Here we go, a modern anthology film that is weird as hell but works quite nicely in its entirety. It also has my man Larry Fessenden in it as the DJ on the radio. It’s not a star-studded affair, but it is creepy as hell at points. There are 5 segments in this film. It is tough to really discuss this without spoilers. I will say that the stories are connected in some capacity. I am going to tell you the quick version and then a more in-depth version.
The first story deals with 2 guys running away from this demon hell spawn type floaty creature. The second one is about 3 girls stranded on a road and are taken in by some strange folks. The third deals with a man who accidentally hits someone with his car and he goes to an abandoned hospital and tries to save her life. The fourth story is about a man who goes to a bar and tries to rescue his sister. Luschek from Orange is the New Black is in that one. The final one deals with a home invasion gone wrong. That is the non-spoiler version. I can assure you, all of these are fucking crazy, in a good way, mostly. Let’s get down to a more spoiler-centric take on this film. Scroll down to until you see END SPOILERS.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Way Out – Mitch and Jack are on the run from this floating entity, I think it’s like a demon or hellspawn type thing, but it’s definitely not specific. They stop at a gas station for gas, and it keeps chasing them in the truck. They leave and go down the road and end up at the same gas station, and then again it happens. Jacks gets got as the exit the truck, but Mitch accepts his fate. He follows it into a motel room and is tormented by his daughter’s apparition or something like that. Basically, this is like his own personal hell. 1.6 out of 2.0 because it’s tough to truly understand everything your first viewing.
Siren – Sadie, Ava, and Kim are leaving the motel and are members of a band. You can see the floating entity here as well. They get a flat tire. This middle-aged couple stops by and offers to take them in and a place to stay for the night until their vehicle gets fixed. They go, and in the back of the station wagon is a bear trap, but the couple quickly dismisses it. The girls find things strange, but then it’s dinner time. The couple has their friends over, another couple, and their two identical adopted creepy ass sons. Dinner is like a burned mass of meat, but it’s supposedly tasty. Sadie is a vegetarian, so she politely declines. After dinner, Ava and Kim start puking up this black stuff, and the husband gives them this liquid to settle their stomachs. Apparently, this is a normal reaction for first-time consumers of this meal. Seriously, I’d bail if this was considered normal without prior warning. Ava and Kim are acting strange and everybody goes to bed. Sadie wakes up and sees like a ritual outside everybody we’ve met and her friends, and she tries to escape. Get steps on the bear trap, of course. She makes it to the road, just in time for the next story. 2.0 out of 2.0 because everybody is super creepy.
The Accident – Lucas is driving at night and runs into Sadie and has hurt her really bad. He calls 911 and they try to help. He finds a nearby hospital, with nobody in it. The operator and later a surgeon get on the phone and try to walk Lucas through how to save Sadie’s life. This whole thing is so strange. In the end, he tries to compress her lung and it kills her. Then the voices on the phone start to laugh at him, and he can’t escape the hospital. All of the doors are locked. He’s trapped, and the voices encourage him to talk about what happened. Then the voices have this weird change of heart, tell him that he didn’t deserve what happened, they guide him to clean clothes, a new vehicle, and assure him that nothing will come of this scenario. He drives off, and there is an entity. 1.4 out of 2.0 because it ended a bit weak.
Jailbreak – We see Sandy in a phone booth and she apparently was on the line with Lucas. She heads to a bar called “The Trap”. It’s a small bar, peaceful. Danny comes in with a shotty and tells everyone to put their hands on the table and is met with a bit of resistance. As I mentioned earlier, Luschek is the bartender with a cool tattoo on the back of his hand. Warren is the big hoss, his hand changes into a demon claw and he attacks Danny but gets his arm shot off. Danny is looking for his sister Jesse. Danny takes Al, the bartender, hostage and forces him to drive to where Jesse is. They get to the Freez’n Over, an ice cream place, and Al opens this secret door. They find Jesse giving a tattoo. Jesse explains that she is there by choice, Danny gets pissed, kills Al and takes Jesse hostage into the car and drives off with some pissed off demons following him. Danny decides that he needs to drive off of the road, but Jesse tells him it is a poor idea. Danny does it anyway, the car breaks down, Jesse reveals that she killed their parents. Danny gets ripped out of the car by pissed off demons, Jesse smiles and drives away. 1.0 out of 2.0 This was the weakest story of the group, but I still enjoyed it. I felt it was missing something.
The Way In – Jem is at the Freez’n Go and sees Jesse go back to her secret door. Jem is there with her parents, Daryl and Cait. This is her last weekend with her folks before she leaves for college. They leave and someone in the parking lot is stalking them. They get to their vacation house and these masked dudes break in and they are violent. Jem hides and Daryl apparently knows what these guys want or knows them. Cait gets killed after one of the men whisper to her something about Daryl. Jem attacks one dude, and two other guys inform her to leave. So their grudge is not with her. The picture that Mitch had in the first segment is held by one of the men as they kill Daryl. They want it to be the last thing that he sees. They remove their masks and it’s Mitch and Jack. Jem comes back inside to fight and Mitch kills her, but it is questionable if this was intentional or not. Well, shit happens. The ground is shaking. One of the other men gets tentacles wrapped around him from the ground the entities come out of Cait and Daryl’s bodies and Jack and Mitch take off in their truck. We then see the beginning of the film again, but the DJ’s words are different. The implication is that these people are reliving their hell until maybe they do something right, perhaps. 1.2 out of 2.0 I loved the tie into the beginning and knowing the Hell is repetition, as they say in Storm of the Century.
END SPOILERS
Rating: 7.2 – This is per my ratings, and it is tough to argue. I would have given it a high 6, like a 6.8 and not been far off. This whole thing is bizarre, creepy, and times unsatisfying because they just end a story and move to the next one, but it’s also a weird positive aspect to the film. It’s tough to explain. I fully expect some people to absolutely not get into this film the way that I did. Anthologies have to really be different now to get recognition, and this one succeeded big time, for me.
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