Stuck in the attic of his house, a paranoid man recounts several different tales to an unknown listener in order to explain the dangers of the world:
The Good Stor(ies)- The People You Meet-Out on a date, a couple are celebrating their anniversary when their car crashes and is run off the road, forcing them to ride with a stranger when he picks them up. When he and a friend take them to a cabin in the woods, they are tortured, but soon they realize that the allegiances of the kidnappers are a little more shaky than they thought. This is a troubling entry, with both good and bad parts. The good is just that, really good, as the car crash and resulting scenes of being stranded, such as the aftermath and trying to flag down a car without being hit, are pretty enjoyable. There's a pretty intense car ride through a dark forest trail at high- speed, which is a great scene along with the dialog in the cab and the subsequent abduction is fairly nice. Even more so is the later chase through the woods, which is helped nicely by the rain and the twisting set-up of the forest. Each of the twists works nicely and comes as a pretty big shock. The bad stuff, though, just doesn't work at all, which is the scenes in the cabin. There's no real energy to them, and the sense of danger is never really present due to all the screaming and useless torture methods. The whole segment has very little energy, but it's still quite enjoyable.
The Clinic-Traveling through the countryside, a man finds himself attacked by a savage dog at a gas station and ends up at a nearby private clinic where a strange nurse tends to his wounds. Persistent in trying to leave, he tries to get out in order to go on with his day but manages to be prevented from knowing what's going on. Continuing to snoop around, he finds the real reason for the deadly game and tries to get out of the building alive. This was a really good entry, with a lot going for it. The attack by the dog, with the verbal and physical taunting that soon turns violent, leading into a fun chase around and through the car complete with the different tactics of getting away and the eventual escape, is a thrilling, exciting and completely enjoyable scene. The build-up in the hospital is really good, with the bloody wall and blood-soaked gurney, to the different times of finding all the clothing and the strapped-down body in the office, along with the ensuing revelation, this one works pretty well and has a really intense feeling to it. The only part here that doesn't work is the revelation, which is pretty weak. There's a very weak twist here that gets no time at all since the rest of the film is drawn-out, dealing with building it up. That build-up doesn't make for many exciting moments since it's not based on actions but rather situations, and it could cause some problems, even though overall it's quite good.
The Bad Stor(ies)- Stolen Moments-Struggling through the dating world, a woman is encouraged by her friend to go for a guy when she sees him at the bar, and they make plans for a date. As he starts to romance her over the phone, they eventually agree to meet up together at his house, but they soon realize something isn't right when the others around them suddenly turn up dead.This here was the lone weak entry, not having much of anything worthwhile about it. The only positive in here is the film's revelation scene, where the brutal and bloody kills are really good, the atmospheric setting of the house adds some good chills to it, and there's some fun to be had with the revelation itself. The rest of the segment is mainly devoted to either showing her struggles with video- dating or being encouraged to go along for the date, not necessarily the most enjoyable scenes to watch. Instead, this one turns out really dull, despite the shadowy sex-scene to account for the nudity, and is really scare-less since the twist comes across so last minute that nothing is built-up at all to a shocking scene that comes out of nowhere, not something really worth promoting. This here really needed some work to it.
Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence, Nudity and a sex scene.
