Mr. Malevolent

There were several former well known actors I wanted to see. Unfortunately their talents were wasted on this poorly made fiasco. Direction is non existent and the script is high school level.

Guess everyone needs a paycheck

After looking into a pair of hackers' security system, a deranged storyteller spins tales of greed and corruption to them.

The Good Stor(ies): The Samaritan-Trying to perform a good deed, a prostitute sent to perform her duties on a dying customer and sets up his wishes of looking like a clown for his amusement. When it's turned around on them and something far deadlier is upon them, she tries to get to safety the only way she knows how. This one wasn't that bad overall. The best part of this one is the creepy atmosphere present in the apartment as the sounds of him dying and the creepiness of the clown memorabilia comes full circle with the ghost clown actually trying to do goo by warning her. The chilling final outcome is quite enjoyable, but it's just somewhat let down by not having any kind of lesson involved which is what makes it stand out positively.

The Healer-Continuing his tour across the states, a fantastical preacher is soon abducted along his route and taken out to the desert where he meets the father of a fallen believer. Realizing what he plans to do to him in revenge places him in dire consequences soon afterward. This one again could've been rather fun had in the idea of a preacher getting his comeuppance for the manner in which he treated his patrons when he begins to receive the wounds and conditions of those he wronged, but the fact that this one manages to accomplish this in a matter of seconds really undermines the concept of the story told here. This one really needed more time to tell this tale and it just can't do it in this brief timeframe since it just comes out looking like a complete cliche.

The Bad Stor(ies): Mates-Trying to put her relationship behind her, a woman at her wits end with dating resorts to a specialty dating site in order to finally find love. When she believes she's found her perfect mate, a crushing resolution causes her to question the status of her beliefs. Overall, this entry was just plain stupid. There's no horror at all in anything that happens, the sense of justice that happens is lackluster and the overall reasoning for everything resorts to a simple matter of because-I-felt-like-it. This is entirely lackluster and just plain lame all around.

The Prosecutor-Becoming a prominent political figure, an ambitious Texas Attorney General tries to ensure his position as the next Governor after a high-profile conviction. Once the suspect escapes custody and returns seeking revenge, he must put his values on the line to save his family. This was another disappointing effort. The fact that there's some solid atmosphere in the stalking scene through the house as the driving rain gives this some decent moments, but overall there's just nothing to hang on to this one. There's nothing about what he did to deserve his punishment as this is just shoddily written and that leaves the comeuppance rather disappointing.

White Flight-Trying to get away from his neighbors, a racist man and his family develop the technology needed to escape to a new dimension that won't allow them around anymore. Upon arriving at his chosen destination, he discovers a deadly secret about the society that puts them all in danger. This segment was just plain embarrassing that it got featured. The twist is spelled out so early that there's no real surprise at all but then takes forever to make that the punchline to the whole affair is just plain lame. Add into that the twist comes about through a one-line setup with no real payoff or sense of comeuppance leaves this just absolutely baffling how it got featured.

Hate Radio-While doing his daily show, a shock-jock radio announcer spreading sexist remarks about his listeners is soon overcome by a forced gender swap that turns him into a woman. Shortly thereafter, he comes across the serial killer targeting woman that's been overwhelming the city. This was the one weak one which had the potential to be better. This tells the most logical comeuppance story and is somewhat chilling in execution, but the shorter running time turns this into a barely-there aftermath and doesn't really do much to capitalize on what could've been a stand-out segment on sexism because it doesn't have the time to do so.

They Will Be Done-Abducted off the streets, a young woman is taken by a fanatical family intending to prevent her from aborting her unborn baby even though she claims it's not supposed to be good. When the child is eventually born, they come to find out the hard way that she was right all along. This one was a chore to get through for the most part as it's just plain bad all around. The storyline is a cliche and utterly suspenseless from the start, the short running time causes this to be driving along at a rather obvious clip the entire time and the utterly laughable resolution is just groan-inducing rather than scary.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and continuous themes of racism.

Some of the stories on here are a little too political for me but even those ones weren't too bad. I just wish they would leave politics out and just stick to horror. Even the b movie cheese. If you liked anthology movies I would definitely give this one a shot. It kind of reminds me of tales from the hood 2.

I think it was okay for an unrated horror anthology.

Yes, this film may not be an instant horror classic... some reviewers have criticize the gender, political and racial themes in 7 "American" nightmare vignettes directed/written by Rusty Cundieff/Darin Scott, but what's the big deal? Someone who takes this film "seriously" forget that's it just a "movie", you know entertainment for some viewers.

This "criticism" is what makes this film which is obviously rooted in 50s EC comic material. It would influence notable anthologies such as 70s Amicus film productions preceding 80s George A. Romero's "Creepshow" then up to the 90s "Tales from the Hood" (was first criticized and now celebrated as a cult film). The people who put out the latter and a recent sequel are involved with this film (which has the usual tropes of exploitation cinema).

This anthology forwards the evolution in form of an internet hacking by Danny Trejo playing the online storyteller, "Mister Malevolent". It's good to see Trejo expanding his acting roles and comedic actor, Chris Kattan is in one vignette. Viveca A. Fox and Nichelle Nichols also join in on the fun summing up a responsive anthology to the present-day politics.