XX

I don't judge people based on their gender so I really didn't care if this movie was directed by women or not. But I do care about cinematography and storytelling aspects and for that reason I have to cast a somewhat harsh judgment.

So, the movie consists of 4 equally long parts, each explores a different type of horror. There is no coherency between the stories, all of them are fully independent.

The first story was obviously the best one. I really liked it and would have liked a full feature movie about it. There was a lot of untapped potential there. Considering how the first scene ("The Box") established some sort of norm on which I started forming expectations. It suffices to say that what followed didn't quite live up to these expectations. The second story ("Birthday Party") was in fact the exact opposite. It wasn't scary, it was just weird. Since I don't want to spoil anything I'll just leave it at that. It was by far the weakest link in this anthology. "Don't Fall" was also pretty scary but a little too one-dimensional for my personal taste. There was virtually no character development in that story. And last but not least there was "Her Only Living Son". This story was clearly an homage to Rosemary's baby. And while Rosemary's Baby is in my opinion one of the greatest Horror movies ever made this story was rather comical in nature. The reason why this story didn't quite manage to instill fear and true horror can probably be attributed to the fact that the protagonists physical transformation/metamorphosis was just too stereotypical to be considered horrifying/scary.

XX is an independent horror anthology that got a bit more press than the average due to it notably being advertised as one written, directed and being lead entirely by the fairer sex.

I have to admit this did interest me, women do tend to lead most horror movies but written and directed by? My interest was peaked, and I do love horror anthology films.

Telling 4 short tales separated by creepy stop motion animation it was worse than I ever thought it could have been. You see it reminded me heavily of The ABC's of Death (2012) which was an anthology I'd expected huge things from and ended up being one of the worst films I've ever seen. The stories were pointless, disturbing (And not in a good way) and just downright confusing, and that's basically what we have here. The tales aren't exactly what you'd expect, they aren't traditional horror or even alternative horror for that matter. They are weird art house films for the most part which are neither interesting nor scary. One of them simply isn't horror at all and the first story was just, well the whole thing is just terrible.

The third story was passable, the rest range from bad to absolutely dire. The films all female gimmick isn't worth watching this for, it's truly poor stuff.

The Good:

Story separators are interesting

Melanie Lynskey

The Bad:

3/4 stories are just awful

1/4 isn't even horror

Well that was quite a waste of time. To be honest I wished they had focused on a full length feature of The Box and just forgotten about the other 3 stories. The Box was so mysterious and intriguing, I really didn't want it to end. The other 3 were tedious, and badly acted.

Four short horror films, no linking narrative, although there is some decent Svankmajeresque stop-motion animation serving as transition:

A boy loses his appetite after getting a glimpse of something mysterious; a woman discovers her husband's corpse on the day of her daughter's birthday; four attractive young people discover an Ancient Evil (TM) in the wilderness; and a mother deals with the discovery that her nearly adult son is disturbingly violent and yet everybody worships the ground he walks on.

Production values tend to adequate-high, and effects are acceptable, but there are small issues with each section that leave the overall film feeling amateurish. They're generally small issues, and I expect the filmmakers to work them out for their next projects.

Narratives are disappointing, generally from the lack of resolution-- although inconsistent characterization and unimaginable motives plague the second, making it the weakest. I can enjoy unresolved horror shorts in general, but it doesn't work here, not with the way these films are implemented; there's too much dragging along at each end, suggesting a reveal that never materializes.

The first was my favorite, and I found it generally creepy, although, again, the resolution was handled poorly; there were also some instances of poor acting, and too much voice-over exposition.

The "theme" of XX is apparently that all four films were directed by women, but there's not really any significance to that. If the title wasn't so eager to let me know, I wouldn't have realized it, and it kind of feels like painting a handgun pink for marketing purposes, a little dubious. Still, it's not a big deal to me, just a title. But after knowing, a few things stand out: the inversion of stereotypes for the parents in the first film; the unwillingness to commit to any crazy-lady characterization in the second, even though that's the only thing that would give the story even a lick of sense; the self-important and overly long soliloquy in the final film. (The only thing that maybe stands out in the third is that none of the attractive young people decide to disrobe, as they do so often in similar films.)

I'd say that the first film is probably worth watching, but I wouldn't bother watching past that. Not worth paying money for. Still, there's no reason not to expect good things from the filmmakers in the future, as they find some better scripts and improve their techniques.

I really, really wanted to like this. It features Melanie Linskey, after all! I love everything she's in! And I was excited to see an anthology of horror tales told by women. After all, no one knows the horrors of life more than women.

But this was just... not it.

Each segment was meh, in my honest opinion. Just. Meh. I think they all had the potential to be great, but it didn't seem like they had the right direction. Perhaps if they had had better cinematography, a better score. Or if they had been the kind of stories that reward the viewer for paying attention by setting up clues that lead up to some grand reveal...

Instead, it all felt unseasoned. Very disappointed.