Attempting to break into a neighbors' home, a renowned burglar instead finds himself held captive by a series of malevolent spirits and forced to read terrifying stories from other victims and their terrifying fates.
The Good Stor(ies): Open House-Having survived a terrifying incident from her past, a troubled young woman attempts to move on from the incident by taking a job at a realtor company only to be continually weirded out by a decoration left behind at a house she and several other o-workers are to clean up for inspection. When they play pranks on her to get her to quit, it starts a murderous rampage no one is prepared for. This was a rather fun and enjoyable segment. The fact that there's a fun mixture of whimsical and cheesy action here with the use of the killer's shroud and mask from the fateful incident she remembers from her childhood with the darker themes of the group trying to trick her out of the job. Once everything is revealed and they learn what's going on and who she is, the resulting snap provides a great indie-style rampage that is quite fun and features some cheesy deaths as a result, effectively capturing the shot-on-video aesthetic of its setup. The final twist is way too easy to spot and guess accurately but otherwise, this is a fun and engaging set up to what's going on.
Slay Ride-Preparing to depart for the holiday season, Santa's son leaves the house to begin the annual present-giving for the first time but returns back to see his wife cheating on him with an elf. Enraged into a homicidal rage, he begins a bloodsoaked rampage through the community dispensing his own brand of holiday mayhem. This was a rather fun and enjoyable genre effort. The early setup here with this one focused on Santas' son preparing to go through the trip around the world for the first time and being a lazy unmotivated sloth that has to duck back inside for directions to find his wife in bed with an elf is a gloriously goofy setup to spark the rampage. The degeneracy present in the rampage is fine in principle much like the final twist while the segment's budget comes into play here making it zoom through those scenes without going for the naughtier side that it wants to or dwelling on bargain-basement mannequin props as gore. Still, this one is quite fun overall.
My Life-Trying to get a new project off the ground, several indie horror directors are bombarded by calls and interruptions from a series of high-profile celebrities and genre figures looking for a part in their just-completed film. As things continue on and they reach their breaking point, they're all forced to make a decision on how to deal with everyone. On the whole, this was a fun if overlong meta-segment overall. The general idea of the producers coming under constant phone-calls, video-chats and screaming messages from a multitude of actors and actresses from the indie-film community looking for roles or a chance to host the upcoming film is a fun series of meta-jokes getting to see the big actors from the first entry coming together one more time to smack-talk each other generates quite a lot of fun waiting for the next one to pop up. It's a fine idea but runs out its welcome quite easily especially running as long as it does since this is easily the longest segment in the film other than the wrap-around and some of the cameos make this run a bit too long.
Burglar's Time-Attempting to break into a neighbors' home, a renowned burglar waits until his target's left to be able to carry out his decade-long hiatus of house robbery but is soon caught in a web of unimaginable terror. Tortured by the malevolent spirits in the house, he's forced to read a series of stories about other victims and their fates. Overall, this was a great start to this effort. The engaging DIY spirit that's going to become apparent in the rest of the segments is immediately brought to bear on the rather fun times here with the simplistic effects and confined approach that comes into play with how it plays out. As the supernatural torture and psychological mind-games begin getting more frequent and intense generating some fun indie thrills. The comedy involving a break to grab a snack is hilarious enough in concept but is a bit too long for its own good, again pushing the film's running time out more than necessary although it's not a huge issue.
The Bad Stor(ies): The Last Farewell of Mr. Perez-Waking up on his birthday, a man tries to recapture the memories from the past about what happened that day when his mother died. Realizing that it's tied into an alien conspiracy involving the planet being visited throughout history and how humans evolved to protect themselves from an alien uprising, he tries to solve the mystery before it's too late. This wasn't that bad of a segment but it's wholly out-of-place in a straightforward horror setup like this. The sci-fi themes and the convoluted storyline involving humans being descended from an alien race that came to the planet millennia ago and how it directly relates to the fate of his mother who suddenly disappeared in front of him one day when he was a child just seems completely unnecessary in this kind of film as the inclusion itself is the main problem. For the most part, the rest of this works with the indie gore effects and a frenetic finale that ups the action considerably, but it seems rather oddly placed.
The Present-Returning home from work, a man comes to find that his wife has surprised him with a special present waiting for him in the basement. Realizing that the present is for him to torture and mutilate for their perverse desires, the two begin playing out their extreme fetishes and perverse games in front of their helpless guest. While the general setup to this one isn't bad, it's just way too short to go anywhere, resulting in a one-note joke that overstays its welcome. Even as the shortest segment this one doesn't really do much beyond providing the requisite sleaze and gore that's been otherwise missing from the majority of the segments so far which is then over so quickly it's hard to get much more out of this one since this one could've used more time to get into the whole idea of this one easier.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and brief drug use.
