Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

Normally I have trouble rating anthology films. Often the segments vary in quality, tone, or entertainment value. I had no trouble rating this one, though. Five out of five, no question. Well, some questions.

See, this isn’t a very scary collection. Normally that would lose points with me, but the collection is so damn entertaining it’s ridiculous. It’s just over an hour and a half, and although I thought the opening credits went a little too long there wasn’t another minute that wasn’t entertaining.

To be fair, this film panders to the horror fan. More specifically, it panders to the horror fan like me. Of the ten stories in this collection, five were directed by someone whose work I’ve reviewed for this blog. The other five stories, by directors whose work I haven’t (yet) reviewed, all had at least one (but frequently more than one) cast member who’s been in something I have reviewed.

Take, for example, “Grim Grinning Ghost.” It was directed by (unfamiliar to me) Axelle Carolyn, but starred Alex Essoe (of Starry Eyes) and Lin Shaye (of many things). I loved the Adam Green cameo (though I was sad that he wasn’t directing a segment) and the Barry Bostwick appearance. I really loved the biggest nod to classic horror of the whole collection — Adrienne Barbeau as the radio voice narrating it all.

So no, it’s not all that scary. It is bloody and violent and weird, though. It’s also really entertaining. I loved every weird, silly minute.