Brividi di paura

My brother and I rented this years ago. From the picture on the video box, we thought it was a ral bad, cheap thrills slasher film. Instead it turned out to be a suprisingly good anthology of British horror stories. Good british horror, very creepy and scary without being gory or violent, kind of 'quiet horror'. "Punch and Judy" is only okay, but the other two stories will give you some serious chills! THe only complaint I have about this film is the story-within-a-story concept about the friends renting this video and watching it, and seriously regretting it at the end of the videos. That was unnecessary and stupid. Good luck finding this film, though, I think it is pretty rare.

Two guys steal some tapes from a rental store and stop by a female acquaintance's place to watch them. The first one, involving a loser puppeteer, is pretty stupid. The second one has a couple moving into a new home. The wife begins seeing things that lead her to believe the place is haunted. This segment is a good one. There's one effective shock about midway through it, as well as a terrific ending that took me by surprise. The third and final tale finds a biker working for two rich old women who say their house is watched over by fairies. Naturally, he figures they're just senile and decides to rob the place. This story was quite fun, though it felt like the shortest of the three. Of course, the weak opener seemed to be the longest. Most anthologies do have at least one stinker, but it's worth seeing for the second and third bits, especially the second. The wrap-around is amusing as well.

Whilst far from perfect, this is a very good anthology of horror stories.

There is very little gore, but the stories build up a good atmosphere, and the acting is always of at least an acceptable level, and in the cases of Robin Bailey,Jean Anderson and Dora Bryan, it is actually quite excellent.

In the middle story involving people moving into a house, I actually felt quite creeped out, something that hasn't happened for years to me.

I would love to know the story as to how three short English tales ended up juxtaposed with the wrap around story of thieves stealing the tapes from a store, but whatever, it doesn't detract from the stories themselves.

The copy I have seen has washed out colours which somehow added to the bleakness, and this is shot on film it would appear, doesn't look cheap and nasty at all.

If you are a fan of brit horror, you must see this it's definitely a bit of a lost gem as far as I'm concerned.

For some reason, three British short films were turned into an anthology with framing segments about two stereotypical Noo Yawkuhs who steal some videocassettes from a Times Square video store and hide out at a friend's apartment to watch them. I found this movie on some lists of 80s slashers, and I was pretty confused for a while about why. The first story is about a cuckolded husband, his mean loser stepson, his shrewish wife, and a killer puppet. The third story is about fairies. But the second story, "Dreamhouse" is pretty fantastic. Newlyweds move into a house and the wife starts seeing things. She even consults a psychic who assures her that there are no ghosts in the house. What the wife IS seeing is the twist of this segment, and it's pretty fun. I'm still not sure that I'd put this one on a list of slashers, but that second story makes it worth a watch.

"Screamtime" is one of those anthology films, like "Creepshow," and while it's not as good as the George A. Romero classic, it's effective.

The plot is about two guys who steal three videos from a video store. They go back to one of their girlfriend's apartment to watch them.

The first video is about a "Punch and Judy" puppeteer whose family wants him to get out of the puppeteering business since it doesn't make much money for the family. Then his stepson burns down his puppet show stage and soon after is murdered on the beach, seemingly by the Mr. Punch puppet. Then later at his house his wife is also murdered. Has Mr. Punch come to life, or is someone else to blame?

The second video is about a married couple moving into a new house. The wife begins to see grisly visions of a murder that seems to have been committed there. But is the house really haunted?

The third video is about a guy who competes in dirtbike races, but needs some money. So he gets a job working odd jobs at the house of two elderly women. They tell him about the fairies that guard the house and the garden gnomes that work for them. He dismisses what they say, but takes an interest in the money, gold, jewels, and other valuables around the house. So he gets two of his friends to help him rob the place that night. But the fairies and garden gnomes really are alive and attack the intruders.

Finally, the video tape thieves and one of their girlfriends get attacked by elements of the three videos they stole.

If you give this low budget movie a chance you may be pleasantly surprised by it. The three films were shot in England with the connecting device about the video tape thieves shot in New York City. The puppets in the first video are creepy looking. The ending of the second video will shock you. The third movie gets a little spooky in the dark house; tiny floating lights fly by the camera unseen by the burglars, a room is suddenly full of garden gnomes, etc. This movie is perfect for horror movie connoisseur.