XX

I'm sorry to report that this year's "XX" doesn't quite live up to the great horror anthology that its trailer promises. This quarter of female-directed horror shorts is actually quite average, when considered together, and I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

Only the first segment is truly memorable — "The Box," adapted from a short story by Jack Ketchum. The directing and scoring is superb. (Seriously, the music is quite good.) The acting is also good throughout this segment, most especially by "The Strain's" Natalie Brown. She's a good actress and she's starting to grow on me. (And her memorable last lines here, which I assume come from the text of Ketchum's story, are weird and haunting.) This quarter of "XX" gets under your skin.

Despite "The Box" being capably developed and unnerving, however, there were no conventional scares at all. It hardly felt like a horror short; it was more like a particularly macabre and ambiguous parable. Nor is the story's mystery solved — it's left open-ended.

The second segment is largely a waste of time, despite being stylishly shot and scored. (Hint: it's got the same story device as "Weekend at Bernie's.")

The remaining two tales are more standard horror stories. I'd suggest they are somewhat fair at best.

I think I would recommend this only to the most well rounded horror fans who are in the mood for something different. And, even then, it might only be for the peculiar elements of "The Box."

When the very poster draws heavy focus to the fact that the shorts are directed by women, one assumes that you will finally be able to see film through a female lens. Those in the film industry are frequently excited by the prospect of having the stories and viewpoints of women shown as it opens up stories that previously have been masked. Female characters frequently are left underdeveloped and masked in the backgrounds of features. You can imagine my disappointment to read that tag line on the poster, just to find that 3 of the 4 shorts are as generic and soulless as the dregs of the horror industry.

The first 3 shorts are as uninspired, uninteresting and cliché as imaginable. 3 of the 4 stories feature white, middle-aged stay-at-home mothers, of which are the manifestation of what most people complain about when a female character is given minimal attention and effort from a male director.

The 1st and 3rd short offer absolutely nothing we haven't seen before, and the 2nd short isn't even remotely within the horror genre. The director of the 2nd short has somehow managed to convince herself that adding loud, eerie music to a regular scene creates a horror short.

The 2nd of the 4 shorts is vastly the worst, followed by the 3rd and then the 1st. The 4th short however is an interesting, if not still un-creative piece of horror. Whilst the 4th short feels reminiscent of films like The Babadook, it still manages to differentiate itself enough to warrant at least a 7/10.

Ultimately generic, uninspired and frustrating. The intermission, stop motion segments are the pinnacle of this feature. 3/10

Proposing a collection of original shorts in a horror landscape over-saturated with remakes and old recipes is a daring proposition, with or without gender twist. XX delivers four 20 minutes works with an episodic animated sequence as interlude. While the animated part is simply masterful, the quality of the shorts varies.

1st Short: The Box. This short seems to draw an illustration of how a dysfunctional family would end up if closeted drama and shouting exchanges were replaced by a supernatural element. Rather ambient, it lets you wonder what to expect. Unfortunately, the conclusion misses the target and leaves you wanting something more elaborate.

2nd Short: The Birthday party. Expedited premise and hardly believable character behavior make this short rather weak. It seems to be intended as a joke and it sort of, kind of work if you're a good audience. Good material for fan theory, but nothing memorable.

3rd Short: Don't fall. Typical monster story, with all the clichés of the genre packed into way too little time to deliver any kind of tension. A success if you want to watch absolutely every (bad) monster film in 20 minutes, a failure if you're looking for anything else.

4rh Short: Her only living son. The best of the lot, with a tense ambiance from early on, and the only one with enough background to establish a more solid story line. The female lead knows how to act, and the dramatic arc is built better than in the 3 other shorts. Nonetheless, some of the narrative is expedited and make the story fall a bit flat.

Ultimately, the bundle gives the impression that none of the stories were meant for the short format to begin with, and try to follow the same formula as full feature films while condensing it in 20 minutes. As a result most of the shorts rest on interesting ideas but none seems to know whether to be a trailer or a feature film, to the detriment of tension and narrative.

It remains that there are far worse movies around. "The box" and "Her only living son" have a compelling second level of reading and can push your empathy buttons just right, and "The Birthday Party" might make you smile ("Don't Fall", though is a total miss). Funnily enough the 20 minutes format, as ambiguous as it is, also makes sure that no story overstays its welcome.

I'll give it a 5 for effort and for the animation. Watch it if you want something a bit different, and for some good starting ideas if you're a fiction writer. Give it a rain check if you're looking for a mind-blowing work.

The good: Interesting ideas + Good metaphors + Refreshing formula + Masterful animated intermezzos

The meh: - Average acting - Narrative doesn't fit the format well - Soundtrack could be more subtle

The bad: - The whole 3rd short (Don't fall). - The mood lapse between the 1rst and 2nd short.

XX is an independent horror anthology that got a bit more press than the average due to it notably being advertised as one written, directed and being lead entirely by the fairer sex.

I have to admit this did interest me, women do tend to lead most horror movies but written and directed by? My interest was peaked, and I do love horror anthology films.

Telling 4 short tales separated by creepy stop motion animation it was worse than I ever thought it could have been. You see it reminded me heavily of The ABC's of Death (2012) which was an anthology I'd expected huge things from and ended up being one of the worst films I've ever seen. The stories were pointless, disturbing (And not in a good way) and just downright confusing, and that's basically what we have here. The tales aren't exactly what you'd expect, they aren't traditional horror or even alternative horror for that matter. They are weird art house films for the most part which are neither interesting nor scary. One of them simply isn't horror at all and the first story was just, well the whole thing is just terrible.

The third story was passable, the rest range from bad to absolutely dire. The films all female gimmick isn't worth watching this for, it's truly poor stuff.

The Good:

Story separators are interesting

Melanie Lynskey

The Bad:

3/4 stories are just awful

1/4 isn't even horror

I don't know where to begin with my thoughts on this anthology. I would more or less refer to them as proof of concept ideas that filmmakers give to production companies.

The first concept 'The Box' started creatively enough with the mystery of a boy seeing "something" in a box and then it went no where. This wasn't horror, it wasn't scary, and it came across like it was alluding to a message that I couldn't decipher. It does remain true to the Jack Ketchum short story of the same name, but it failed to capture the narrative style the book delivers. If they retold the story from the mother's POV I would add another star to my review, but she's a background character until the very end. Disappointing.

'The Birthday Party' would be better listed as a dark-comedy. I didn't like it at all. Don't know what else to say about it, but it was a waste of time. I wanted to find hidden meanings behind what was happening and I kept expecting something to relate with. It delivers nothing. This isn't even something to share over a campfire.

'Don't Fall' was a straight forward horror genre without any real content. It seemed to be making fun of such stories rather than trying to be plot or character driven. It was as derivative as most"monster chasing a girl" movies can be and just as lifeless. Terrible acting, no pacing and not even a claustrophobic element with the small camper. It's like the director didn't want the job or didn't bother trying.

'Her Only Living Son' was actually the closest to being watchable. It was this short that helped keep it above 1 star for me. The plot was ... conventional ... is a kind word. The acting was sub-par, but I did like Kyle Allen as Andy. I thought this could have been broader and more illusive about the surprise mystery. It's a clichéd tale (probably should say a throwback) from 1970's flicks based on devil-worship. I never liked those things. It's just people acting creepy or weird and I'm certain today's audiences are fully desensitized by their nightly news to give 2 cents about this garbage.

All in all; I wish I had paid attention to the warnings of other reviewers. Because the focus was on women directors, I didn't want any negative influence from misogyny or patriarchal leanings. I watched with all the hope in the world and it was very disappointing.