I am a fan of anthologies, especially when it comes to the horror variety. Looking back we have seen a number of these and only a few are really worth mentioning. My favorite being Creepshow which combined the powers of Steven King’s writing and George Romero’s direction. There are others like Body Bags, Tales from the Darkside and Twilight Zone. All of these movies were pretty solid and spawned a series of crappy knock offs that did nothing but ruin anthology type horror movies over time.
More recently there has been somewhat of a rebirth with the likes of Little Deaths and the movie being reviewed here, The Theater Bizarre. Is this the second coming horror anthology fans have been waiting for? Let’s grab a seat and take a look into 6 different tales of bizarre horror.
The frame work for this anthology involves a young girl who sees a theater in her travels and eventually decides to see what awaits her inside. Once inside we are greeted by the ever familiar Udo Kier in some odd puppet role introducing each short as we move along. I did not catch a deep wrap around story with Mr. Kier and the other puppets but it is creepy and works none the less.
The film boasts 6 separate vignettes that are each shot by a different film maker. Hardcore horror fans will recognize names like Tom Savini, Douglas Buck and Buddy Giovinazzo as they are some of the directors involved. Each of these shorts has a different feel and I cannot call them horror really as much as just plain bizarre. Overall they work and provide a unique ride for the 114 minutes spent viewing.
Mother of Toads was the first, offering and follows a young couple as they travel countryside photographing various things. They come across a street vendor/witch who convinces them to visit her later to see a copy of The Book of the Dead. This short lacked any true building prior to the boring outcome. There are practical effects here that work, but over all this one is not a high point of this anthology.
I Love You is the next vignette and it follows an obsessed alcoholic husband who is about to lose his wife to another man. This is a pretty classic tale and at first I was a little bored as the acting itself is pretty lacking. The bad German accents did not help to bring any realism. After about 5 minutes I really started to get what Giovinazzo was trying to accomplish here. It is hard to say without spoiling it but this is one of the better shorts on the disc.
Wet Dreams would be up next and being Savini’s entry I expected some decent acting and gore. This story follows an unfaithful husband as the lines of reality and fantasy seem to blur. The effects here were pretty solid and creepy as hell (as a male viewer I winced more than once) but it never seemed to get off the ground. I really enjoy Savini’s work but why the hell does he need to act in everything he touches now? This story was also not one of the better pieces in the group.
Douglas Buck’s The Accident was up next and also the shortest feature in this series. At first I was super confused as to why this story was included. We are following a child’s first introduction to death via a motorcycle accident involving a deer. This cannot be classified as horror really but it is super effective and I really liked the music combined with the voice-over work.
Vision Stains is probably the oddest and most original story of this disc. We follow a young women who lives in the slums and prays on drug addicts. The kicker here is what she seeks. She takes a needle and removes fluid from the eye and injects it in her own eye. The eye fluid injected allows her to see visions her victims did. She then takes these visions and writes them down in story form. This one was odd and hard to watch at times (all the eyeball and needle action) but well worth the short amount of time the story sucks up. Out of all the included vignettes Vision Stains could easily be fleshed out into a full feature.
Our last story is probably the most disturbing one but what could be wrong with a story called Sweets. We follow a troubled couple that seems to on the brink of separation on behalf of the girlfriend. The boyfriend pleads and cries to her as he stuffs his mouth with sweets. The entire time we watch flash backs of her gorging him on various sweet treats that led to this broken man. She finally agrees to stay with him as they will meet up later.
This last story goes right into the bizarre and never stops for a second. The viewer should pickup on social commentary as this one seems to play in it almost the entire time. I am not sure what the entire intention was here but things end on a high note, at least a high note horror fans will appreciate.
There will also be a small ending wrapping up the framing story about our young girl who could not resist this odd theater. The ending to Mr. Kier’s story seemed blah when compared to what we just saw but did an ok job to close what it opened.
Pros
A few really interesting stories
Good effects and gore
Sound and music are solid
Cons
A few crappy stories
Is The Accident even really a horror story?
Most of the acting is sub par
If this is the direction horror anthology’s are headed, count me in. Upon firing this up I was ultra leery because of how many of these I have turned off or just plain skipped. If you are looking for a decent variety and something different The Theater Bizarre may be just your cup of tea. If you are expecting an air tight paint-by-the-numbers horror flick you may want to go check your local box offices as they are always full of them.
