Tales of Halloween

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

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.

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.

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.

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.