Psychomanteum

I would guess this could have been the inspiration for Garth's Marenghi's Darkplace, except the latter was made 14 years prior to this. Psychomanteum isn't in that kind of league, however. One of the first problems I had to deal with was the sound. The audio quality on all components is so poor that I found it unwatchable without closed-caption subtitles. Then the between-story narration is a disaster: I suspect the narrator didn't bother to do read-through before being recorded. And for most of the pieces within, the scripts, acting, and visuals are all so appalling that one assumes they were made by students. But not film students, however. I'm guessing they were made by high schoolers or adult education students that were given some camera equipment for a few weeks. The most successful thing about them is that they were handed in completed.

I have to admit, however, that there are a few exceptions: The Language of Birds was highly stylized and strange, but actually good. I also enjoyed the sex-change story, although I don't think it was made all that well. And, the priest-in-the-water story was a clever idea, if not marvelously executed. If I hadn't dozed off part way through it I might have enjoyed this one more.

Overall, bad, but not quite the deliberate or good kind of bad. Do check out Garth Marenghi, though: That's the way it should be done.

The 10's are clearly from friends and family or the filmmakers themselves. The acting and plots are all terrible and some of the most appalling VFX I have ever seen.

Way worse than the worst student project I've ever witnessed.

Save yourself while you still can :)

Bad acting, horrendous scriptwriting, stories that go nowhere, characters that behave very unbelievably and irrationally, pathetic special effects. It really is one of the worse films I've ever seen.

Not scary, not funny at all. I sat through the whole of the movie and wished I hadn't.

So why do I give it three stars instead of just one? There's a few bits of decent cinematography and a couple of the actors put on a good performance despite the terrible scripts.

Psychomanteum (perhaps not the most memorable or easily searchable name) stands out and above all recent lacklustre anthology films since it avoids cliches to deliver original and seriously messed up stories that are weird and memorable. The interlinking narrative piece reminded me of "This Unnameable Little Broom" by the Brothers Quay, no it's not animated, but it does have the same mad, frenzied energy that left me with a haunting takeaway. OK a couple of the short films are weaker because they end before they really get going but there are more than enough multiple award winning stand out films to justify the price of viewing, which at under a dollar is a steal and free if your an Amazon Prime member.

A disturbing series of dystopian vignettes. Dark, chilling and thought provoking with some light relief in an ironic parody of gender switching.