I have a general aversion towards horror anthologies, as they tend to be questionable affairs most of the time. And I had already seen the 2023 "American Terror Tales II" prior to watching this 2020 first movie, and I didn't enjoy part two, so I wasn't harboring the biggest of expectations to the 2020 "American Terror Tales".
The first segment was titled "Gabel", and I have to say that it was pointless. The narrative in the segment simply made little sense, and there was equally little entertainment value to be found. Nor where there any dialogue.
"Fear" is the title of the second segment in "American Terror Tales". It was layered with a filter to make it appear as if it was an old, weathered film roll. It grew annoying to look at rather quickly, with the constantly sliding of vertical white lines across the screen. This story at least had some entertainment value to it, not much mind you.
The third segment was "Milo Man". This was perhaps the most thoroughly constructed and delivered stories of the entire anthology. It wasn't great, but in comparison to the other segments in this 2020 anthology, it was pure gold.
Moving on to the fourth segment, which is titled "Big Muddy Monster". This was laughably bad. The effects were atrocious, and the gloves that the guy pretending to be the creature wore just didn't fool anyone. It was so bad.
"Battery" is the title of the fifth segment in the anthology. Another story that served no purpose, and it was also the shortest of all the segments.
The sixth segment is titled "Alone", and it was actually an adequate story.
The acting performances throughout the segments were not overly great. Some performances were fair, while others were wooden and amateurish. Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, which was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie.
"American Terror Tales" is every bit as terrible as you would expect from a low budget horror anthology. I would not recommend you to waste 63 minutes on watching this rubbish.
The movie's cover was the best part about the entire ordeal, and it over-sells the movie by a landslide.
My rating of director Dustin Ferguson's 2020 anthology "American Terror Tales" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.
