The Black Book

This is a great shot at anthology horror.

Akin to the Twilight Zone or something like that, the wraparound story involves a man who reads several stories from a mysterious and rare book. At the bottom of this review are brief Plot Summaries you can look at if you want to. Otherwise, here's my take:

The directing isn't terrible for a B-Movie anthology. You can tell that these vignettes at least consider a direction to be headed in, but where some of them fall flat - and some fall flat more than others - is their execution of ideas. Some of them have a lot of interesting ideas that play out too asynchronously. This causes them to suffer from poor pacing, or an overall lack of depth to the stories and characters themselves. All of these things can break the immersion and weaken the punchline. That said, the ones that do well simply do it well.

I'll admit that the acting can come off as a bit stilted at times - that is to say the it lacks a certain fluidity - but it is by no means terrible, and could possibly even be considered good on many occasions. It rests somewhere between B_Movie horror and A-Movie horror.

The lighting and cinematography can seem amateurish from time to time, but both are many steps above some of the least impressive B-Movies I've seen. It has surprisingly good special effects though! Some shorts feature better effects than others, but for a low budget I was pleasantly surprised.

The sound design is either mediocre or ingeniously subtle - there is practically no soundtrack, and sound effects are used for dramatic flare more than anything - while the mixing is done really well. There are no competing sounds, and no crunchy, loud, or piercing vocalizations. So, the sound quality is higher than most B-Movies. I appreciate that all the sounds are fitting, helping to build atmosphere rather than just randomly placed to create cheap jump scares.

* Plot Summaries (Scores based on cohesion and production value more than anything):

The first story, while short, centers on a young couple that have driven up to an isolated make out point. *Short and Sweet* 6/10

In the second story, three young girls stumble upon the horrific scene of a man being mercilessly beaten and interrogated by a group of no-good-doers. 5/10

A third tale involves a couple who wake up to discover that their daughter has gone missing from her bed. In her place was left a small stone. 3/10

We have a fourth vignette, a story of a man who stumbles upon an unsettling video feed while browsing the internet. 8/10

Next in line, our fifth story is an eerie tale about a girl who wakes up in her car amidst an airborne viral outbreak of some kind. 7/10.

Finally, the wraparound reaches its conclusion. The Black Book holder is actually a college professor. At the end of his lesson, he warns his students against speaking a particular phrase into their mirrors. As expected, someone does it anyway. 6/10

Dude! That the credits theme is sick AF!

Looks like it was made by high school students for an end of term project.

Either some hyped theatergroup or the product of some final term stuff.no recommend from the grumpy old man.

I actually rather enjoyed this movie. However calling it a "Horror" Anthology is being generous. As far as i am aware the film is unrated but it would liekly recieve an M rating at most because a few of the scenes are a bit bloody.

It does have a low-budget feel and some of the segments are considerably better than others, both in their script and in the actors and their portrayls.

Not the film to watch if you are wanting a true horror experience but not a bad film for killing a bit of time.

Wandering into a book store, a man convinced it's just sprung up overnight goes inside and takes home a book the shopkeeper convinces him is cursed, eventually reading several of the stories within.

The Good Stor(ies): Sorcerer's Finger-Attempting to sneak into an abandoned building, a group of schoolgirls finds the situation complicated by a gangland interrogation gone wrong and must try to get out alive. Overall, this was a far more enjoyable and fun effort. The setup here is quite a cliche with the girls sneaking into them sneaking in and finding the gangland-interrogation going off is a great twist with them torturing the maniacally-laughing victim in increasingly brutal means. The further twist about the identity of the victim and how it all plays out is all pretty decent if not entirely scary or thrilling, but on the whole, this is quite good.

Give Up the Ghost-Looking into a website for research, a student stumbles upon a suspected snuff film site and sets out to prove its existence to the professor at his university. This was a disappointing effort that could've been much better than what it is even with a lot to like. The creepy setup with the site, how it works the type of films being shown there is intriguing enough when given a placement alongside the background information about the nature of the format, gives this a lot to like. Overall, though, it just feels rushed and has no real setup to anything, just running through the motions and not doing much of anything with the brief running time as this one really could've benefitted from a longer running time the most to flesh everything out.

Ocularis-In the middle of a strange viral pandemic, a family tries to come to terms with how to keep themselves safe from the ravenous infected now living in the world around them. This was a rather fun and engaging segment. The intensity of the attacks around them, combined with the chilling rationalization found for what's happening, creates a fun scenario here that is quite chilling with the series of twists employed in the second half. Again, this one really could've benefitted from being stretched out to a longer length given the information gleaned here not being given enough of a stake in the outcome over the creatures.

Man in the Mirror-Trying to follow through on a class project, a woman inadvertently calls upon a local folklore figure and lets it loose on her friends forcing them to solve its riddle to finally stop it. There's a lot to like here, with a fun concept involving the unique urban legend that's perfectly replicated in such a fun way here with the figure appearing and offering the few kills by only appearing in mirrors even though the action is still being carried out. It still needs a bit more time to explain everything involving the way it works featuring the killer specifically and how the separate world works, but otherwise, there's little to dislike.

The Bad Stor(ies): Date Night-Taking a trip into the woods, a couple enjoying themselves on a date find the evening interrupted by the truth behind a series of stories regarding vicious animals in the area. This could've been a much more enjoyable effort than it is had it been longer since this just feels like the setup to something much bigger but is undone by the length. It makes the twist look weak and predictable and just ends so abruptly that it's a shame nothing much else was done with the setup as this feels more like a prologue to a feature film rather than a coherent story on its own.

The Woods-Living in a shack on the Louisiana bayou, a woman and her daughter try to come to terms with the bizarre nature of the dark and mysterious woods surrounding them. This was a rather confusing and rather underwhelming effort. It takes way too long before it starts getting creepy or spooky which is a big mistake in something this short, and there's no idea it's supposed to be creepy at all since it just drops you into this situation without much warning. The atmosphere is nice with the woods and the sense of desperation to keep her safe from what lurks out there, but it's all too short to mean anything.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence..