Grave Tales

this is a cameo appearance by janet tracey keijser in a well written script by garrett clancy. ms. keijser plays Bernie, a sultry vixon who's given up her own future for that of her husband -- a screenwriter who had 1 great idea but now is blocked. ironically, she made that trade on the expectation his success would catapault her own, and she now hates him for his failure and her own bad gamble.

her devoted husband remains infatuated with his wife, his "muse", but doesn't realize that his creativity is frozen because of her -- the muse has darkened and dried in her bitterness. bernie has become (always was?) a queen bitch, and progressively draws out her husband's dark side until he finally comes to understand there is only one way to be free of his Melpomene .... or at least, all but a trophy. the final scene is the crowning irony, and exposes just how vulnerable a dark fantasy can be: jack russell "kelsey keijser" seals his fate!

My wife will subject me to any unbearable garbage as long as it carries the word "horror" somewhere in the description, so when she brought this home, I was expecting yet another evening of torture. Imagine my surprise when I actually enjoyed this movie, despite the fact that it looks like it was made for less money than I spent on my breakfast this morning.

This was an anthology (well, two stories of marriages on the rocks connected by bookends) that kinda plays like a movie version of Tales From the Dark Side, and I mean that in a good way.

Is it a work of technical brilliance? No, it looks cheap, though there were a few nice flourishes mixed in with some laughable special effects. Was the acting great? Mostly no, but part of the fun in watching this movie I thought was in enjoying a couple of pretty good performances in the midst of a bunch of exhilaratingly bad ones. Bad isn't really a strong enough word.

So am I saying this was a so-bad-it's-good movie? Not really, the stories were pretty decent and I just genuinely enjoyed it. The cheapness of it all just kind of added to the charm. If you like Tales from the Dark Dide, or microbudget movies in general, you may be surprised to find yourself enjoying this movie.