Welcome to another Frightful Friday! This week I am focusing on those nesting dolls of the horror movie world, anthologies! It has been some time since the last Frightful Friday, so these will come and go when my mind is able to come up with topics.
The previous three are listed below for your reading pleasure.
These are films that have several stories in them, normally tied together by a larger story. There are tons of great anthologies out there, and I am only going to touch on a few, so if you think of any that you want to get out there, leave a comment below.
While not one of my favorite anthologies, it was something for the B crowd (Which I am often a part). The movie was intentionally in poor taste, and there is nothing wrong with that in my book. It also made me think of all the other anthologies that I have seen over the years, and how enjoyable many have been.
I mentioned to Rayzor that I was thinking about doing this weeks post on horror anthologies and he mentioned Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is on Netflix. It has been a while, so I re-watched it, I forgot how many talented individuals had a part in its creation. It was certainly a fun watch.
He also mentioned V/H/S, unfortunately the shaky camera makes me too ill to watch it. I trust his judgement that it is worth watching, however. There are two sequels, I am sure each are worthy of a viewing.
What I like about most anthologies of the horror variety is that most are morality tales, to some degree. Certainly not all of them, but that seems to be a common theme. Also, they tend to use witty (and not so witty) comedy to drive certain points home.
Nothing like seeing the schemer who tricks people into doing his dirty work undone by his on ill will, or the desperate individual that celebrates their victory over the monster just a tad too soon.
Some, of these movies, are cheesy and in poor taste, like Chillerama. Others like Tales from the Darksider: The Movie are fairly tame, at least enough to get a PG-13. But many of them have a storyteller of sorts, in Creepshow, the boy and his comic move you between tales. Trick ‘r Treat has the Rules of Halloween and the way the stories connected to guide you deeper down the rabbit hole.
These guides can make the experience that much more interesting, because you start to wonder how they interact in the story. Maybe they are an amusing side story, or maybe they connect to something you didn’t notice in the background the first time you watched it.
Tales from the Crypt, Body Bags, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Trilogy of Terror…. They list goes on, These are great bite size macabre stories, most that you can watch around people not as keen to horror.
So next time you go to get your fix, why not let the black oil slick of short stories reach through your lonely raft of sanity… and pull you under?
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