Little Deaths

This is a collection of 3 short films that loosely touch on their subjects of rather twisted stories about sex and death. I guess "Little Deaths" is a good title for the movie considering that the French use these words as a metaphor for orgasm. So the title fits each short in this collection.

It starts off with the shortest of the three movies entitled "House and home" which could fit into any horror anthology. The plot is paper-thin and revolves around a twisted rich and religious couple that lures homeless girls in for their sick pleasure but obviously messed with the wrong girl here. Honestly, this short is not too special... at first the couples dysfunctionality and the hints on their elitist self-conception seemed interesting (with the twist ending it could serve as a kind of class war metaphor) but it just leads nowhere. What still keeps this interesting is the great visuals and the performance of the actress playing the homeless girl. The shots of her on the bed are unmatched throughout the rest of the movie.

Second is a pretty strange short about Nazi Doctor experiments, a drug made from the semen harvested from a poor human lab rat fed with human kidneys and a junkie prostitute trying a rehab on the new drug and regretting it. This one is rather on the gritty side visually, throws in some esoteric elements and hints on the connection of all characters involved and how the drug makes the users see the truth when being touched. Its driven by the rather sick central idea and the images of the human lab rat but ultimately falls apart with a "twist" ending that make no sense at all and ruined the whole thing for me because there's unconnected dots all over the place. The sexual element in this story feels squeezed into the plot for the sake of it, so the whole story feels forced and fake and definitely is the weakest link in this 3-part-chain.

Third off is Simon Rumleys bit entitled "Bitch". This one is a rather bleak drama about sexual perversion, power play and dependency. Dogs play a dominant role in the plot, so the title has some irony to it. The look of this part is also on the gritty side, playing a lot with tints which are overused but work well in some key scenes. Like "Red, white and blue" this is rather a character study culminating in a revenge that ends with no winners at all. Definitely the best of all three with a great and high impact finale that benefits from the perfect choice of music.

Usually these anthology movies fall apart but despite some flaws I can sure recommend it for Rumleys bit as well as for the great cinematography and acting of the first "House and Home" part. So check it out if you are into the twisted stuff where drama meets horror.

I thought and thought for entire seconds just how I might make this sound even vaguely interesting. Then I gave up.

Little Deaths finds three directors taking turns to depress the audience with tales that range all the way from drab and morose to dull and dark.

The first story tells the tale of a well to do couple who dabble in living on the edge, only to find the edge has moved.

It isn't that interesting.

The second story introduces a wonder drug from a frankly gross source with incredible qualities.

It also wasn't interesting, but at least it had one mildly original concept.

The third story was about the very definition of the odd couple.

It was terrible, and the ending was even worse than terrible. It was dumb.

The first story was sorta horror I guess.

The second a Nine Inch Nails film clip concept.

The third was just dumb.

Final Rating – 4.5 / 10. Look there were moments in the 90 minutes where I wish I understood just what the hell was supposed to be entertaining or subversive about all this, in the end I decided I am happier not knowing. To me this is a waste of time. Lap it up emo-kids.

OK, this is not a GREAT movie, but I am lost with the ratings here. I assume that if you watch this film it is because you like the horror genre, and all three stories do deliver a good and fun time. I think that this is probably the aim: to entertain and amuse, and it delivers.

Maybe some stories are predictable, but there is always a funny twist here and there that render them just different. The filming and acting are actually surprisingly good and my feeling was that I got what I was looking for. No more, no less.

Definitely recommended to anyone into horror/gore/sex movies with a sense of humor.

"Little Deaths" is composed by three segments with short stories of sex, violence, death and revenge in England.

1st segment: "House & Home" Richard Gull (Luke de Lacey) and his wife Victoria Gull (Siubhan Harrison) claim that are good Samaritans and invite the starving homeless Sorrow (Holly Lucas) to have a bath and dinner with them at home. However they spike the wine and when Sorrow wakes up, she is tied naked on a bed in the basement. Richard abuses of her and Victoria stays with Sorrow humiliating her while he has a shower. He hears a scream and when he arrives in the basement, he has a gruesome surprise. "House & Home" is the best of the three segments and I really had a great surprise with the unexpected conclusion of this sick tale of humiliation. My vote is eight.

2nd segment: "Mutant Tool" The former addicted prostitute Jen (Jodie Jameson) lives with her former pimp and drug dealer Frank (Daniel Brocklebank), who also abducts persons to steal their kidneys to deliver to Dr. Reese (Brendan Gregory). Jen gives her best efforts to stay clean and refuses to meet clients from the former "agency" where she worked. When Frank asks her to go to Dr. Reese, he gives some tablets for her. Jen has headaches and nightmares and she returns to Dr. Reese, but soon she discovers the truth about the tablets that Dr. Reese gave to her. "Mutant Tool" is the weakest segment, with a confused and depressing story of drugs, addictions and abductions. My vote is four.

3rd segment: "Bitch" The receptionist Claire (Kate Braithwaite) is addicted in kinky sex with her mate Pete (Tom Sawyer). She has a phobia with dogs and can only satisfy herself with twisted sex. Pete asks her to have normal sex but she invites him to have a threesome with their friend Al (Tommy Carey). Pete does not accept and she has sex with Al anyway. Pete plots revenge against his beloved woman. "Bitch" is an erotic tale of revenge totally based on twisted sex and the second best segment. The conclusion is scary with the bitch Claire transformed literally in a bitch. My vote is seven.

"Little Deaths" is only recommended for very specific audiences. My vote is seven

Title (Brazil): Not Available

A trilogy of tales in the old anthology mode, the first offering, "House and Home" has an affluent couple bored by mundane lives, and looking for a little fun. The husband brings home a homeless woman for a sex game. The woman provides some entertainment and this segment has a small twist of an ending; very average, overall a 5/10' Story number 2 involves a woman, a hooker and former junkie who is recovering with the help of a boyfriend, her previous pimp, now involved in bizarre medical experimentation's with a doctor using a new drug for detox. It gets a bit sadistic and I would give it a 6/10.

Number 3 is "Bitch" a couple behaving badly, including the boyfriend wearing a dog mask. This one is a complete waste of time and pointless. The last five minutes is wickedly clever but the lead up is tedious and silly. A 3/10.