Deadtime Stories (2011, R)

 

I made the mistake of accidentally watching volume 2 of this series before volume 1 (consecutive days, so not a huge gap), so my supreme disappointment with v2 might have tempered my impression of v1.  V1 is way better, if not great.  Famed horror director George Romero (Day Of The Dead) hosts these anthologies of three short horror films each, with a different director for each story (some directorial overlap between volumes).  Romero keeps a pulpy-horror feel and really reminds me of the Cryptkeeper, and he might actually be my favorite part of the films.  In each volume, the stories get less and less bad as we progress through the 3 stories, such that the later ones could have been adapted from a decent short story fiction.  In v1, the first story was completely "blah", but the second one was actually a decent mermaid story (I kid you not).  It showed and/or implied history to the characters and made a creative tale that I did not think possible.  The third tale in v1 had some pretty cool cinematographic choices and decent writing.  All of the stories had pretty bad acting (actually the second tale in v1 was not so bad).

So, for a B-movie horror anthology, you could do worse than Volume 1 of Deadtime stories.  Just make sure you're in the mood for very non-professional-grade.  If you liked Creepshow, then odds are you'll like v1 here.  For me, this is probably a 3.5 star movie.  Depending on the mood (snowstorm at night, lots of blankets), this could be a fun time, but nothing you need to run out and grab.

Volume 2 unfortunately pales in comparison to Tales Of The Crypt or pretty much any other anthology I've seen.  For example, it's been years since I've seen Trilogy of Terror, but that one scared the night of the living piss out of me!  Anyway, v2 is pretty lame.  If you're a huge fan of anthology horror stories AND you like the feel of a horror story that gets back to the roots of low-budget 70's horror (cheap gore and some boobs), then you'll like this one, but otherwise, don't bother.  If you really liked v1, then you might like v2.  I like some substance or at least something creative (story, plot, characters, monster... something!) and this didn't really deliver.  For a pulpy-feel fun anthology movie, go with Creepshow or Tales From The Hood.  Oh, and you're not going to want to be eating anything during the first story.  Fair warning.  For me, this is like 1.5-2 stars.  It didn't made me as angry as some other movies I've seen, but it was pretty bad.