10/31 : Part 2

A hit-and-miss anthology that starts well but does not sustain it, and it suffers from uneven timings and clunky mood changes.

The first story, about Samhain, is spoiled by characters mispronouncing 'Samhain', some unconvincing effects (probably to avoid depiction of a child beating an adult to death), repetitive script, irregular continuity, and some bizarre colour balance. The opening drone shot would be excellent were it not for light saturation, then scenes inside the house are washed out in reds and browns. A violent scene offscreen is rendered amateurish by entrails apparently thrown into view before being snatched back. A character plays a tape at loud volume but sits down a metre away and the music is all but silenced.

An undead story doesn't really go anywhere but mixes speech with telepathy randomly. Once it is established that characters are reading each other's thoughts, slipping back to speaking seems pointless.

An 'Indian burial ground' story is a mess. Names are stressed as if important when they are not; reference to Indians as "feather, not red dot" feels borderline racist but disrespectful anyway. Events take place a year apart, but without any idea what a character might have been doing during that time. The story is not developed and is an opportunity wasted.

The serial killer story loses its way and tries to be too many things, none of them well, and the nun story just wants to be something else. Jump cuts, jumbled timeline, unexplained characters and questionable motivation make it feel more arthouse horror than snappy short.

A lengthy credits sequence includes cast and crew for five stories not in the version I saw. Research tells me these were trailers for other films but all content has been edited out other than the closing credits. With only five stories in the film itself, this sequence could have been half the length.

The first story could have been made into a 90-minute standalone feature but the rest do not sit well together and offer no progression. The bookending by 'Malvolia' is unnecessary, but a running theme or transition story might have helped. Major edits following trial screenings would have been advisable.

It's that time of year again, when I willingly subject myself to any Halloween anthology movie no matter the cost, the cost being my time and patience. I had somehow by the grace of God or Satan missed the 10/31 series, but my luck ran out this 2024 season, because Tubi proudly advertised them on a day off work when I was feeling particularly generous.

Ableist slurs, "ancient Indian burial ground" tropes, and mispronouncing Samhain and I'm only halfway through. Just a bunch of stuff that even in 2019 was outdated.

The grindhouse trailers are actually mostly cute and make the film more bearable than the first one. It feels like maybe they were starting to add some personality into the process, but I'd rather watch a full length of the October Kids movie with the terrible acting and bad special effects than watching these adults pretend to act lol

The possession short had some soul in it (pun intended), it makes me really sad it's in this collection which is mostly garbage overacting, cheap special effects, and overdone plots. Basically, think of when you and your friends made movies in middle/high school, and this is about the quality you can expect.

So, between this one and it's predecessor it's pretty obvious which one of them is the stronger film. This one had a fair amount of choppy transitions from time to time. There was also some a weird shifts in tone from story to story. I get each story is it's own thing as well as has its own director and because of that there are bound to be different feels to each of their story. I just felt the first anthology series tied them together a little better with a collective atmosphere than this one did. But overall it's just fine for a casual viewing... also was weird how they kept pronouncing Samhain wrong and it really took me out of the otherwise better story of the bunch.

How in the world can you produce a movie that contains references to the holiday of Samhain, then have actors in a scene in that movie pronounce it "sam-hain?" It's pronounced "saw-in." It's like you made a movie that took place in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar, and the actors pronounced it as "cater." It takes a lot of incompetence among a large crew of morons for this mistake to actually make it to print.

I purchased this to upgrade to free shipping from Scream Team. I'm pretty glad I did overall. It's a cool company and I was in a perfect mood for some fun horror shorts. That's exactly what you get, for the most part.

The trailers were OK - nothing great and maybe one chuckle or two.

The first short is the highlight of the movie. "A Samhain Liturgy" is one of the better shorts I have seen in a long time. It's a horror/comedy mix as most of these are, but does it really well. It's a simple, familiar formula done well. What makes it work is the acting. It's well above average for the budget. 8/10

The second short, "Dead Lift," is well-paced and starts off creepy and fun. The climax was a bit corny, but then the ending redeemed it. Again, good acting, but needed some more polishing. 7/10

Unfortunately, the last two dropped off a bit. The third is a pure parody that's relatively funny, but nor particularly special or memorable. It's also the first glimpse into (purposeful) bad acting. The kid was annoying, but not in a good way. 5/10

The last segment, to me, was useless and contended to be serious, I think? It was displaced and pretty hard to watch. 2/10.

I was actually torn between a 6/10 and 7/10. I'm not sure I'll recommend it or watch it again, but it made for a pretty fun night overall and is good, indie horror done right. It's just a shame the last segment was a bit of a throwaway.