Tales of Halloween

Divided in ten segments by ten different directors, "Tales of Halloween" is an entertaining horror–comedy film in the style of "Tales from the Crypt" with the theme of Halloween.

1st) "Sweet Tooth": A boy collects candies in the Halloween, and his babysitter and her boyfriend tells the legend of an evil being that has sweet tooth and kills those who do not share candies with him. They eat the boy's candies and discover the truth about the legend. This tale is funny and gore. My vote is six.

2nd) "The Night Billy Raised Hell": a boy dressed like a devil is forced by his sister and her boyfriend to throw an egg at the house of a secluded man. However the man is the devil and he teaches how to create havoc in the Halloween night. This tale is also funny because of the devil's tricks and has a surprising end. My vote is seven.

3rd) "Trick": a group of drugged and drunken friends are attacked by kids that ring the bell and break in their house. Why are they under attack? This gory tale has an intriguing screenplay with a surprising end. My vote is six.

4th) "The Weak and the Wicked": a gang led by a teenage girl bullies a teenager and he summons a demon. The three bullies hunt him down and he run to the place where his house and his parents had been burned to ashes by the gang. This dark tale of revenge is too short and could be a little longer, but with a surprising end. My vote is five.

5th) "Grim Grinning Ghost": a young woman goes to a Halloween party at her mother's home that tells a story of a fiend. When she goes home, her car breaks and she has to walk home. She startles with footsteps and a laugh behind her on the street. Could it be the evil spirit? This tale has a creepy atmosphere and a scary conclusion. My vote is six.

6th) "This Means War": a man discovers that his wife is a witch that likes to eat children. This tale is silly and one of the weakest of this anthology. My vote is five.

7th) "This Means War": a man is proud of his Halloween decoration that attracts many viewers. However his new neighbor with his friends dispute with him the best decoration and they begin a war. This tale is a tragic comedy with a stupid situation. My vote is five.

8th) "Friday the 31st": a disfigured serial-killer confronts an alien that possesses the body of one of his victims. This silly tale is a parody of Friday the 13th but the fight between Jason and the alien does not work well. My vote is five.

9th) "The Ransom of Rusty Rex": two thieves abduct the son of a wealthy man o ask for ransom. However the man refuses to pay and the men have a surprise. This tale is certainly the best one with a great twist. My vote is eight.

10th) "Bad Seed": a man carves a pumpkin that eats him. A skeptic detective has to hunt down the pumpkin and finds where it was produced. This tale is also great with a trash story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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.

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).

It's not a bad movie, in the tradition of horror movies told in segments. For those of you that love the hard hitting, serious horror movies, this is one to pass by, as it's quite whimsical and light, horror for young teens.

Some of the segments are poor, some are ok, the last two are perhaps the best of all. The acting varies from poor to decent, and the special effects, they are as you'd expect from a low budget horror.

You will see the odd dead body twitching, but who cares, it's a fun watch for Old Hallow's Eve. 5/10.

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.