Tales From the Southbound

The renaissance of the horror anthology has been wonderful in spirit and mostly terrible in execution. Following the fan love for Michael Daughery's Trick or Treat, it seemed as though every genre filmmaker under 40 was contributing to one collection or another, from the grainy V/H/S series to the often insufferable output of The ABCs of Death.

Needless to say, I've found modern anthologies disappointing (and occasionally, infuriating). But that doesn't mean I've given up on them just yet. 

Story 1: The Way Out
Directed by the trio Radio Silence (they of the disappointing Devil's Due and the 10/31/98 segment of the first V/H/S), The Way Out follows a pair of men on the run from what appears to be an unidentified crime. As they speed their rickety pickup truck down a deserted highway, they are pursued by strange floating skeletal creatures that follow them right inside an ominous gas station.

We'll get back to this.

Story 2: Siren
A trio of young women break down on that same lonely highway, accepting a ride from an oddly sunny 1950s-esque couple who take them back to an ominous meatloaf dinner. Something is clearly amiss, but there seems to be an added weight in how their presumed leader played by Starry Eyes' passive aggressive rival, Fabianne Therese) is seen as being responsible for the untimely death of one of their members. Directed by first timer Roxanne Benjamin, Siren has some fun with its almost Parents-ish vibe. It also feels the most incomplete, as it offers up a lot of unanswered questions. While I generally believe one of the the keys to anthology segments (much like short stories) to be telling a complete tale in under 30 minutes, this was definitely the one story I wanted to see more of.

Story 3: The Accident
The Signal's David Bruckner directs this tight little tale about an ill-fated and too easily distracted man named Lucas whose cell phone chat with his wife leads to him smashing into a young lady in the middle of nowhere (well, Southbound's hell-ish highway). After some internal debating, Lucas calls emergency services and spends the rest of his evening trying to save his victim in an abandoned hospital with only the mysterious, not-quite-right dispatcher voices to guide him.

While it doesn't necessarily do much, The Accident was my personal favorite segment of the bunch. Mather Zickel's Lucas toes an interesting line between being a guilty manslaughterer and a poor unlucky bastard, while the ambiguity of the dispatch voices are just odd enough to keep you on edge. Anthologies are almost always morality tales, and this one serves as a different spin on that idea.

Also, death gurgles are intense.

Story 4: Jailbreak
Patrick Horvath (The Pact 2) directs this one. A raging man storms into a worn-down bar demanding to see his long-lost sister Jesse. The bartender (Orange Is the New Black's Matt Peters) agrees to drive him down that familiar highway to where Jesse is working as a sort of satanic tattoo artist (or something?). It's hard to say too much more without giving away some of the bigger happenings, but let's just say that when your little sister disappears down a highway to hell lorded over by floating skeleton people and bar werewolves, maybe it's best to leave her put.

Story 5: The Way In (aka Story 1: Part 2)A seemingly normal couple is spending a family weekend in a rented home with their teenage daughter before she goes to college. Before they can sit down to their last supper, three masked men show up for some violent payback. The story plays like a fairly standard home invasion, but much like Siren, it also drops some mysterious clues without revealing all of their details.

Overall, Southbound offers a fresh and easily watchable take on the anthology format. Each story leads into the other in an organic way and while there's not a specific wraparound tool used to tie everything together, the themes and basic idea of this purgatory-like road to hell work extremely well when all put together. The styles and tones are more complimentary than consistent, which helps the full picture add up to something fresh.

High Points
As grouches continue to whine about the lack of good horror in the modern era, one can point to the credits of the cast and crew of Southbound to show connections to a slew of good-to-great genre films of late: actors from Starry Eyes, YellowBrickRoad, The Signal, and a few more (not to mention the film's wraparound DJ voice is done by none other than Larry Fessenden)

Low Points
We can't hit all of our CGI out of the park, but sometimes it hurts when almost all of it fouls

Lessons Learned
You know, don't kill innocent people and you won't go to hell or be forced to relieve a horrible monster chase for eternity

Rent/Bury/BuyAfter my increasing embitterment over the new age of jerky bro-tastic anthologies, Southbound is an extremely pleasant little renewal of faith in the genre. The film isn't perfect, but it's a good ride. You can find it on Amazon Prime.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow (you might go crazy)

It might surprise you to learn that sandwiched between Dawn of the Dead and The Wicker Man, my second favorite film of all time is a little classic known as The Wizard of Oz. Allow me to display some photographic evidence of such:

Yup, that’s me with my big brother and a little Munchkin who visited a local Blockbuster Video in 1989 to sign autographs and pose for pictures with star struck second graders. Note that I am indeed taller. Note that I am also the same height today.

Moving on, there were two things that led me to queuing up 2011’s YellowBrickRoad on ye olde convenient Instant Watch:

1-Its clear connection to the REAL best film of 1939 (screw you, Scarlet O’Hara)

And 2-Like the great premised, terribly executed Vanishing on 7^th Street, it seemed to play with the haunting idea of the disappeared members of the Roanoke Colony, something I’ve always found fascinating. Though YellowBrickRoad doesn’t explicitly name that nugget of history, the idea feels close enough that it must have served as some inspiration.

Quick Plot: Teddy and Melissa are married academic explorers who team up with their professor friend Walter on a research project of Friar, a town where 70 years earlier, the whole population followed a trail and came back dead. Though the locals are reluctant to drudge up the past, the team amasses a few more members (a map-making sibling pair, spacey intern, forest ranger, and New Hampshah townie) to follow the titular YellowBrickRoad into the woods while documenting their findings for a book.

Echoes of Blair Witch sound through the early scenes, but YellowBrickRoad is far more ambitious than it initially appears. First-time directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton tell a mostly straightforward narrative, though they occasionally mix in still photographs or recorded interviews throughout. Walter documents the heads of his team, videotaping each member discussing memories or reciting the alphabet backwards to gauge their mindset. As you probably expect, said interviews reveal the slow cracks in sanity that happen when you cross over into Oz.

Sure, YellowBrickRoad’s basic formula is familiar, but the execution is actually quite fresh. It begins with some old timey music, the low undertones of which are heard by the whole group in a ‘maybe we’re crazy, maybe someone’s messing with us, or maybe it’s REAL’ mystery that works because sound designer Daniel Brennan’s work is actually incredible. One sequence follows the group through a high-pitched beeping as they can only communicate on paper. It might sound annoying (and it is) but it’s also quite horrifying.

There are berries to not be eaten (and of course, totally eaten), water not to be wasted (until it’s used to put out fires that didn’t have to be started in the first place), hoarded candy stashes and unrequited love stories inside YellowBrickRoad, and honestly, that’s fine. This is the sort of film that’s culled from other sources, but Holland and Mitton--along with a far better than average cast—work hard to make it pop, giving each character his or her due and payoff.

MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW

YellowBrickRoad clocks in at 100 minutes, and unfortunately like so many new horror films, it seems to check out at 99. For the majority of its running time, the atmosphere—crafted on an effectively used low budget—is perfectly unsettling and each crescendo as terrifying or bizarre or weirdly humorous-turned-bizarre as intended. It SCARED me, and it’s not often that I can say that as I pluck the gray strands out before my 30^th birthday.

But GRRRR did the final shot or two make me say GRRR. While there’s a good chance I’ll look at it differently upon second viewing and am more than open to hearing any defenses, I just found the film lost me once it left the woods. I don't have a theory on the ending yet--was it a twist? was it all about Teddy? Is he now in hell?--and perhaps I'll change my mind upon second viewing. It definitely says something positive to the film that I'm eager to give it one.


THUS ENDETH SPOILERS

High Notes

Sometimes you forget how important good acting is in a genre film. Though nobody channels Meryl Streep in YellowBrickRoad, there’s not a bad performance in the ensemble. We like (mostly) and most importantly, BELIEVE the cast, making their fates all the more devastating

I mentioned this back in the early Doll’s House days when reviewing The Signal (also starring Anessa Ramsay, oddly enough) but it never fails: weaponless violence unnerves me. The first major bout of horror here is primarily made with one’s hands, and while other reviewers may have found it laughable, I found it horrifying in both a darkly serious and darkly comedic absurd kinda way. Likewise, verbal descriptions on neck snapping? Ick!

Low Notes

Aforementioned ending

Lessons Learned

Berries are for squishing (or getting high)

If you already bare a striking physical and audio resemblance to Richard Dreyfuss, you might as well embrace it and quote some of his more famous Jaws lines when appropriate

New England ushers are generally jerks

Rent/Bury/Buy

Now streaming on Netflix Instant, I heartily recommend YellowBrickRoad to those who enjoy good modern horror. It will probably do little to sway those naysayers who despise anything made in the 21^st century, but this is a sharply made horror film packed with pleasantly mean surprises, strong performances across the board, and a unique vision and ear that makes fantastic use of its look and sound. I’d sell my ruby slippers for a more satisfying ending, but I still heartily endorse YellowBrickRoad as an excellent block of evidence that there are indeed good genre filmmakers working today.

What Goes Best With a Tux? Flesh Eating Bacteria, That’s What!

Cabin Fever was one of the oddest theatrical releases of the early 21st century, an overexcited, occasionally refreshing and often annoying mix of over-the-top gore, crass comedy, ‘80s homage, and pancakes. Perhaps then it’s only fitting that its sequel comes with a bucket of offscreen controversy and onscreen sloppiness.

In case you didn’t have your hopefully still attached ear to the horror news networks these past few months, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever was directed (near completely) by House of the Devil  golden boy Ti West, who pleaded fruitlessly to have his name removed from the credits. Word on the virtual street is that West disagreed with producers over the final cut during the post-production process, eventually stepping away from the project and letting the Powers That Be Lionsgate finish the film as they saw fit.

It shows.

Quick Plot: Top-billed Rider Strong reprises his quickly rotting role as he flees the titular cabin and gets splattered by an early morning school bus. Familiar local cop Winston (Guiseppe Andrews) misdiagnoses the gunk as moose and an animated credits reel reveal the town water soon to be bottled is infected by that same flesh-eating virus that tore through many pretty people in Eli Roth’s original.

We quickly move on to typical high school politics, where smart senior John (Deadgirl ’s jerk Noah Segan, still traveling via bicycle) pines for pretty, popular, and recently-broken-up-from-her-samurai-wannabe-psycho-boyfriend Cassie while chubby pal Alex smoothly enjoys a quickie--real quickie--from a randomly easy classmate. A frog dissection and near suspension later, it’s prom night (cue the song! seriously) and the high school’s a’hoppin’ with a disco beat.

If you’ve heard anything about Cabin Fever 2, it’s probably that this is not the film to watch while eating nachos. See, there’s a lot of blood, and guts, and viral warts on private parts, and bloodier semen than Wilhem Dafoe’s Antichrist  climax. That being said, it’s also really not that...well...disturbing.

Or particularly good.

As the school dance kicks in, Cabin Fever 2 kicks into gear with a gymnasium-full viral spread that starts with a poisoned water, infected urine-spiced punch bowl. An awkward sex scene between the prom king and token obese outcast in a pool seems only to hint at something interesting, while the dance floor erupts into a lightning fast bloodbath before the prom queen can give what was sure to be an Obama-esque speech. In almost no time (the movie is under 80 minutes, after all), we’re left with John, Cassie, Alex, and a few unexplained gun-toting officials trying to survive amid lots of gooey grossness.

Oh! And of those 80 minutes, about 28 or so are randomly assigned to Winston’s Adventures as the enigmatic, if also annoying and baffling cop hangs out with Judah Frielander and hits the road in his cousin’s van. While I enjoy the pure weirdness of Andrews’ oddball character, nothing in this storyline (if you can really call it that) ever feels in line with the rest of the film, making the many diversions to his aimless lollygagging an incredibly wasted amount of screen time with no real payoff.

On one side, we have a humorous, but also occasionally heartfelt teenage gorefest built on occasional suspense and realistically drawn characters. On the other, a simply bizarre and directionless tale of a dimwit. I kind of enjoyed the persistence Cabin Fever 2 had in NOT being your typical by the numbers sequel, but it was, much like its basis, all over the place, further scattered by a tacked-on, far too long 10 minute epilogue following a high school stripper.

I can’t really say where Ti West’s involvement ended, but the lack of a strong directorial touch in the editing finish is uncomfortably felt in the latter half of Cabin Fever 2. Honestly, I don’t know that this would be anywhere near a classic had he stayed on board throughout, but the messiness of plotting--much like the original--makes the viewing experience simply strange.

A recent article in Shock Till You Drop offered one tidbit by producer Lauren Moews explaining how fitting it was that Cabin Fever 2 was edited by the same woman responsible for several John Waters’ films, and there are indeed some similarities. West gives us plenty of gratuitously ick-heavy moments that dare the audience to look away, like a prematurely ended-by-puke lap dance or intensely detailed fingernail peel (the only one that got me wincing). There are plenty of refreshing little quirks that keep the film fun and it’s hard to argue with any movie that recycles the only great thing about Prom Night (namely, Jamie Lee Curtis’ disco tune). At the same time, it’s impossible to care about anything when the film seems so insistent on not taking itself seriously.

High Points

There’s some nifty practical effects at work, like an early diner scene featuring a blood-squirting voicebox

West tows a careful line with his high school characters, using honored archetypes but imbuing them with interesting enough spins, like the ex-boyfriend’s Japanophile quirks and John’s surprisingly refreshing honesty with his dreamgirl (not deadgirl)

Low Points

An overly headache inducing fire extinguisher attack would be impressive if we hadn’t seen it before in The Signal or Irreversible

We don’t need--or really want--a huge backstory in fluffy romp like this, but the fact that the army or FDA or FBI or whoever the men with guns and gas cans are never explained is one more missing piece in a film not fully put together

A few moments of tension are broken when you realize how ridiculous they play out. Would the soldiers--or whoever it is patrolling the school, see previous Low Point--really not hear the kids escape an empty classroom 4 seconds after exiting themselves?

Lessons Learned

William Katt’s Carrie tuxedo never goes out of style

Bitches value spite and money

If getting a touch of infected blood on your skin will infect you, then running said hand through a buzzsaw and watching the blood squirt all over your face will surely be the cure

Rent/Bury/Buy

Cabin Fever 2 is a manic viewing experience, but not completely devoid of charm. Fans of the original will probably get a kick out of it, as it shares much of the crass humor, all-out gore, and smarter-than-your-average teen sensibilities. If I believed in officially rating films, this one would fall in the negative side. I can't say I liked it (mostly because I didn't like it) but it's not a complete waste of 80 minutes, especially if you're simply too curious to let it pass you by.

Love, Doll's House Style

Love is in the air, and it smells an awful lot like rotting flesh. That's an aphrodisiac for some of the characters we'll take a look at as, in honor of Valentine's Day and all its Hallmarky symbolism, we venture into some of genre cinema's best onscreen romances.

Cat People

Most men would feel no sympathy for John Heard for having to choose between cute girl-next-door Annette O’Toole and feline Natassja Kinski. Most people also despise this 1982 remake of Val Lewton’s classically terrifying original, made forty years prior with way more skin and way less tension. If you take Paul Schrader’s eroti-thriller on its own terms, however, Cat People features a surprisingly sexy love triangle (temporarily squared by Malcolm McDowell’s seductively incestuous brother). Is it scary? Not unless you really love Ed Begley Jr.’s arms (and who doesn’t?) but spending 90 minutes watching kinky transmorphing love scenes scored to David Bowie music sounds way hotter than squirting adult shop massage oil on your loved one's human back. Bore-ing.

The Happiness of the Katakuris

Not really a horror and on the surface, hardly a romance in the traditional sense, but Takeshi Miike’s 2001 hybrid does feature one of the sweetest and most refreshing love stories of the last ten years. The film itself--a quirky musical about a cheerfully dysfunctional family trying to make ends meet--is fondly remembered for its claymation uvula-eating goblins, dancing zombies, and karaoke ready numbers, but Mr. & Mrs. Katakuri’s 20+ year marriage is the steadily beating heart of what could easily have been a chaotic mess. It’s rare enough to see a genuine relationship built on support rather than drama in the movies, much less a funny and touching family foundation expressed through disco and directed by a man better known for dead puppies. Chalk it up as a point for the middle aged, financially insecure, musically gifted lovebirds out there.

The Signal

I hesitate to recommend this 2007 horror/blackomedy/thriller not because of its quality, but simply due to the fact that its driving-force love story is the weakest aspect of what is otherwise a near-great genre film. Telling the tale of a fictionalized city infected by a Crazies-like virus spread via television waves, The Signal focuses on a cheating wife and the affair that leads her and her redheaded lover through blood-soaked streets and wacky dinner parties turned Irreversible. The good news is that you get a truly frightening massacre AND a bloody good comedy for a decent hour; the bad news is the film's final thirty minutes drag on like a dull blind date. Then again, you get to finish the almost-anthology fooling your loved one into believing that he/she has just watched a genuinely appropriate romantic movie, and isn't the end result all that really matters?

Miracle Mile

Is there anything more charming than geek love at first sight? Ask Anthony Edwards' Harry Washello, a trombonist and history museum groupie (seriously) who falls quickly for spiky haired Mare Winningham in this 1988 nuclear thriller. What starts as a nerdily adorable romance quickly delves into Twilight Zone levels of tension, as Harry tries to make up for a missed date by staking himself at a diner payphone, only to instead intercept a frantic warning about an upcoming Soviet bombing. Are these the ramblings of a mad man, or genuine classified information? Does it matter when you have the chance to save the life of a cute girl and her sweetly separated grandparents? What follows is an increasingly suspenseful race against a doomsday clock that may or may not be ticking. Harry’s adventures change the course of LA (and possibly, the world) but at its heart, Miracle Mile is a documentation of how to plan the most memorable second date ever.

A Perfect Getaway

AKA Couples Retreat for an audience with better taste. This 2009 film was cursed with a misleading ad campaign and terribly timed release date, but from its newlywed leads to gorgeous Hawaiian (aka Puerto Rican) setting, A Perfect Getaway is the perfect date movie for a cold February night. Three attractive couples (well, Steve Zahn's nerdy screenwriter is questionable but everybody is somebody's type) end up in an isolated beach location, which would be fine if hazy Internet headlines weren't reporting a Mickey & Mallory pair on the loose. To say anything more would toe spoiled waters, so I'll tempt both sexes with this: while the gents enjoy the trifecta of blond hippie Marley Shelton, Georgia peach Kiele Sanchez, and the always bonily beautiful Milla Jovovich while the ladies are more than satisfied with a gleefully over the top Timothy Olyphant in a performance so good, it’s near Jedi status.

Deadly Friend

Gents, having trouble finding that perfect gift for the lady in your life? If you’re a super genius and your girlfriend is dying, has Wes Craven got a solution for you: implant your pet robot’s memory into her brain. True, she may develop a slight case of homicidal mania, but most of her victims are fairly deserving. How long could you possibly live next door to Anne “Owen, you lazy poop” Ramsey before giving into the urge to make her brains explode by hurling a basketball its way? And hey, you’re legally excused if you sic your blond baggy eyed girlfriend to do the dribbling. There are many words to describe Deadly Friend--awful, awesome, atrocious, amazing--but the nearest to someone with a Kristy Swanson and/or robot fetish is love.

Oldboy

Take a vengeful South Korean self-taught martial arts master, add a young sushi chef with warm hands and--okay, we’ll stop there. If you’ve seen Chan-wook park’s 2003 classic, you’re probably squirming in your cubicle right about now but even in your instinctual disgust, you can’t deny that Oldboy is a somewhat...well...love-filled film? The controversial romance probably wouldn’t put your Valentine in the mood for anything other than a cold shower, but you know...you get naked when you shower, right?

Bride/Seed of Chucky

Will those crazy kids ever make it work? As we know by one of the best silhouette sex scenes of all time, the answer to that is, like many a married couple, occasionally. Chucky introduced the world to his one and only in this 1998 horror comedy and boy was she ever adorable. Tiffany, played by Jennifer Tilly and bleach-blond bridal doll with one foul mouth, is everything you’d expect a murderous plaything to find attractive: innovative kill style, emerald green eyes, and a tenacity that just can’t be tamed with electrocution or fires. As we see in both this film and its underrated followup, the Lee Ray union is rockier than Pamela Anderson and any one of her husbands du jour, but doesn’t that make for more entertainment? Especially when the product of such love is an awkward young doll with identity issues and gender confusion? Would we expect any less?

Let the Right One In

Everybody remembers their first kiss, but most don’t spend the rest of their lives surrounded by blood-drained corpses as a result. Let the Right One In is a film about many things--friendship, childhood, vampyrism--but perhaps the most good-natured filter to use is that of simple old fashioned love story. Director Tomas Alfredson carefully develops the tentative relationship between the bullied Oskar and ageless Eli, starting as a charming playground meet-cute and ending with a train ride more romantic than anything that happens on board  Before Sunrise. Yes, if you spend any time considering the inevitably tragic future of the young(ish) couple, you’re left in a state of sad doom, but in its understated running time, Let the Right One In is as innocent as a middle school dance.

Shaun of the Dead

The beauty of this well-loved zomedy lies not only in its genius homages, surprising suspense, and cheeky humor, but also in not one but two love stories brimming with affection. For those with a soft spot for can-these-darn-kids-make-it-work stories, Shaun's misguided attempts to keep his long-suffering girlfriend are sweet and sadly, easily identifiable. Those who'd rather simulate 2D love with XBox 360, on the other hand, can take comfort in the genuine bromance between Shaun and his lovable loser of a best friend. Something for everyone, with Evil Dead references to boot.

The Fly

Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis had an offscreen romance while filming, because nothing lights the flames of passion faster than body horror and AIDS metaphors. Lightheartedness aside, The Fly is arguably one of Canuck love machine David Cronenberg’s best films due in no small part to the tragic chemistry of its two vertically gifted leads. I have minor quibbles with career woman Veronica’s tendency to fall in bed with all the men she works with, but The Fly remains as much an adult love story as a gooey creature feature, delving into attraction, jealousy, and sacrifice better than any Nicolas Sparks adaptation your soon-to-be-ex-girl (or boy)friend might unwittingly drag you to this Sunday.

And a few honorable mentions that didn’t make the cut primarily for not being fresh enough in my mind to merit a full paragraph:

An American Werewolf In London

Audition

Bram Stoker’s Dracula 

Cemetery Man

Dead Alive

Hellraiser

Little Shop of Horrors

Near Dark

Return of the Living Dead 3

The Toxic Avenger

So this Valentine’s Day, introduce your partner to a new world of cinematic intimacy the right way: with genre films about sexually active toys, androgynous vampires, NBA caliber robots, leprosy-ridden scientists, and more. How can you possibly go wrong?

We Interrupt This Broadcast to Bring You The Crazy

The Signal is a minor gem of a film, a tri-directed 2007 horror/comedy/thriller that hints at greatness, revels in dark humor, and ultimately slides into a romantic snooze. Frightening, funny, and frustratingly uneven, this is a fine--if flawed-- foray into low budget independent cinema by the mighty (and low profile) triumvirate of David Bruckner, Dan Bush, and Jacob Gentry. No, I don't know much about them--including who directed which segment--but they're definitely on my radar for future films.


Quick Plot: After a night romp with a mixed tape-making lover, unhappily married Maya (Anessa Ramsey) returns home to discover her bearish husband (AJ Bowen, channeling the Pam-spurned Roy from The Office) wielding a baseball bat at his sports buddies while the big screen TV ominously plays a psychedelic glow of rainbow sherbet. Anyone who’s read Stephen King’s Cell can guess that technology is a little angry with us (or maybe just bored) and is looking to arouse a good ol’ round of mass insanity and violence in its human consumers.

Evil machinery is nothing new, but The Signal’s freshness lies in its construction: the film is told in three parts, with three directors using three distinct styles to follow a handful of characters through a night and day in a small city gone mad. The approach is similar to another recent indie horror, The Zombie Diaries, with both benefiting from using standard monster setups that enter new and darker directions.


Part I is raging horror, as Maya attempts to escape the city of Terminus with the help of a possibly crazy, possibly just well-equipped with survival skills Sahr Ngaujah. The intensity recalls the opening of Dawn of the Dead 04, as the spread of violent chaos spreads through the hallways of a modern apartment complex and into an empty street at dawn. The fear is real, the action is unpredictable, and we're caught in an intensely believable and terrifying world on the edge.

The second segment abruptly switches moods to capture the blackest of comedy, as Maya’s weirdly cheerful neighbors prepare for a sunny and balloon-filled New Year’s party, unaware that their guests may be delayed (or dismembered or dead). The performances are very deliberate and a tad one dimensional (although Scott Poythress does make a refreshingly unconventional leading man) but once you accept the new direction, the laughs are as hearty as they are bloody. There is still plenty of horror to be found--Bowen's exterminator by way of Abu Ghraib is a sight I won't forget anytime soon--but the comedy is perfectly pitched in a very dark hue.

It may be a matter of personal taste, but I got lost in the third segment, which moves the perspective to Maya’s boyfriend (Justin Welborn, who probably spends an average of eight minutes a day convincing people on the street that he's not Simon Pegg) as he makes his heroic way to the city’s edge. The contrast in tone from the offbeat macabre silliness of the previous segment to the quiet drama of this part feels too jarring and dull. Although we do care for this unlucky couple, the flashbacks, musical cues, and general heaviness of their conclusion feels much longer than its thirty minute run time .

High Points
A conversation with a smoking head-in-a-vice is as wonderful as it sounds


Something that always scares me about raging human horror is the manual factor; being shot is probably painful, but being killed by hand tools seems far worse

Call me nerdy, but Lewis and Clark jokes never fail to succeed


Chad McKnight's performance as a lazily oversexed and generally unwanted (even if the world didn't have The Crazy) guest is, for a brief time, the ahem, life of the party

Low Points
Clark's frantic-yet-somehow-exposition-rich explanation of what the signal may be drags down the center


The montageness of Part III never feels earned


Lessons Learned
When everyone in your neighborhood has turned into a raging homicidal maniac, it’s probably unwise to walk around with head phone at full blast


Despite previous evidence to the contrary, duct tape does not solve every problem

Always wear your seatbelt


Rent/Bury/Buy
This modest sleeper was well discussed through 2008, even garnering an Independent Spirit Award nomination. It's a highly imperfect film, but certainly worth a viewing, if only to form your own opinion on what worked and didn't. There's a part of me that wished the entire film had been done in the brutal style of the first third and another part that wanted a full-length comedy with all the violent cruelty of the second segment. Ultimately, the triple action made this a unique experiment that has its low points, but succeeds at creating atypical scares and laughs. The DVD comes with a commentary and several extras, so it's an investment worth making if you enjoy violent horror and/or black and bloody comedy with a modern twist.