Hi-Fear

Hi-Fear is a collection of horror shorts brought to you by some of the same people involved with Hi-Death and Hi-8 (which I've not seen yet, but it's not like you have to watch anthologies in order). First up is the wraparound story tying the films together. These parts of films like this are almost always the weakest segments, and that's also true in this case. The premise is that a woman is hired to make a horror comic full of stories about "her greatest fear" (evil laughter) on very short notice.

Apparently she's very afraid of being dragged to a whorehouse full of devil women, as that's the first story. "Losing It At The Devil's Whorehouse" is probably the weakest story-wise -- I mean, my summary is basically just the title because that's all it is -- but has the most fun with the premise. A nebbish guy is dragged to a brothel by his buds to lose his V-card. And very quickly he learns that the women there are demons from hell and hi-jinks (ooh, probably the next movie title in this series!) ensue. This feels like the cast of the burlesque haunted house got together to make a movie short. If not, hey, maybe they should think about making a live attraction.

The next story is "When Shadows Come Alive." Imagine a late-night thriller about sins and double-crossing that just happens to be set on the land where the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family lives. You'd think this would be a no-brainer to pull off, but something about it didn't sit quite right with me. It needed to either be a romantic crime drama or a comedy, not some weird failed fusion of the two. Or, maybe putting it more generously, I think it tried to do too much for something in a short film format, which made everything underdeveloped.

Her next tale is "The Streets are Watching." It's all about street people and this one guy they all fear. Probably explaining any more than that is a spoiler already, so I'll just say it was OK but predictable. The lead actress' beauty seems quite a bit out of place for this setting, but films always have to try to balance realism and glamour.

That last bit is "Day out of Days." A woman accompanies her boyfriend to a cabin where a film shoot is supposed to happen, and they meet up with a makeup artist woman who worked (and played!) with the guy before. Both women make the awkward situation feel believable, but they don't really do much with it, unless I am missing the point. At any rate, nobody else shows up, weird things happen, and they can't get out because of said weirdness. It seems like it wants to be some religious allegory, but it doesn't quite gel. I can't decide if the fault was that it didn't have time (and maybe budget) to give the much-needed extra details or if they purposefully withheld them thinking it made the story better.

So, the film is nearly over. The evil voice demands yet again "What Are You Afraid Of?" (the wraparound's segments oh so imaginative title). She finally spills it... which is extremely mundane and goes nowhere. But, hey, nobody expects the framing device to be any good.

Tasked with creating new sketches for an upcoming comic book, an artist up at the deadline tries to find the biggest fears she can imagine as inspiration for her upcoming stories.

The Good Stor(ies): Losing It at the Devil's Whorehouse-Wanting to help their friend, a group of guys decides to visit a local brothel to help one of them lose their virginity, but when the workers there get wind of his status, they find that his soul might be included in their festivities. Overall, this was a solid way to open things with quite a lot to like. There's a spectacular amount of cheesy, silly atmosphere present here with the group going through the guise of trying to make him lose his virginity with a group of women who are clearly way too experienced for him but are still forced to go through it. With some great gore gags and goop-filled prosthetics brought to bear on this one through the reveal of their true intent with the facility and the dark ritual at the center of everything, this one plays out incredibly well including a solid ending gag for a solid laugh. The reveal of their purpose there isn't as big of a twist as it thinks it is since it's quite easy to guess what's going on but that doesn't dampen the fun of this one in the slightest.

When Shadows Come Alive-After finding his wife is having an affair, a preacher and a dirty cop team up to kill her and dispose of the body, but when they do so manage to incur the wrath of a vicious serial killer prowling the area. Frankly, this was a highly effective and likable feature. The main setup here is perfectly suited to this kind of simplistic slasher setup about the killer running free in the area and then finding out the others who have stumbled into the area are trying to cover their tracks after they've supposedly committed the perfect crime against his wife. This leads into a solid series of cheap but endearing indie-style slasher scenes that include some great gore gags. The action here is fun, but the story is a bit underwhelming with little coherent thought about the nature of the alliance between the two which is quite weak, and no real clue behind the killer so it's slightly disjointed but not enough to knock it down.

The Bad Stor(ies): The Streets Are Alive-Living alone on the streets, a group of homeless youths decides to test the theory about a crazed individual that's rumored to be a genuine killer, but when they learn the truth about everything find a far more disturbing answer than they expected. This was a slightly disappointing if still enjoyable enough segment. What works nicely here is the gritty atmosphere of being out on the streets and engaging in the local urban folklore surrounding the origins of the crazed homeless man they begin to encounter who's shown to be dealing with schizophrenic visions and hallucinations turning him into a killer. That, though, exposes the real lack of story here with no time to build anything so none of the perceived happenings make sense much like the inclusion of fanciful camera work and a jazz score that straight-up have little connection to the franchise's shot-on-video origins. It's the weakest of the segments but is still watchable enough.

Day Out of Days-While attempting to film a low-budget movie, a couple joins another member of the crew at a cabin close to the shoot, but the longer they're there and strange events continue they believe something otherworldly is occurring around them. This was an overall fun segment but seems slightly miscast as the finale to end things. Rather than go out with a bang on a wild, high-energy ride this one tends to go for moody atmospherics and tension-building the longer the couple stays there and it can be a solid time in the right mood, especially for those that enjoy this sci-fi-heavy storyline. This leaves a slow-burn type of story that focuses more on setting up how off things feel without going for anything here with the lack of explanation for the invasion or their impending transformations which ends up giving this some admittedly suspenseful moments as for how this one plays out even if they don't make sense. It's the visuals that work well here despite not a lot of time being given to how they play out which is what lets this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and mild drug use.