XX

The dolls and walking boxes inbetween the stories were much more unsettling than any of the four bland stories. I would rate the doll segments as a 6 and the stories as a 2 so overall a 4.

Proposing a collection of original shorts in a horror landscape over-saturated with remakes and old recipes is a daring proposition, with or without gender twist. XX delivers four 20 minutes works with an episodic animated sequence as interlude. While the animated part is simply masterful, the quality of the shorts varies.

1st Short: The Box. This short seems to draw an illustration of how a dysfunctional family would end up if closeted drama and shouting exchanges were replaced by a supernatural element. Rather ambient, it lets you wonder what to expect. Unfortunately, the conclusion misses the target and leaves you wanting something more elaborate.

2nd Short: The Birthday party. Expedited premise and hardly believable character behavior make this short rather weak. It seems to be intended as a joke and it sort of, kind of work if you're a good audience. Good material for fan theory, but nothing memorable.

3rd Short: Don't fall. Typical monster story, with all the clichés of the genre packed into way too little time to deliver any kind of tension. A success if you want to watch absolutely every (bad) monster film in 20 minutes, a failure if you're looking for anything else.

4rh Short: Her only living son. The best of the lot, with a tense ambiance from early on, and the only one with enough background to establish a more solid story line. The female lead knows how to act, and the dramatic arc is built better than in the 3 other shorts. Nonetheless, some of the narrative is expedited and make the story fall a bit flat.

Ultimately, the bundle gives the impression that none of the stories were meant for the short format to begin with, and try to follow the same formula as full feature films while condensing it in 20 minutes. As a result most of the shorts rest on interesting ideas but none seems to know whether to be a trailer or a feature film, to the detriment of tension and narrative.

It remains that there are far worse movies around. "The box" and "Her only living son" have a compelling second level of reading and can push your empathy buttons just right, and "The Birthday Party" might make you smile ("Don't Fall", though is a total miss). Funnily enough the 20 minutes format, as ambiguous as it is, also makes sure that no story overstays its welcome.

I'll give it a 5 for effort and for the animation. Watch it if you want something a bit different, and for some good starting ideas if you're a fiction writer. Give it a rain check if you're looking for a mind-blowing work.

The good: Interesting ideas + Good metaphors + Refreshing formula + Masterful animated intermezzos

The meh: - Average acting - Narrative doesn't fit the format well - Soundtrack could be more subtle

The bad: - The whole 3rd short (Don't fall). - The mood lapse between the 1rst and 2nd short.

XX is an independent horror anthology that got a bit more press than the average due to it notably being advertised as one written, directed and being lead entirely by the fairer sex.

I have to admit this did interest me, women do tend to lead most horror movies but written and directed by? My interest was peaked, and I do love horror anthology films.

Telling 4 short tales separated by creepy stop motion animation it was worse than I ever thought it could have been. You see it reminded me heavily of The ABC's of Death (2012) which was an anthology I'd expected huge things from and ended up being one of the worst films I've ever seen. The stories were pointless, disturbing (And not in a good way) and just downright confusing, and that's basically what we have here. The tales aren't exactly what you'd expect, they aren't traditional horror or even alternative horror for that matter. They are weird art house films for the most part which are neither interesting nor scary. One of them simply isn't horror at all and the first story was just, well the whole thing is just terrible.

The third story was passable, the rest range from bad to absolutely dire. The films all female gimmick isn't worth watching this for, it's truly poor stuff.

The Good:

Story separators are interesting

Melanie Lynskey

The Bad:

3/4 stories are just awful

1/4 isn't even horror

Well that was quite a waste of time. To be honest I wished they had focused on a full length feature of The Box and just forgotten about the other 3 stories. The Box was so mysterious and intriguing, I really didn't want it to end. The other 3 were tedious, and badly acted.

I'm sorry to report that this year's "XX" doesn't quite live up to the great horror anthology that its trailer promises. This quarter of female-directed horror shorts is actually quite average, when considered together, and I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

Only the first segment is truly memorable — "The Box," adapted from a short story by Jack Ketchum. The directing and scoring is superb. (Seriously, the music is quite good.) The acting is also good throughout this segment, most especially by "The Strain's" Natalie Brown. She's a good actress and she's starting to grow on me. (And her memorable last lines here, which I assume come from the text of Ketchum's story, are weird and haunting.) This quarter of "XX" gets under your skin.

Despite "The Box" being capably developed and unnerving, however, there were no conventional scares at all. It hardly felt like a horror short; it was more like a particularly macabre and ambiguous parable. Nor is the story's mystery solved — it's left open-ended.

The second segment is largely a waste of time, despite being stylishly shot and scored. (Hint: it's got the same story device as "Weekend at Bernie's.")

The remaining two tales are more standard horror stories. I'd suggest they are somewhat fair at best.

I think I would recommend this only to the most well rounded horror fans who are in the mood for something different. And, even then, it might only be for the peculiar elements of "The Box."