Documentary review: Gorenography

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Gorenography
Directed by Tony Newton
Tony Newton Productions
161 minutes, 2021
www.facebook.com/TonyNewtonFilm/

Gore, at its core, is body horror, and one of its subgenres is torture porn, hence the title of this nearly three-hour documentary, a combination of the “gore” and “pornography” wording. While much of my enjoyment is in the monsters / supernatural realm, I certain do enjoy a fun gorefest.

Gore can flow on different levels, from the silly and cartoon, to the realistic, to the real. I’ll take the first two, as I do not want to see real. Had enough of that in the likes of Cannibal Holocaust (1980), even if it was animals and not human snuff films. I remember laughing at the ending of Snuff (1975) and laughing at how unrealistic it was; however, I would not watch the Faces of Death series. When I saw Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (1983) in the theater, I laughed at the gore; the next day, at work, someone cut their finger open, and I could not look at it. So you know where I stand.

There are a few levels of gore films: you have the upper level of ones like Miike’s Audition (1999), and then you have the middle level which is rougher, like some of the Unearthed Cinema run by Stephen Biro (who, surprisingly to me, does not appear in this documentary) with the new American Guinea Pig series. Then you have what this focuses on, the extremely independent, transgressive, low-budget insanity, which is more where my general interest lies, quite honestly. If you pick up a camera and make films with your friends in the basement, there is a certain level of cool in that.

In the opening of this film, horror historian / writer / director / actor Tony Newton explains its premise: “This is a twisted crazy film here… If you like blood, if you like gore, if you like shock, if you like horror, you’re going to love this film. If you don’t like extreme horror, if you don’t like nudity…you pretty want to turn away now. This film is very extreme. We’ve got some sick films to show you, some shorts films, tons of trailers, tons of trash, and a lot of interviews with a lot of cool filmmakers.”

He is right, there is a lot going on in this, and quite honestly, what I am going to do to explain it, is to just show you the cleaned-up notes I took during the watching of it. And please note, there is way more than I mention. The film isn’t totally coherent in its format, because it goes beyond the usual talking heads broken up with some clips. This has a completely indie tone, which is more appropriate. I certainly enjoyed the obscurity level that brings it more to light. It’s not the usual suspects of directors from his previous documentaries, but more of an international feel and more obscure.

Thanks to COVID, a lot of the material is pretty up-to-date, including films release in 2021. Leave it to a worldwide pandemic to bring a documentary about deathly horror. Many of these films are so extreme and underground, they are not even listed on IMDB (the ones mentioned below without release dates). The ones in Italics are full features, quote marks indicate shorts. Also, films without dates are not IMDB listed.

And now for the notes:

Random trailers include The Driller Killer (1979), Tony Newton’s own Snuff Video (aka Snuff Underground X). Sometimes the listing of influences of the directors sound like the ‘thanks to” speeches at The Oscars.

Jonathan Doe, director and host of the “Cinemas Underbelly” [sic] channel, talks about how he got into horror. Released Carving the Cadaver 1-3, which shows actual human autopsies and also vomit fetish films such as Barf Bunnies; be warned, the trailers and some short clips are shown. Not for me; his film clips are the only ones I fast-forwarded over.

Wilhelm Müller

Wilhelm Müller, body piercer and body horror director from Austria; fake trailer for The Doctor and real one for In Nomine Satanae (which is close to Dakota Ray’s style). Clips are also shown from his films Exzessiv and Neighbor No. 9.

Zach Shildwacter (wearing a t-shirt of 1970s amputee porn star Long Jeanne Silver; no, I did not need to look it up), director Powerbomb (2020); the complete short “Solid Gold” is presented, which includes many Republican symbolisms, such as someone wearing a Trump mask and drag, and hitting a victim with a (I’m going to presume upside down) Bible.

René Weisner, director and producer of Mondo Siam (2020). Mainly talks about his films (with very short clips shown). Includes trailers of Mondo Siam and ABC’s of Superheroes (2015; reviewed HERE). 

Tony Newton

Tony Newton. trailers for VHS Lives: A Schlocumentary (2017), and Troma released and participated anthologies Grindsploitation 666 (2018) and Grindsploitation 9 (2021). Actually, there is a few Troma references in this entire film.

Davide Pesca, director, including Gore Grind (2020).

Mercedes the Muse

Moses and fetish model Mercedes the Muse, writers / directors, and founders of the sex and cinema “cult” the Underground Front: trailers of Troma-released Rose and Viktor: No Mercy (2017; directed by Moses) and Evul Twinz (2020; directed by Mercedes the Muse). Mercedes is the only female filmmaker who shows off nudity during the interviews. Moses tends to wear a Star Wars stormtrooper mask but still comes off as nerdy (I do too, so not an insult).

Lucky Cerruti: director and runs an underground distribution company called Dead Vision Productions. Long take on how he got into filmmaking. We are shown the opening clip – i.e., the prologue – to his film, Freak (2020); I would like to see this one.

Rob Ceus is from Belgium; Director and producer. His company is Terrorvisions Productions. Multiple clips included are from shorts like “ Bride Zombie” (2015; not to be confused with the yet released Zombie Bride) and Zombies from Sector 9 (2020).

Matti Soikkeli, a Finnish filmmaker who wears a skull mask to hide the lower half of his face and whose voice is digitally manipulated. We also see some clips of his films (probably taken from the trailers, considering the consistency of the music behind them, as with many of the short clips in the documentary), such as Born to Lose, Live to Die.

Michael "Mickey" Espinoza (d. May 2021) is also in a mask, full one this time, with an electronically altered, deep voice. Clips include ”The Games We Play” and others, such as “Pink Porcelain,” which looks like it was shot on a cellphone by the vertical frame.

Nathan Hine of Hardgore Core Productions. Writer, director and actor for a number of trailers we see, including the short teaser trailer for “The Last Days of Livermore” (2016) and The Sideling Hill (2019).

Super Tromette Double Dementia

Super Tromette Double Dementia: More like Double-D Dementia, with tons of cleavage, belly, legs and tatts. She plays a bimbo here in character, slinking back and forth in her trademark leather bikini like one of those hula dancers that sit on dashboards, while rubbing herself; but I’m willing to bet she is actually pretty damn smart in reality. I mean, she directed and edited the music video for “Cretins Sell Dope,” which we get to see, and is based on the Return to Nuke ‘Em High series. The band is Vanik and she’s the lead singer.

Harmony Filth keeps with the Troma theme, and presents a trailer for a short from the UK in which she appears, “Slutty the Clown” (2021). Speaking of which:

Joe Cash is the director of “Slutty the Clown” and shows a trailer for his “She Dogs of the SS” (2021), which gives away too much of the story, unless the trailer is actually the whole film.

End of notes.

For a three-hour sitting, this certainly kept my attention, waiting to see who was next, and so enjoying the interviews, clips, shorts, and trailers. The ending has a bit of a surprise that I wont reveal, but made me smile.

It is really worth checking out if you are into some of the extreme ends of horror, but like it cheap, down, and dirty. Tony is right in his introduction, this will not be for everyone, but you know your own tastes by this point, and if you like splatter, this will eat at your brains and give you a great list of new films to seek for your collection.

Trailer TBD

Documentary Review: Underground Horror

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Underground Horror
Directed by Tony Newton
Tony Newton Productions
119 minutes, 2021
www.facebook.com/TonyNewtonFilm/

Before the term independent – aka indie – was commonly used for low budget cinema not produced by a major studio, especially if it fell under the genres of art, transgression, exploitation, sexploitation, or blaxploitation, it was known as underground. The reason for this is that they were generally shown in showcases that were dives, such as along 42 Street or across America in what is known as Art Houses.

This could be anything from Andy Warhol’s early releases like Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), or the likes of Hershell Gordon Lewis’ The Wizard of Gore (1970) and The Gore Gore Girls (1972). This also include nudie flicks like those done by Doris Wishman, such as Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965).

Stylistically? Well, as one of the opening quotes in this documentary by director/writer/actor Phil “Chip” Herman states, “The difference between underground and mainstream movies is balls.” That can be taken both figuratively and literally. Jim Towns, the director of House of Bad (2012; reviewed HERE), essentially states that underground cinema is not bound to studio interference. This is true, as most indie films are created by the directors and writers directly, rather than through a third-party studio. This started to happen in the 1960s as underground films fought the Hays Office gatekeeping and theater monopolies, by going all the way to the Supreme Court, thanks to law suits due to the lack of distribution of a non-genre Italian film called Ladri di Bicilette (Bicycle Thieves; 1948).

Through the use of talking head interviews, this documentary on independent/underground horror is broken up into unofficial segments, such as defining what exactly is underground cinema, and how the interviewees, all of whom are in the field, began their careers and manage with such tiny budgets.

A large segment is about what they consider to be the most extreme film. The three that come up the most are no surprise, though they are not all, and their explanations about the films are interesting. They include Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom (1975), Nekromantik (1987), and the winner apparently is A Serbian Film (2010; reviewed HERE), which is being rereleased uncut soon by Unearthed Films. Writer and director Dane Keil gives an excellent analysis of it. As Tony Newton, this documentary’s director understandably says – and I agree – “It didn’t scare me as much as shocked me.”

Another topic is pondering the future of underground films. Surprisingly, this was not the last question. The general consensus was, and again, I agree, is that the future (and somewhat the present) is DIY: Do It Yourself. With the proliferation of technology for films, editing, etc., being made easier (many mention cell phones), it is only natural that the river of beginning filmmaking would flow that way; in my opinion, that started with Super 8mm and expanded with VHS. One thing not mentioned is that the process of homemade cinema has exponentially exploded with people staying home due to COVID. Not only has it lit a fire under the cause of homegrown filmmaking, but it has created new genres around social distancing and software such as Zoom; for example, this film this one, where no two people are in the same frame, and check out Zoë Bell’s “Boss Bitch Fight Challenge” on YouTube; reviewed HERE). 

Fortunately, the future for indie films looms positive, as is somewhat discussed within these parameters. Progression from outlets for these films have gone from dodgy cinemas to owning VHSs and DVDs, and now to streaming services, from specialists like Shudder, to bigger outlets like Amazon and Netflix, to finally the smaller venues, like TubiTV.

Another relatively surprising segment is about a film I have not yet seen, Circus of the Dead (2014). Fortunately, one of the stars of the film, Parrish Randall, and its director, Billy Pon appears among the present crowd. Amusingly, there is an 8x10 photo of Bozo on the wall behind Pon.

Speaking of which, most filmmakers are also collectors, and it is always fun to look behind the person speaking to see what films they are displaying on a shelf. Most collectors may need to watch this a second time without being distracted (a good thing) by the “Got it. Got it. Need it. Got it” consistent with the collecting bug. For example, Dustin Ferguson, the owner of SCS, now the U.S. Division of VIPCO Distribution, has numerous Tony Newton releases on a shelf behind him, such as VHS Lives and VHS Lives 2 (both 2017).

As with all of Newton’s documentaries, he has gathered his buddies to state their opinions and tell about themselves, such as filmmakers Jim Towns, Phil “Chip” Herman, Peter Goddard, Matthew Fisher, JD Ellenberger, Tim Ritter (Truth or Dare: A Critical Madness; 1986, reviewed HERE), the great Todd Sheets (such as Bonehill Road, reviewed HERE, but I have also reviewed others), and bringing up the Italian end, David Pesca and Domiziano Christopharo (Red Krokodil, 2012, Reviewed HERE; one of three of his features reviewed on this site). Others include writers/reviewers Martin Unsworth from Starburst, and the omnipresent Shawn C. Phillips, who has his own podcast.

Smartly, the talking heads are broken up with clips from numerous films, from the underrated Dreaming Purple Neon (reviewed HERE) to the more obvious ones like Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). There are also some behind the shoot scenes from Circus of the Dead during its section.

The only real drawback, in my opinion, is that this is a complete testosterone fest, as there are no female filmmakers included. Like the porn industry during the reign of the video nasties of the 1970s and ‘80s, the women are the draw, but they get the (no pun intended) short end of the production side credit, even though they were there.

The last section is about what the directors are working on now. It may be dated quickly once those works are released, but over time, it will be a fun nostalgia piece to look back upon.

Newton is quite prolific with his documentaries and his writings (including horror-related poetry), so I am looking forward to the next release, which should not be too much longer, especially as the COVID isolation continues.

Trailer TBD

Review: Virus of the Dead

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020

Images from the Internet

Virus of the Dead

Complied by Tony Newton; directed by Matthew Joseph Adams; Gordon Bressack; James Cullen Bressack; Dan Brownlie; Jarrett Furst; Keiron Hollett; Matt Twinski; Benjamin James; Hunter Johnson; Christopher Jolley; Jason Lorah; John T. Mickevich; Mark Alan Miller; Kiko Morah; Tony Newton; John Penney; Shawn C. Phillips; Nick Principe; Timo Rose; Shane Ryan; Emir Skalonia; Steven S. Voorman

Vestra Pictures / Wild Eye Releasing / MVD Entertainment

102 minutes, 2018 / 2019

www.wildeyereleasing.com

www.mvdb2b.com

Tony Newton is a Brit who loves to keep his hands in the horror field, including books, poetry, documentaries, fiction films, and so on. For this anthology, he came up with a great idea: he had people involved in the genre create their own little films ranging from short, solo bits, to longer ones with some narrative to them. Then he strung them together to create a worldwide epidemic, and generate the ultimate found footage zombie collection.

The film starts with the “headline” act, “American Virus,” starring and co-written by Katheryn Eastwood. Rather than talking to an empty chair like her dad, she converses with the camera with a snide “fuck you” attitude as she and her cronies are the ones to start the outbreak via injections for… revolution? Disruption of the status quo? I’m not sure, but whatever the reason, it’s bloody, quickly edited, and with lots of motion of the camera. In fact, in some of the clips, there is a risk of motion sickness worse than Cloverfield (2008) or The Blair Witch Project (1999), other times completely steady, sometimes including digital “noise.”

Most of the pieces are filmed on cell phones and laptops, with the files uploaded to Newton. These clips are international, so occasionally there’s another language (with translation), which makes the varied perspectives additionally interesting. More often than not the person on the other end is talking directly to the camera with swings around to show what’s going on near by them, expressing different levels of desperation. Which brings me to my next point.

Some of the pieces are stand-alone, and others are serial. What I mean by that is there are sections that come and go with a single filming. Some of the more interesting ones are those that come back at different times as situations worsen. For example, there is a series of segments with horror actor/vlogger Shawn C. Phillips: in the first, he’s taking the whole thing pretty casually, locked down in his basement with his film collection, figuring he’ll just wait it out. But each time we come back, food and water is running low and eventually there’s no electricity; it gets more and more dire. Another, “Face to Face,” has a couple who are Skyping (FaceTime? We Chat?) while he is in the States and she is in Myanmar (“I panicked,” for those who get the reference). Each time we come back to them – and this really is one of my fave pieces, – the situation goes from “what the hell” to sheer terror, bit by bit.

What comes out in the long run is people trying to adjust into a “new normal” as the world eats itself up, and trying desperately and literally not to be on the menu. This new reality is actually what television shows like “The Walking Dead” and films like ZOO (2019) are about, as much as the zombie apocalypse. Different people react to the situation in various ways, the oddest one being a couple of horror wannabe filmmakers who gleefully film killing zombies for their “epic.” But who is going to watch it “with the world in a grave” as the P.F. Sloan song “Eve of Destruction” posits?

At least the film occasionally deals with camera batteries dying as electricity starts to begin waning, as would happen. It’s a pet peeve of mine in found footage when people film for days on one battery. I have to recharge my phone daily, and I don’t usually use the movie features. And don’t get me started about the energy it takes to upload all these videos that the dying world is posting to a server no one is watching over.

There’s a couple of things that I find interesting, one directly and one larger than the film itself. First, even with a multitude (legion?) of different filmmakers and styles, there generally is a similar pattern, either the characters running around with the camera/cell phone, or with the camera mounted and pointing directly at the person of focus. I’m sure with some, it’s actually taken directly from the laptop camera on the top of the monitor, but no matter what the source, there is a consistency in the pattern of how the film is done. Found footage has become as much a staple of the horror genre as selfies, in general. This is a mixture of both.

What I find most fascinating, though, is the thought behind the need to film oneself, even as the world is dying. As a culture, we have become so inundated by not just the selfie, but the mentality behind it that has us believing we all matter and the world is going to care what we have to say, even if it endangers oneself or those we love (case in point the father who keeps filming his wife and his new spankin’ kid even as the undead are metaphorically breathing down their necks).

If the world is actually in the middle of the Z-Apoc, it’s just a very short matter of time before society as we know it ends, and the means for anyone else to see what you have filmed will be gone with it. That we would feel the need to keep on shooting the video selfie to show everyone / anyone / no one we ever existed is futile. Even if the footage remained beyond your body’s existence, who would have the means to see it? As much as this is a fictional film about zombies, it is also an exercise in just how vain and egocentric we are.

Just go to YouTube and check out videos people make of themselves in confrontations with others in parking lots, stores, fast food restaurants, etc., shouting, “I’m putting this on YouTube!,” hoping for it to go viral. Well, when the Z-Apoc goes literally viral, you and what happens to you is like dust in the wind. As I said, it is this mentality that I find really fascinating about this film, whether purposeful as a sociological study or just an exercise in anthology.

The gore is plentiful throughout, with some pieces being more so than others, most of it looking quite spectacular – my fave was a zombie ripping the skin off someone’s back. Most anthologies are kind of hit and miss, but this one is actually quite good throughout, with very few submissions that didn’t work, such as one where a guy is talking very slowly with the camera just inches from his face; luckily, it’s pretty short.

This is a fine effort that deserves to be added to the zombie canon, and I recommend it as everyone on this film is obviously a fan of the genre, and have contributed their love for it as a bigger body of work.

Documentary Review: VHS Nasty

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019

Images from the Internet

VHS Nasty (aka VHS Nasty: VHS Lives 3)

Directed by Tony Newton

Shlock Films / Vestra Pictures

95 minutes, 2019

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XMJ4J1L?camp=1634&creativeASIN=B07XMJ4J1L&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=just016-21

www.hive.co.uk/Product/VHS-Nasty/24079561

www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-vhs-nasty-tony-newton/34015864

https://alchemywerks.com/product/vhs-nasty/

I’m on a bunch of horror Facebook groups where I mostly keep good company; it seems, however, that the holy trinity of big obsessions of modern horror fandom is Freddy, Jason and Michael. Maybe Chucky playing the cameo as the baby Jesus and Pennywise as the nanny, as well. While I will not poo-poo on anyone’s tastes, and I actually quite like those films, too, compared to some of the stuff that was coming out on VHS in the 1980s, it pales in comparison. Mother’s Day, Cannibal Holocaust, Faces of Death, I Spit on Your Grave, and any of several Italian cinema releases, were all beyond the realm of WTF at the time.

In America, we had passed through the days of the Hays Office, a gatekeeping film industry body that set strict guidelines on what can and cannot be seen or said onscreen. It ended in the late 1960s, when the Rating System was started. Everything exploded in the ‘70s and took hold into the VHS period of the ‘80s, as the pendulum swung the other way. Meanwhile, in England, where this documentary originates, there were some restrictions, but nothing as harsh or consistent (Hollywood was the main output for cinema, so the focus was stronger there) until the advent of VHS, where control of the British film viewing was taken away from theaters by marketers and video stores. The film industry and government were not pleased.

The British government set up a censorship board against what was deemed as “video nasties,” or films this august group of older women decided the rest of the populace should not see, as they considered them too violent, sexually explicit, or sexually violent. If I may digress for a sec, the different between gatekeeping and censorship is that the former is set up within an industry to police it (the Hays Office; the Ratings Board), while censorship is from an outside organization (e.g., church groups, government); either way, the control is usually over-enforced.

This film focuses on the effect of British “nasties” on modern day filmmakers who were exposed to these pariahs in their youth, including the likes of Jim Towns, Jason Figgis, Shawn C. Phillips, Domiziano Christopharo, Tony Newton (the director of this release) – all of whom have had work that has been reviewed on this blog – as well as many others. The biggest name to contribute here, even though he is also an indie director, is the irrepressible Lloyd Kaufman (who only lends his voice). This international group of talking heads discuss what it was like to be a fan and try to get hold of this illicit merchandise, and its effect on them. Note that all of them are involved in the independent side of filmmaking, where all the truly interesting releases are now coming from (in my opinion), much as the nasties were back in the day. For example, one of the banned films from back then in England (but not the States) is Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a touchstone to many of the people interviewed.

There is a bit of repetition as these monster menches discuss their memories of watching these delights, and it is quite fascinating. What also drew my attention was looking behind them at their collections, some with mixed media (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray), masks, posters and other film memorabilia. This is the kind of trivia I find fascinating along with the main subject matter being discussed.

I also found it quite relatively beguiling the various levels to which some agreed on some censorship in certain cases. Child abuse, of course, is a given, but one, for example, says he can see more censorship leaning towards the human slasher than the fantasy of Evil Dead (yes, that was also on the nasties list thanks to a certain tree branch). On one hand, I can understand the general difference between human monsters vs. zombies and creatures; but where would you fit in supernatural unkillable killing machines in a human form doing unsupernatural murders (again, Jason, Michael and their ilk). This could be an interesting debate.

Also, while some are opposed to any censorship, others believe it’s okay to put a sticker on the box (this would be more classic gatekeeping than censorship), like the PMRC wanted to do to music around this time in the States. With films though, if you listed “necrophilia” on the sticker, as one person interviewed suggests be done, that is kind of a spoiler to what goes on in the film; and as someone else points out, for others it would just make it more enticing to watch or own.

Because of the illegality of renting these nasties, it created a black market of bootleg versions of the films of various and dubious qualities, and many a fan was turned on to the horror genre not quite making out what was on the screen thanks to murky visuals. I remember even the legit copies of VHS not exactly being clear due to the medium itself. Add fifth generation copies, and yikes.

One of my favorite parts of this was each relating their favorite films, why that was so, and what was too much for them, if anything. That is not to say there is still that level of video nasties out there, such as much of the catalog of extreme video labels like Unearthed.

Someone in this film mentions that when censorship is employed, eventually whatever they are trying to repress becomes the norm. While I believe that to be an oversimplification, on some level it’s true that it becomes more widely accepted in the long run.

Others interviewed include Dustin Ferguson, Peter Goddard, producer John West, Nathan Hill, Gary Smart, Christopher Griffiths, Jimmie Gonzalez, Richard Mogg (with fake blood on his face), Mathew Fisher, and Richard Chandler. It’s definitely a boy’s club, sadly, with the exception of actress Julie Anne, who appears right near the end. I wish there would have been more women involved, as they are quickly becoming a large part of what used to be a male dominated fan base.

As for added visuals, there are short clips from a smattering of the trailers mentioned in the documentary (Don’t Look in the Basement, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.), some artistically altered stills from said pix, and some decent editing (i.e., the interview clips are not long, but fortunately they don’t zip by as if they were for someone with the attention span of a flea, either). There is also a low background sound of reels feeding into a projector and some VHS visual “noise” added to the images.

My only two complaints are that the descriptive cards for each person are only shown once, and with my memory, it would have been a help to repeat them at some point; the other, as I said before, is that there needs to be more women interviewed, as women are fully integrated into the horror genre, I’m happy to say.

This film is actually part of a trilogy (so far) that includes Newton’s tome, VHS Nasty: The Essential Guide Book to Video Nasties, and also his Horror Movie Poetry book related to these films. I would like to see it expand to a fourth, perhaps as a documentary about the filmmakers, cast and crew of the nasties themselves. They’re dropping like flies as time passes (Romero in 2017, Craven in 2015, Fulci in 1996, etc.), so this is a good time to do it. Meanwhile, this documentary of their influences is still a milestone.

Review: Welcome to Hell

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet

Welcome to Hell

Directed by Tony Newton (bookends and collection), Michael Agular,
James Cullen Bressack, Brad Bruce, Colin Clarke, Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen,
Jeff Kacmarynski, Sam Mason-Bell
Vestra Pictures / Wild Eye Releasing / MVD Entertainment
92 minutes, 2018
www.wildeyereleasing.com
www.mvdb2b.com

Sure, anthology films can be hit and/or miss, but that’s part of their charm. Don’t like this story? Next! Usually, there’s a thread or bookends that ties them all together, sometimes loosely, others not at all. In some cases, the collection is designed to be created for the thread, and in some of those situations, the stories may even overlap. Other sets are put together independently, with the director of the thread being the one to gather them, much like a collection of short stories with an annotated prologue. This particular one from the UK is the latter, taking films from the international level and assembling them.

The bookends here are of a couple who receive a mysterious VHS tape through the mail slot, and watch these tales of hopefully terror. Yeah, it’s a well-worn trope, especially after Ringu (and its various sequels and versions made in other countries – and they are lots), but it’s fine because it’s just the bits tying things together, usually with a “surprise” at the end. In this case these bookends are inconsequential and probably could have been left out, honestly. The meat is in the shorts (get yer mind outta da gutter), which are separated only by VHS “noise.” All the better for it.

The first story is Michael Agular’s “After Hours” from 2016, starring the great Bill Oberst, Jr., one of the most naturalistic genre actors around. He never disappoints. Here is plays a police detective out to solve a late-night (hence the title) mysterious murder in a religious charity thrift store. Of course, the religious (Christian) theme ties in with the title of this collection. The ending is quick, so pay attention. Personally, I don’t think the short achieved its goal to scare because not enough information is given about what (a) happened to the employee, (b) the guy in the hoodie, and (c) well, the ending (not going to give it or any other spoilers).

Next up is Colin Clarke’s 2015 “Slit,” from Ecuador, though the extremely minimal dialog is dubbed into English. We meet two women who, apparently, have just met each other, and decided to continue their – err – conversation at home undressed. The film is beautifully shot with Dario Argento-ish bright primary colors, and for a long time we see mostly partial faces (lips kissing, close-up of eyes), but not the whole cara at once. With some quick editing (but not dizzying) the hot pulse of the moment is cinematically translated. Into their life comes someone with some sharpies (hence the title), as well as coming into our view is some (primary?) red herrings. This short was nicely done.

Following is James Cullen Bressack’s 2013 “Family Time.” In shades of To Die For (1995) with a special and sick twist, Susan (Calico Cooper, daughter of Alice) welcomes us to her nightmare mentality as she manipulates her teenage son to do something terrible. So far, this is the most uncomfortable piece, and just the idea alone of it as than anything that happens onscreen. The question is, as we see, how far she will go to manipulate those that she professes to love to destroy those she hates. And the ending is quite satisfying in a really creepy, organic way that’s bound to make you say eww. Nice blood SFX along the way.

So, it makes sense that next up continues the family theme of sorts with Jeff Kacmarynski’s 2014 “Dead Therapy.” While it’s easy to pick up the clues of what is going to happen, this is still a pretty fun and original story about a 12-step style support group of the survivors of a two-week Zombie outbreak. A new member joins and we get to hear the horrific stories of all these stalwart and damaged people who had to do soul-crushing deeds of survival and are now all PTSD-laden. While predictable in some ways, it is worth the watch.

Following is the brief 8:21 Danish short (in English) by Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen, 2016’s “Lucid.” Shown as a dream sequence, this is a really interesting nugget of deep psychological schizophrenia of a depressed man. It felt like under 5 minutes because it was so absorbing. The visual image look is like VHS warm and fuzzy, but the story is anything but those two things.

Many times the best of the group either leads to entice the viewer until the end, or it is put at the end as a showcase. In this case, Brad Bruce’s 2015 “Maternal Instincts” ends the series with a bang. Scream Queen Felissa Rose (if you don’t know who she is, look her up) plays a mysterious woman who is picked up in a bar by some tall-but-not-too-smart egocentric gangster lout, and gets over-drugged by this asshole in a subtle commentary about date rape culture. But, of course, you know things aren’t what they appear, and there will be hell to pay. It’s a smart piece, and again, on some level you can see what will come, though the method is held to the end in a very satisfying way. Some of the acting is a bit clunky here and there, but the story holds well.

As a set, this is a nice combination of various genres, from the psychological to the slasher to a couple of creature features. It’s well rounded, the stories are all intriguing in one form or another, and with the exception of the bookends, they are just the right amount of attention grabbers. I didn’t skip over anything, which I rarely do anyway, but with a short, it’s actually more tempting than a feature. Not here: it’s watchable straight through.

Extras are a bunch of fun Wild Eye Releasing trailers, including this one.