Weird Fiction

All too often we see horror flicks pumped out that rely on reboots, jump scares, C-rated cameos and...Christ are we adapting copy-pasta now?

Weird Fiction breaks that mold while paying homage to the golden age of horror films. Viewers are led through four stories with vastly different themes; each one a traditional genre with modern twists applied to them.

We are chaperoned between stories by The Collector; a Crypt Keeper-esque character with a heart of mold. Played delightfully by writer-director Jacob Perrett.

Episode one, "Goodnight, Daddy, " is a throwback to classic slasher flicks. Including a fantastic Inside-The-Mask shot.

Story two, "Night of the Sitter," brings us a demonic monster in the form of a babysitting gig gone wrong.

Short three, "The Incubus," is the most abstract of the collection. A fantastic blend of art house-horror that mashes mythologies in a way that I'd never seen before.

Fourth, and last, is the alien invasion themed, "Cosmic Terror." It begins like E.T. with girl-meets-alien in a heartwarming fashion. Though that heart quickly goes from warmed to stabbed repeatedly as the "terror" in "Cosmic Terror" comes into play.

This is an indie film that deserves major recognition. Its cinematography, lighting, editing and scoring are more inspired than most of the recent horror films pumped out of Hollywood.

Several actors appear in multiple stories throughout the film. Their dialogue is well-written and delivered with flawless timing and inflections. With stand-out performances by Taylor Rhoades (who is in all four), Isabella Rodriguez (two stories) and Matt Male (two stories).

Be sure to check out Weird Fiction if you're a fan of retro-horror, indie films or are just looking for a neo classic horror movie.

This is a homegrown (a crowd-funded production by fans) and straight-forward horror anthology, obvious homage to Tales from Crypt TV show. Actors seemed to re-appear in the different vignettes, each story spooled by a host called The Collector (whose laughter is definitely from Tales from the Crypt).

This film is for hardcore 80s horror films, in some of the stories have referenced particular scenes from films like Nightmare on Elm St. Part 2. It's effects are mostly practical, with the "man-in-rubber suit" conventions. The average viewer will probably not get it's charm referencing 80s horror.

Most likely, it will disregarded as a low budget horror production. But it definitely has "heart" from horror movie fans. Its charm is what most mainstream productions like American Horror Story have appropriated from recent independent horror that uses 80s aesthetics from synthesized electronic music to visual title cards.

One of the stories that stood out was one, an unlucky romance between a psychotic and a vampire. other stories delved into monsters, sci-fi and murderers. It's good comfort horror celluloid; this for 80s fans of popular horror cinema.

Its short and to the point. I was ready to turn it off but something kept my attention. The dialogue I think is what did it for me. The grainy filter and cheesy dialogue. The acting is good enough that it fits the style here. My only complaint is the ending of each segment. I feel like they coulda wrote better endings but they're good enough. At 86 minutes it's a fun little ride. I've seen worse with bigger budgets and less movie in them. "Cute little buggers" immediately comes to mind.

Told by the Collector, a series of short horror-stories are told involving the peril that could befall teens and young kids.

The Good Stor(ies): Goodnight, Daddy-Preparing for their school dance, a group of friends find their plans derailed when they hear about a slew of missing person cases in town. Knowing that a serial killer is haunting the town and trying to keep his identity a secret, they team up with a family member to stop the culprit. This was a solid effort. The idea of the killers' secret identity means a solid list of red herrings throughout here which provides some great suspense during the series of encounters here that try to shift the blame to various individuals. When the real identity is known, the stalking becomes fun and has some nice kills here as a result, which is only undone by the somewhat overlong finale which is quite cliched and makes no sense.

Night of the Sitter-Agreeing to babysit for the night, a teen meets his girlfriends' weird brother and dummy that he keeps around to protect him from the monsters in his closet. Realizing the stories were true all along, the two team up to save his house from the predatory creature inside. Overall, this was a highly enjoyable segment. The early setups involving the babysitting antics and all the routines he has to go through might be a tad bit corny but serve this one well with the lead-in to the traditional setup where his stories were right all along. Even though this section skimps on actual confrontations or even a full-on look at the creature, enough happens to keep it fun and lighthearted which is endearing and enjoyable.

Cosmic Terror-Landing in their backyard, a couple of teen girls befriend the alien inside and bring it into their home to prevent others from seeing it while they figure out what to do with him. When he disappears while under their watch, they race to find him before the deadly secret he has inside him gets loose. This was a decent enough if somewhat flawed effort. The setup with the friendly alien living among them and wanting to learn about human culture gives this a nice starting point to realize he's not all that bad until the turn occurs, while the influx of his culture into theirs turns the tables from being a lighter family outing into a much creepier outing. The rampage at the party is somewhat fun if slightly too cheap to really exploit the potential, that's a negligible flaw in this segment.

The Bad Stor(ies): The Incubus-Feeling under the weather after a shoot, a pron star awakes the next morning with strange marks on his neck and a rather odd revitalized bit of energy. Realizing that he's become a vampire, he tries to keep it a secret from his friends and coworkers only for his true self to fully emerge out-of-control. This was a somewhat underwhelming effort. While the initial setup and premise would have provided this with a lot of fun, the fact that the revelation to his condition takes too long for others to figure out makes this section seem bland where he goes through all the traditional means of keeping his true identity hidden with everyone completely unaware of what's going on. As it can't keep what he is strange and hardly anything happens, it's rather disappointing.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

The guy telling the story is a bad crypt keeper ripoff. The stories were definitely old school but they messed up in some scenes. Like the first story the guy had an iphone but everyone was using rotary phones. Little things like that I ended up giving this film a 5. Otherwise, watching this movie reminded me of a lot of 80's movies. Given some of the same actors were in a couple of the stories which is fine since I doubt they had a huge budget. I wonder if they made a part two to this.