Tales of Halloween

Why are people so serious about everything? This is a great movie. It's entertaining and fun.

Every time an anthology pops up as the weeks movie, I start to get a bit worried. They are very very hit or miss, both the entire anthology and the individual shorts they contain.

For every Helarious (excellent) and there's a ABCs of Death (very inconsistent). So where does this fall? Thankfully on the high end.

I don't think there's a single short I disliked. At most I had wished that a few of them were a bit longer so that they had time to establish their ideas or use their effects more.. erm.. effectively. Don't get me wrong, if the biggest complaint I can have of your anthology is "man I wish some of these shorts were longer" that's a really good place to be in.

These are the ones that spot the middle of the pack. The war between the rockers and the haunted mansion decoration. The lady walking home, the witch that eats kids, the kids attacking the group of friends. All of these needed a bit more time and attention to get the audience on board or for the good vfs to shine.

The winners of the bunch obviously include the alien vs chainsaw massacre, the killer pumpkin, the kid that gets kidnaped, and the devil teaching a kid how to properly prank his neighborhood. These are absolutely worth the watch, and I found little fault with them.

All in all, a good anthology and I'd like to see more from those involved in the production of the shorts. Lord knows we need more clever and creative people making horror movies if the dredges of TUBI are anything to go by.

It's nearly that time of year again, so what better way to pass the time than to settle down with Tales of Halloween, a seasonal anthology from ten of today's hottest horror directors that features cameos from some of the genre's giants.

As is often the case with anthologies (especially one with so many stories, like this), it's a very mixed bag—some parts work very well, other's are less effective—but for my money, this is still more fun than that other Halloween anthology of late, Trick 'r Treat, which I found frustratingly mediocre all the way through.

'80s scream Queen Adrienne Barbeau introduces the tales, starting with 'Sweet Tooth', by director Dave Parker (The Hills Run Red). An enjoyable way to kick things off, this sets the tone perfectly with a Halloween legend coming true for a young trick or treater with gory results. This is followed by 'The Night Billy Raised Hell', from Darren Lynn Bousman (Repo: The Genetic Opera), who introduces a bit of dark comedy into the mix with his amusing story of a boy who meets a demon (Barry Bostwick) that shows him the secrets of extreme pranking.

Segments 3 and 4—Adam Gierasch 's 'Trick' and Paul Solet's 'The Weak and the Wicked' are passable fare, revolving around vengeful killer kids and the summoning of a demon; Axelle Carolyn's 'Grimm Grinning Ghost' starts off promisingly, but winds up being little more than a weak attempt at providing a cheap jump scare (which I fully expected). Lucky McKee's 'Ding Dong', is without doubt the weirdest of the ten tales (and my least favourite), featuring a childless woman who turns into a witch when emotional.

'This Means War' from Andrew Kasch is kinda forgettable, although at least there's fun to be had from trying to spot numerous cameos, but things get much better with the next story 'Friday the 31st' (by Mike Mendez), which is totally bonkers and extremely gory: a deformed killer gets a taste of his own medicine after a tiny trick or treating alien possesses the body of sexy victim Dorothy, who returns from the dead to turn the tables on her attacker. The plot might not make much sense, but this one is so gleefully insane and incredibly bloody that I couldn't help but love it.

'The Ransom of Rusty Rex' is also very enjoyable: directed by Ryan Schifrin (son of movie composer Lalo, who provides the score for Tales of Halloween), it follows a pair of unfortunate kidnappers whose victim turns out to be a hideous little demon whose 'father' is only too happy to be rid of. This is followed by Bad Seed, from Neil Marshall (The Descent), which features a fun premise—a man-eating pumpkin on the rampage—but sadly ends proceedings on a rather weak note.

6.5/10, happily rounded up to 7 for that adorable Halloween-lovin' extraterrestrial.

Tales of Halloween perfectly emulates a trick-or-treater's haul in their Halloween candy bag. There are a few pieces of chocolate and candy which you want to scarf down right away, more which you eat hesitantly when you run out of the better stuff, and some which you flat out throw into the trash. The quality of the assortment of shorts follows that general pattern.

On the delicious side, I enjoyed the opening short (Sweet Tooth), because it presented a funny and entertaining Halloween legend, with some pretty excellent gore. It was funny and over the top but it still remembered to throw some actual horror in there (like a very effective jump scare that pays homage to Exorcist III). Another good one is Lucky Mckee's entry "Ding Dong", which stars the most active current horror queen (Pollyanna Mcintosh) who does a fantastic, hilarious job acting out her insane character. It is over the top and ridiculous while exposing sad, deep-rooted feelings.

In the middle of the pack (the hard candy and stale gumballs) are most of the entries. There are some that are almost successful - The Night Billy Raised Hell was hilarious but mostly due to the amazing performance of the devil neighbor, he was great; Trick had a very fun concept which was unpredictable compared to the rest of the film, but very poor execution (rushed, convoluted, self- inconsistent, and poorly acted); Grimm Grinning Ghost had exceptional acting with some familiar horror faces (the girl from Starry Eyes, the psychic from Insidious) but it felt like a creepypasta come to life (had shades of The Smiling Man) and existed mostly for the purpose of a very effective jump scare at its culmination. There are others in the middle of the pack which aren't even close to successful but are not unwatchable either - The Ransom of Rusty Rex is "cute" at best and very generic (I saw an identical short film just a year ago); Bad Seed has two or three funny lines but is a MAJOR letdown from a director like Neil Marshall (a CSI parody where the killer is a pumpkin, which would make a good low budget you-tube or Key & Peele sketch but feels unfit for a feature and for the running time it got).

Then there are the dental floss, apples, and raisins of the pack. To me personally they had no redeeming value and I did not enjoy any part of them, from acting to script to visuals. The Weak and the Wicked is an emotionally uninvolving tale with poor storytelling and severely miscast actors (the "street thugs" looked like Hot Topic employees). Friday the 31st, about a Jason-like killer having the tables turn on him, is the kind of cheesy one-joke short that someone new to After Effects would make as practice. And finally, the worst of the bunch, the razorblade inside a piece of candy, is "This Means War", about two neighbors competing over their Halloween decorations. Both the concept and execution were amateurish and I don't know how it wasn't axed at any point.

Tales of Halloween is not a great film but at least it is temporarily entertaining while it lasts (most of it anyway) and is much, much better than other recent attempts at anthology films (ABCs of Death 1/2, V/H/S 1/2/3, etc). I don't think it is worth seeing in theaters but I can see it being fun as a Halloween night movie with friends and beers (for those who are bored of the better holiday offerings, like Trick'r'Treat).

Tales of Halloween is an anthology of ten humorous tales of terror.

I just watched this again the other night. I didn't realize that I had already seen this until the movie started. I recognized the first story "Sweet Tooth" right away, but decided to go ahead and watch "Tales of Halloween" again.

Like I said, Tales of Halloween is an anthology of ten spooky, but humorous stories. Adrian Barbeau introduces the first tale, and from that point there are plenty of familiar faces that make appearances including Barry Bostwick, Joe Dante, and Lin Share to name a few.

If you like your horror with a touch of humor, as well as plenty of gore Tales of Halloween is a worthwhile watch.