Scary Tales

Following a job-recruitman post, an unemployed man heads to a special center for a new job and learns the possibilities that await each of the potential positions.

The Good Stor(ies): Hit and Run-Heading out for a delivery, the driver of a fast-food company inadvertantely kills a young girl out in the middle of the street when he fails to spot her playing alone. Overcome wih guilt about the incident, he soon starts beliving he's going crazy when he continually spots the dead girls' doll everywhere he goes. This was a fairly fun and enjoyable semgent. It's a cliched setup, but it's that way for a reason as these stories usually work which is what happens here. The idea of spotting the doll and being forced to relive the incident continually makes for a few creepy moments especially in conjunction with the doll's eerie whispering that accompanies them. The later half where the dolls start doing more is a bit of fun, and with the final comeuppance delivered it satisfies, really only letting the cliched and predictable nature of it all bring this down.

The Bad Stor(ies): I Ain't Got No Body-Working at a used bookstore, a chance at potential romance with a frequent customer spurns a lonely clerk into looking at ways to win her over with a book on astral projection. As she keeps holding back his advances, he attempts to master the format which soon leads to deadly consequences for them both. This one isn't all that great and doesn't really have much going for it. The majority of this is undone with the idea of not really making the dream girl all that desireable as she's pretty rude, ungrateful and sarcastic which renders a lot of his pining after her problematic as he can't tell that she's not all that great. This does ruin a large part of the segment with a pretty lousy non-horror feel and really only serves to make the final twist to feature any kind of horror-based activity which is quite intriguing. That is really the most worthwhile part about the segment.

The Death Of...-Trying to work on a screenplay, an unsuccessful writer who finds his work continually rejected and declined to the point that it begins eating away at the rest of his life. Attempting to find inspiration wherever he can find it, the drive for success eventually drives him into dangerous territory. This was a rather bland and banal offering that doesn't really have much going for it. The setup for this one is quite familiar and cliched and does doom this one quite easily as there's very little to it that's terrifying based on the setup. The visual tricks used to accomplish this are quite a bit of fun and are the main aspects holding it up since the twist here is accomplished nicely, but again it's far too cliched and easy to guess where it's going to really matter much. This is watchable but not that surprising.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence, Nudity and a sex scene.

Our film review website was sent a screener of the "Scary Tales Collection 2 pack", which is set for major release later this year.

Having read some reviews for both films, I was interested in seeing what each entry in this low budget series had to offer.

To my surprise, both films moved at a quick pace and each offered their form of "entertainment". Now, why is entertainment in quotation marks?

Well, these little low budget features were oddities. For starters, despite being irrational with their narratives, they seem to intentionally tread familiar ground only to push a cliché so far before completely turning it in your face. Of course, the entertaining factor is the oddness of the production.

SCARY TALES

A review by Justin Dyer

5-24-2005

Part 1 in the series, captioned "Volume 1 - Warped Realities" - is much different than the 2nd entry in the series. While it technically is a horror anthology, each tale is centered around one individual who visits a job finding agency. Here, he is told 3 stories dealing with different jobs, and what his future would hold if he took each.

While the wrap-a-round is a good idea, the idea is underutilized. While Joel D. Wynkoop has a fun, campy presence as Mr. Longfellow - this low budget series' version of the Crypt-Keeper, his being confined behind a desk lowers the fun level (he is much more animated in the sequel).

Technically this entry falls within the "anthology format", yet, each tale deals with the same character - making it almost a feature cut into vignettes as opposed to a typical "trilogy" of horror.

SCARY TALES is extremely similar in tone to the television anthology series of the 1960's and 70's; somber, paced with deliberate intention, stories focused on one individual - yet, there are some campy scenes mixed within. It's odd that the creators took the campier level with the sequel - as this is a fairly straightforward series.

Each tale is decently acted and well photographed - but blood is a scarcity as, again, these are more reminiscent of something you would see on television.

There is an effective sex scene thrown within, upping the level of exploitation, but this is still a more "mainstream" feature that is appropriate for 13+.

What should you expect from SCARY TALES?

It is entertaining with fairly solid stories, attractive women (with a decent amount of nudity) and a straightforward narrative. Would I recommend it as much as it's sequel? No.

However, it does lead into THE RETURN OF MR. LONGFELLOW quite well, and there's an inside joke that's bound to make any fan of this film chuckle once they watch part 2.

Camp Value - 7 out of 10 Production Value - 8 out of 10 Acting - 6 out of 10 Screenplay - 6 out of 10 Entertainment Value - 7 out of 10

Overall

6 out of 10

Recommended

I've seen some awful, awful horror movies made on low budgets, but this one wouldn't even qualify as a halfway decent student film. I laughed throughout the movie--not with it, but at it. Every, and I mean every, element of "Scary Tales" spells out A-M-A-T-E-U-R. On an obvious level, there's the terrible acting. It's one thing for an actor not knowing how to emote well, but these actors literally can't do anything right. There's a couple of scenes where characters are rustling through papers, and they don't even do that convincingly! You can attack this movie from any and every level. There's the pervasive use of cheesy sound effects, uninspired computer-generated editing techniques that even the most elementary film student can figure out--Hell, even the font they used for the titles is horrible! I'm a film student myself and I can honestly say I've made better films than this. The director really put no effort into suspending an audience's disbelief and concealing the micro budget. In a couple scenes, the main character is working in a bookstore and he stacks the books vertically, rather than horizontally. Now, even the lousiest, around-the-corner bookstores don't stack their books that way. Did the director have any brains whatsoever? Even amongst cheesy horror movies, this ranks as one of the cheesiest. Skip it at all costs!

I first became aware of "Scary Tales" and Michael Hoffman about four years ago when I was a reviewer of independent movies. This title was so far above the norm when it came to over all production values, story, acting, etc., that I had to contact him. A while back he sent me the sequel ("Scary Tales 2") which I would have rated just as high, if I had still been reviewing independent flicks. Now at last he has found a distributor who is releasing both titles on DVD loaded with extras, and I just got copies in the mail. The story has been upgraded, and filled out, making them even better than before. As a former reviewer who has seen more independent movies than any human being should have to, I have to recommend these two titles to anyone who loves a GREAT anthology in the vein of "Twilight Zone" and "Creepshow". You will not be disappointed.

recently saw this thing as part of a promotion for the future release of the scary tails 2 pack (it's worth getting).

while all my friends were hooting and hollering about the 2nd one, i thought this one was much better. it wasn't as stupid as part 2. i guess part 2 is supposed to be stupid and it was really funny but i don't like as much funny with my horror.

i guess this movie reminded me of the old TV shows i grew up watching because the stories are about one guy and what would happen to him. the old shows from the fifties are also usually about one guy and took their time getting to the plot twist. part 2 moved so fast paced it was ore "modern" with its photography and editing.

I've never commented on here before - but felt i should as i saw these movies before there release.

scary tails part 1 - 9 of 10

scary tails part 2 - 7 of 10