Rating: 2.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2016 | 25/52 | Horror Anthology
The concept is four horror shorts directed by women. Horror anthologies are always a mixed bag, and horror shorts are difficult to nail.
I like everyone involved in this, but they’ve all done better work.
The in-between scenes are creepy stop-motion toys. There isn’t a plot, but there is an arc. They’re my favorite part of this.
The Box — Jovanka Vuckovic *.5 Natalie (Natalie Brown) and her kids, Danny and Jenny, are on the subway during Christmastime. A man with a red box intrigues Danny. When the man shows Danny, Danny’s face falls. When Jenny asks what it is, he says nothing.
Later, Danny isn’t interested in eating dinner. The next day, he avoids breakfast, skipped lunch, and doesn’t want dinner again. Robert, his father, is worried, but Natalie assumes it’s a stunt.
We know it has something to do with what was in the box. And that Danny doesn’t care if he dies.
The story feels less like horror and more like House MD. The narration is too much and takes away from the mood.
Jonathan Watton, who plays Robert, tanks his scenes with an aggressively maudlin performance to everyone else’s naturalism.
The Birthday Party — Annie Clark * Mary (Melanie Lynskey) wakes up and anxiously decorates the house for a birthday. The decorations are all in black and white. Carla (Shiela Vand) helps her get things ready.
Mary goes into her husband David’s office and finds him dead. She continues without letting Carla or her daughter, Lucy, know.
The story is what would be the motivating backstory in a horror film for why the lead is fucked up.
The music is overbearing and suggests far more tension than what’s onscreen.
The color and cinematography feel like a music video, which I guess goes along with the barrage of music. The concept itself feels like what would back a music video — perhaps why it feels vacant without a song to accompany it.
Joe Swanberg makes an uncredited appearance as a birthday panda.
I love several of the folks involved, but I admit I don’t get it.
Don’t Fall — Roxanne Benjamin **.5 Gretchen (Breeda Wool), her partner, Jess (Angela Trimbur), her brother, Paul (Casey Adams), and their friend, Jay (Morgan Krantz), go hiking up a mountain. They find some old Native American wall paintings.
Everyone fucks with Gretchen — pretending to push her off the mountain or getting hurt.
Gretchen wakes up in a cave with more paintings depicting a monster.
This short is horror. It’s not the most captivating idea, but it’s pretty fun.
Her Only Living Son — Karyn Kusama ***.5 Cora wakes up to her panting dog, Kipper. She goes to check on her sleeping son, Andy. They are hiding from Andy’s father, a Hollywood actor.
Cora finds a squirrel nailed to a tree — Andy’s doing. She attends a conference at Andy’s school, where she learns that Andy tore another girl’s nails off. But the principal lets him off because the school believes he is a prodigy.
Thank god for some thematic material! The short explores how society protects violent men from consequences, punishing the victims more than the men themselves.
It has such an uncanny quality. Even when the story’s direction becomes clear, it keeps the tension and ambiguity up.