# Horror Anthology Movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294 "2013-11-07T01:31:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/1 "2013-11-07T01:31:13Z")
My best **fiend** just released a DVD called _Horror Anthology Movie Volume One_. It comprises six short horror films by him and other people I know. ‘NO zombies, NO vampires, NO slashers’. I was supposed to direct one, but my life leaves no time for filmmaking. ☹ He told me it worked out better logistically though, since I’m 2,500 miles away. I suspect I may have gotten a DVD for Christmas from him, but I wanted to support the effort and bought one. I’ve just now popped it into the player. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/2 "2013-11-07T02:30:27Z")
Well…it’s been an hour, how was it? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/3 "2013-11-07T03:06:09Z")
> [@Meatros](#): > > Well…it’s been an hour, how was it? I’m not sure it would be fair of me to write an actual review since I know the filmmakers. If I give a glowing report, I might be accused of favouritism. If I pan it, I might be accused of nitpicking so as not to be accused of favouritism. 😛 I’ve watched two of the six stories; _The Cordyceps Principle_, about a nature photographer who comes upon a solution to his situation with his domineering wife; and _Five Miles Straight Ahead_, about Black infantry soldiers in WWII who suffer from some sort of illness. These two films, by different writers and directors, have a sort of _Twilight Zone_ feel to them. The visual style of _The Cordyceps Principle_ reminds me a bit of Dario Argento. And now it’s time to watch _The Thing In The Shed_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/4 "2013-11-07T04:16:54Z")
_The Thing In The Shed_. That’s what I’m talkin’ about! Nice little horror story, fit into about 20 minutes. The classic creepiness got my pulse up a little. The creaking door got the cat’s attention. _Section 49_ reminded me a bit of early David Lynch. It had a bit of an _Eraserhead_ vibe. Like _Eraserhead_, it helps to just experience it and make sense of it later. Shown in glorious black-and-white. Hm… I wonder how it would be to watch it on acid? _Blood Of A Saint_ was made by the artist behind _Monsterhead_. The ‘actors’ in it were styrofoam puppets manipulated with sticks. The subject matter and the sheer bizarrity of it – a guy with feelings of sexual inadequacy, and a doctor who has a bit of a parts bank – will be off-putting to some. I found it more funny than horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/5 "2013-11-07T13:32:25Z")
Is this online somewhere? How might others watch it? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/6 "2013-11-07T15:07:04Z")
> [@Meatros](#): > > Is this online somewhere? How might others watch it? [Three-minute trailer on this page](http://vimeo.com/ondemand/horroranthologymovie). Even though I was not involved in this project, I wanted to avoid ‘promotion’ or ‘advertising’. But I’ve only just poured my second cuppa joe, and I’m not awake enough to find another site with the trailer. … Last night I watched _Footage Found, Arabi_ ([Trailer](http://vimeo.com/71548962)). The DVD box says ‘Found footage within footage found. Writer H.P. Lovecraft visits New Orleans in June, 1932 and we discover some of his works of fiction are based upon blood curdling reality.’ Had I been able to participate, this is the segment I would have directed. I had my own ideas as to how it would have played, based on watching zillions of hours of documentary and archive footage. I thought the audio, especially, was a little too ‘clean’. But you know what? I didn’t make this film! I’m not the one with the motivation to get out there and get the job done. No, I was sitting up here crunching data while my friend was actually _doing_ something. It’s a good segment that plays (to me) like a _Tales From The Darkside_ episode. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/7 "2013-11-07T16:07:58Z")
OK, the synapses still aren’t operating at 100% efficiency; but let me see… A thought occurred to me after watching the first two segments last night. I thought, 'Wow. These films remind me of the heyday of horror films in the ‘80s.’ I thought about posting that back then, such films were more innovative because filmmakers were trying to put new spins on old themes, or trying to come up with new ones. It was a time of experimentation that, I hope, is returning now that filmmaking is an endeavour available to the masses. The wife of a friend back then used to say of movie monsters, ‘Ah, you’re too ugly to be scary.’ Of course monsters are usually hideous. But I think her point was that some films relied on make-up and shock instead of good stories. Nothing happened in _The Exorcist_ during the first 45 minutes, but it was a very scary film. Nowadays, horror films go straight to the gore and pile on the CGI without bothering to actually develop a story. Watching _Horror Anthology Movie_, I knew that these were short films (20-30 minutes each); yet the filmmakers made the effort to develop their stories instead of jumping right into blood’n’guts. Last night I didn’t quite know how to say that they reminded me of the experimentation of the '80s. This morning I found [this review](http://madmikethehippiebum.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-review-of-horror-anthology-movie.html): > [@](#): > > Like most fans, I believe that horror movies peaked in the 70s and 80s. The mass market “slice up the girl” formula had yet to be discovered and the grammar of modern horror films had yet to be set in stone. Creative experimentation was at an all time high and the boundaries of what was acceptable were still being tested. > > The most striking difference between modern horror and films of this comparative golden age is the staggering wealth of diversity back then… > > \ > > “Horror Anthology Movie Volume One”… attempts to capture the spirit of the horror anthologies of old, like “Creepshow” or “Tales From the Crypt”… [T]he film makers have taken the opportunity to think outside the box and with the freedom of autonomy have produced an anthology of wildly differing approaches to the horror genre… And that sums up what I was thinking last night. I like _The Walking Dead_, but it’s a soap opera that is basically a vehicle to display gore effects. It’s not a patch on George Romero’s _Night Of The Living Dead_, which had humour, social commentary, gore (without computer f/x!), and scares. Gore for the sake of gore is fun. But I like a story. _Horror Anthology Movie_ has nice make-up f/x. It also has stories. And all of the effects were practical effects, not computer-generated. I think the best segments are _Thing In The Shed_ and _The Cordyceps Principle_. They’re also the ones with the best ‘monsters’. _Five Miles Straight Ahead_ makes good use of limited resources. I think this one was the most ‘_Twilight Zone_’ of the segments. _Blood Of A Saint_ is an odd one. As the review linked earlier says, ‘The film plays more for laughs than scares but maintains a dark and disturbing tone which fits right in with this motley collection.’ I think if I were making it, I would have done it with live actors and would have gone more for the horror. I like artistic experimentation; but I was thinking as I watched it, ‘I’m so glad the SO isn’t here. She’d complain about the subject matter.’ (She also thinks some of the films I like are ‘stupid’.) It reminded me a bit of _Meet The Feebles_. _Section 49_ is very ‘Lynchian’, from the black-and-white photography, to a close-up that the filmmaker dwells upon long enough for it to become disturbing, to the disjointed nature of the story. If you like sparkly vampires or angst-ridden teenaged whatevers, this is not the collection for you. If you’re looking for flesh-eating zombies that kill and are killed in the most amusing and gory ways possible, this is not the collection for you. _Horror Anthology Movie Volume One_ is about getting away from that sort of thing. _The Exorcist_ had a long build-up. We didn’t see the _Alien_ until well into the film. _The Haunting_ (1963) shows virtually nothing, and yet it is one of the scariest films of all time. _Horror Anthology Movie Volume One_ is a collection of films by filmmakers outside of the ‘system’, who don’t want to follow the latest trends, and who want to present something different in a limited amount of time and with tiny budgets. I think it’s a good effort. Oh, and I just thought of something. I was First Unit Photography on _Night For Nixie_. It was fun seeing clips of it show up on a TV in _The Cordyceps Principle_. There were a couple of other ‘in-references’ in one of the other films, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horror-anthology-movie/673294/8 "2013-11-07T23:01:18Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > _Blood Of A Saint_ is an odd one. As the review linked earlier says, ‘The film plays more for laughs than scares but maintains a dark and disturbing tone which fits right in with this motley collection.’ I think if I were making it, I would have done it with live actors and would have gone more for the horror… _Section 49_ is very ‘Lynchian’, from the black-and-white photography, to a close-up that the filmmaker dwells upon long enough for it to become disturbing, to the disjointed nature of the story. After reporting my thoughts to my friend, he emailed back and said those were his thoughts ‘exactly. And I mean almost exactly’.