Rating: C+
Dir: Rusty Apper
Star: Luke Morgan, Isabella Moore Richardson, Nathan Head, Mark Porter
As British anthologies go, this has the distinct air of an Amicus production, and that’s generally a compliment. The wraparound sees friends Alex (Morgan) and Nathan looking for props they can use at their Halloween party, visiting the shop owned by Mr. Kosminski. In the basement, is a penny-arcade automaton which tells them three stories. The first sees a police detective (Richardson, looking like a young Jessica Hynes) stalked by the serial killer she is hunting. The second is about a journalist, Richard Loomis (Head), writing a story whose subject is the skull of a witch, slain over four centuries previously. Or is he? The last sees Mike (Porter) find some unusual occult items, when sorting out the possession left by his late father.
Like all anthologies, the results are a mixed bag, and it’s likely your mileage will vary as to how effective each is. Though unlike some, the fact they were all directed by the same person does give them a consistency of tone that I appreciated. Similarly, there’s a nice sense of dry humour which pokes through on occasion, even if there are moments which feel like this thoroughly English production is trying to be American. For instance, a missing persons poster talks about the subject having a “British accent” and sports a US format phone number. However, it feels like the stories could perhaps do with more meat on them.
The whole feature runs almost two hours long, and it often puts style over substance. By which I mean, it relies a little too heavily on scenes intended to generate atmosphere. These are only sporadically successful. The first is a good example, which sees the heroine moving v-e-r-y slowly round her apartment, pursued by her equally slow-moving assailant, without any particular resolution (amusingly, Alex and Nathan even acknowledge this). Similarly, in the second, there’s a bit too much time spent watching Richard apparently being driven insane by the witch’s soul. The last may be the most effective (if a little Evil Dead-ish): it’s clear something very nasty has been allowed entry into our world, and Mike is the only person who can deal with it.
To some degree, I actually liked the wraparound best. Laurence R. Harvey’s shopkeeper is a good descendant from the lineage which gave us Peter Cushing in From Beyond the Grave. He initially seems affable, yet there’s something fractionally “off” about him, and it feels like this increases every time he shows up. Appier was a one-man army on the movie, not just directing, but writing, editing and scoring it as well. Regular reader will know my opinion on the issues this can cause, and here I think it’s the editing which is in need of tightening up. There’s room to remove twenty or so minutes, and I suspect that would have led to a crisper, more effective product. It still has its moments, and enough of them to justify its existence.
The film is available now on VOD from BayView Entertainment.