Shattered

I really enjoy a horror anthology so was excited to hear about this one. Shame they don't make them as much as they used to but it was more if a thing in the 80s.

It's probably not the best one I've ever seen but it's got a nice range of shorts with different tones and approaches to the horror short. There's plenty of serious talent being showcased here. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the people involved in making most of these.

A highlight was Hold Me Till the End. It was engaging, well paced, looked good and felt like a full story with a conclusion doing it justice which can be quite difficult to achieve in 20 odd minutes.

I got duped into this because it was rated 7.7 on IMDB and that is I presume because there are so few reviews so far.

It is extremely low budget and the acting is woeful. The story of the 3 women fighting in particular was completely cringe-worthy as so poorly executed - reminded me of play fighting I do with my 3 year old.

Not horror. Not exciting and unfortunately not unique.

Now I'm being asked to type more and I have nothing more to say about this film other than don't watch it. Maybe watch another film. Not this one..still 70 more characters..bad acting..poor script..unusual themes..not scary

Ah done.

I love a good horror anthology. The stories should be short and sharp and wrap up with an ending that finishes the story. This film however, doesn't deliver. A couple of the stories have really good potential with story lines that have a clever twist. The first two stories are clever and there's a concept that has the potential to be developed. In particular, one story is very much the fantasy trope where we would love to get revenge on those who we perceive as having done us wrong. The second story has a predictable but entertaining twist which just starts to build the story before abruptly ending it.

From there it goes downhill leaving the viewer asking 'what is the point of this?'

This very much has the feel of a student film with mediocre acting, distracting sounds and scenes that are meant to be deep and meaningful but come off cringy.

Shattered is 5 short stories put together. It's low budget and mild horror - nothing particularly scary or which will leave you thinking about it.

The first one was kind of interesting, but not particularly scary. And the acting was a little poor.

The second one had good acting and was an OK story, but didn't go anywhere. I know they're just very short stories or concepts, but I felt disappointed with how it "ended". But this is probably the best of them just because it was initially told well and was intriguing, up until the point it suddenly ends.

The third one was pointless and cringe. It had three women in an old building having a low impact fight (the punches are slow and don't look like they land). There's no exposition and apparently no reason for them to be having a fight.

It turns out it is in some kind of post-apocalyptic future where the ground is flooded, and there is some kind of selection process happening over a tannoy system, so they are made to fight, but the reason is still not given. A bit silly really, and the worst of the five.

I have no idea what the fourth one was about. It was just a confusing mess and felt really long. It had some random horror elements, but I struggled to figure out what was going on, which took it from low stakes to no stakes. Even after it ended I was none the wiser.

The fifth one is mostly a woman talking very very quietly (badly mixed audio) in an old bar. But it seemed kind of pointless. The basic premise of it was something about "rebirthing" someone - living on through your descendants by transferring your consciousness into them. Not a particularly well told story unfortunately, and it was 90% dialogue of this woman. The creators of it had an idea but struggled to translate it to the screen.

I wouldn't particularly bother watching this unless you have some time to kill. Or maybe watch just the first two.

As anthology horror goes, this one isn't all that bad, a couple of the stories were actually quite good.

The first one about a one star review was interesting, but somewhat predictable.

The second film, about the murderer dad was by far the best of the bunch, and if handled properly, could be made into a feature length film.

The third was a waste of time. One thing about low budget films, they have to leave out fight scenes, as they never end up looking genuine. This was no different.

The fourth film almost had me turning off. Even though it lasted only around 20 minutes, it felt much, much longer. I'm certain i've seen another short film, made by the same people. The style was very familiar, and if memory serves me correctly, i almost turned off through that film too.

The fifth, and final film wasn't a great end to the anthology, if truth be known.

Overall, this wasn't great. There were a few good moments, but not enough.