is not a film that you can adequately critique as it was meant to be the best party and drinking game ever and succeeds better than its predecessor, so, if you can’t get in on the joke then don’t bother watching the film.

Film Review: ABSENTIA (2011)

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a film is going to be good by just watching the first ten minutes.  I have many associates who say that if a book or a film doesn’t capture their attention within the first 50 pages or ten minutes they’ll just tune out or stop altogether missing what could be a genuinely good book or film.  This was my impression of Absentia (2011) which starts off very mundane and incidental.

Absentia concerns sisters Tricia and Callie (Courtney Bell and Katie Parker, respectfully) who are reunited after not having seen each other for years.  Callie has been traveling trying to find her place in the world when she returns home to her sister whose husband mysteriously disappeared years earlier and she is trying to legally have him declared dead in absentia.  Just when Tricia is finally getting over the disappearance of her husband and building a new relationship with her sister Callie her husband mysteriously returns.  He is disoriented, dehydrated, and exhausted as if he had been under some sort of unique captivity and torture.  The only thing Tricia’s husband keeps rambling about is the tunnel by their home.

This rambling about the tunnel near their home leads Callie to start investigating and she discovers that their neighborhood is a place of many disappearances and she believes that a bum that she saw in the tunnel may have also been another one of these people that have gone missing.  Now she must discover the truth about her brother-in-law and the tunnel before whatever happened in the tunnel happens to her as well.

For most of the film’s running time it appears like a run-of-mill slow burning drama but things get a little more supernatural during the last third of the film with barely a hint of what is to come.  This may turn off a few viewers who want things to happen faster but I enjoy the slow burn which allows the viewer to get to know the characters before things get really weird and even more exciting.

Absentia is not an easy film to categorize as it strives very hard to present a film very much in the tradition of a Twilight Zone episode that doesn’t rely on the overtly supernatural but does contain those subtle touches that by the end will completely satisfy even the most jaded of audience member.