Worst Laid Plans

Well intended but vastly mediocre three stories containing crowdfunded indie horror anthology that is an adaptation of a novel by Waylon Jordan,S. E. Howard,and (the film's co-director alongside fellow co-directors Christopher G. Moore WATCH IF YOU DARE,BACKWARD CREEP and John Hale III THE CONDIUT) Jeremy Herbert(who also directed THE THING ABOUT BEECHER'S GATE and THE THINGS WITH THE GLOWING GREEN EYES) as the theme here is vacations gone wrong as they include the likes of a bickering family at a tourist attraction where a large murderous catfish lurks,a man who is tricked into joining a cannibal cult,and a black man who films his vacation in V/H/S manner(that could have been an episode in Bloody Disgusting's horror anthology series).

Filmed on a crowdfunded $50,000 budget,WORST LAID PLANS may be better than the majority of modern horror anthologies of the last 10 years but the stories are incompetently structured that don't offer much other than community theater style performances from the cast and mundane helming by all three filmmakers,as WORST LAID PLANS is strictly for(and mainly aimed at) the die hard fans of modern horor anthologies.

I agree with other reviewers here mostly. Short story one is the best. The second short story just gave me a gross feeling. I am not 100 percent sure why, just icky. The third short story may have been better but by the time i got to it i was already losing interest in the movie. For a short story it felt long and drawn out, which is weird since it was not very long. The first story was actually quite funny. It was not scary to me at all but definitely gave me a chuckle. You kind of knew what was going to happen and it was still funny. The acting was good in the first two as well. The third left alot to be desired.

I've spent time watching worse lo-budget anthologies before. This one should be titled "Are You Afraid of the Dark? For Adults:.

It has a silly vibe and is not scary at all whatsoever. However, everything is passable overall. The first two shorts especially have potential and could be good with some minor adjustments. The third is weak and forgettable.

There's a solid effort and decent anthology hidden in here somewhere, but it just falls short due to the lack of budget and scares. The first short, especially, is unique and had some decent acting and a fun premise.

Overall, I wouldn't deter anyone from giving it a chance.

Starting out, this is a cheap movie. Gotta expect some bad effects and acting. That being said, wasn't bad. It's broken into three segments.

First segment: Family that hates each other go on an underground cavern tour. There is a seemingly pointless subplot about the son (who is like 27 years old and still living at home and going on vacation with parents apparently) being in the closet. I don't want to spoil the rest. Loved the 'monster'.

Second segment: Two friends (one being the most obnoxious person) are heading to New Jersey for some reason (I guess they don't have bars where they are from) and get concerned that a girl at a diner was in trouble. The concerned guy follows them to a motel. Again, not going to spoil, it wasn't bad.

Last segment: Stop here. Its bad. Really bad. Mostly just VHS camcorder footage of a bad Florida vacation.

Taken from the Grindhouse Press stories, a trio of anthology stories involving terror while on vacation.

The Good Stor(ies): Deep in the Heart-Going out for a road trip, a family decides to go on a cavern tour at a local underground cave system only to find the area inhabited by a grotesque creature looking to feed on the intruders. Overall, this was a fairly solid if somewhat mildly problematic segment. The main factor to be had with this one is the atmosphere of the underground caverns where the setup takes place as the creepy tunnels, endlessly twisting setup, and general claustrophobia exhibited about being underground makes for a great setting to get people lost and confronted with a strange creature. The series of attacks that arise as the bulbous, deformed creature moves through the background and plucks off the other stragglers on the tour before getting to the family has some cheesy fun to be had with everything as the unique design is a great touch. It just spends way too much time on a rather unlikable family bickering to be of much use, especially once it goes through the motions of trying to present the family as trying to use this to get along with each other when they're clearly doing this for the wrong reasons. As well, with a laughably cliche setup and some campy casting choices that try to present this as a family when they're clearly not, it does have some issues.

You've Been Saved-Going on vacation together, a pair of friends feel conflicted about the fate of a young woman they run into on their trip only to find themselves getting mixed up in something darker than they thought. This one wasn't that bad and has some enjoyable elements to it. The central mystery about what's going on with the girl and how the two different personalities they exhibit are enough to give this some intriguing elements as they try to figure out who she is and what's going on. The ending reveal is quite fun as the twist is immensely surprising as well as offering some generally enjoyable low-budget effects work to pull it off although there is the feeling that it comes about out of nowhere and just seems to exist as if the segment was running out of time while still have a creepy sting to everything that keeps it quite enjoyable.

The Bad Stor(ies): Taylor Family Vacation '93-Staying at a small motel, a family on vacation become concerned that a stranger is messing with them and try to capture them in the act, eventually forcing him to realize an uncomfortable truth. While still somewhat fun, this was the lowest of the segments for sure. The melancholy mood and atmosphere built up here with the discovery of the covertly-recorded footage of the family while on vacation makes for some creepy moments when it becomes clear that there's someone else behind the footage. The belief that the individual is the responsible party here manages to come together rather nicely and believably, although the finale here is where this comes off as somewhat lacking where the purpose behind it and who's responsible feel painfully obvious from the start so it's not that impressive to see play out so it feels quite limp and lame when ending.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.