User reviews

This was a really tough one to rate. I want to say that it's a crappy film that happens to be pretty good, but that might only make sense to a select group of people who have already seen Chillers. If I try to better pin down what I mean, I suppose it's that the performances in the film tend to be terrible, the directing and editing tend to be awkward at best, and the film tends to have a structural problem overall. On the other hand, the stories tend to be pretty good, the film tends to be impressive for its budget level, and one tends to sense a lot of passion and ambition from the crew and cast. I said "tend/tends" a lot above. That's not just because I don't know what the hell I'm doing as a writer--it's because none of those things are absolutes. For example, the acting tends to be terrible, but it's not always. Some of it passable. Some admirable. Really, it's difficult to say exactly why Chillers is a crappy film that's pretty good, but I'll try to flesh it out more.

The plot, on the "forest" level, is pretty simplistic. Late at night, a group of five strangers end up in a backwater bus station in West Virginia. Because of travel delays, they have missed their connecting bus and they're going to be stuck in the lonely station for hours. To pass the time, one of the five, Lindsey (Marjorie Fitzsimmons), tells the rest of a bizarre dream she had (we see her dream in "real time", so to speak--she's sleeping when we first meet her). Mason (Jesse Emery) then says that he also had a bizarre dream the night before, and tells the rest. It turns out that each passenger had a strange dream with similar themes. Thus, Chillers is constructed as an anthology film. Each dream is a short horror story that we see acted out in "real time".

So on a "trees" level, the five-fold plot (six, really, if we count the bookends) is a bit more complex. Lindsey's dream has to do with zombies and a pool. Mason's has to do with psychos and a camping trip. Sharon (Laurie Pennington) tells a dream that involves vampires and her infatuation with a news reporter. Ronnie (Jim Wolfe) dreams of being able to bring back people from dead. And Professor Conrow (David Wohl), an anthropologist, dreams of lecturing about the supposed Aztec god of war, Ixpe.

The fact that Chillers is an anthology film, with five different stories plus bookends told in less than 90 minutes, creates some problems. It makes the stories feel a bit incomplete. The potential isn't realized. Each segment is a pretty good story, even if director/writer/producer Daniel Boyd runs into some roadblocks as he tries to tell them, like the music video/romance sequence of the swimming pool tale. But it feels like he's shortchanging his ideas. Each segment could have easily been developed into a feature. There are plenty of untapped avenues in each.

Maybe that's being a bit unfair, as we could argue the above for most anthology films. But with a film like Twice-Told Tales (1963), or Creepshow (1982), none of the segments feel unfinished or untapped. In Chillers, the rapidly changing stories make it difficult for the viewer to become immersed in the film, and the basic idea of each segment is good enough that you want to become immersed in that world.

Of course, it doesn't help that the performances are so uneven. Some dialogue--for instance, most of the conversation in the bus station--tends to sound like amateur actors reading their lines for the first time. It's even more surprising given the patches of competence that shine through. Maybe it's just that at this budget level, it's not easy to even get everyone to show up on the same day, forget about extensive rehearsals. In light of this, though, it's amazing just how many extras are floating around in some scenes--there are tens of extras in both the pool segment and the college classroom segment.

At times, Chillers can become unintentionally funny. It is firmly ensconced in a 1980s ("fashion") style and vibe, which became dated and ridiculous quicker than just about any other decade. It doesn't help that the pool segment, which is first up, is mostly unintentionally funny. It's full of people that you're not sure you want to see in a bathing suit, and they're supposed to be aspiring professionals. Swimming burns off a lot of calories. If you're trying to be a professional, you don't tend be extra-"thick" or have a lot of cellulite (or a big Whitesnake hairdo).

It also doesn't help that Boyd used such a mishmash of music. The score ranges from super-sappy 1970s After School Special-sounding tunes to Path Metheny and Jaco Pastorious-influenced songs that are actually pretty hip. The problem with such a wide range is that it further undermines any aspirations for tonal or atmospheric unity .

The best segments are probably the camping and Ixpe stories. I can't say that either are scary, as I don't think that any films are scary, but both of those segments are at least well constructed, have good usage of locations, better acting (which is more remarkable in that three of the five actors in the camping segment are kids) and they're both somewhat creative. The bookends are probably a close third in quality, even with the rough dialogue delivery in the middle.

But no one watching Chillers is likely to be expecting Hamlet. Or, they'd probably prefer Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (1991) to Hamlet. While Chillers isn't quite as outrageous or gory as many fans of low-budget cheese-horror would like, it's worth a watch if you're into the subgenre. Just make sure you go in with zero expectations.

I don't know what it is but Chillers by Daniel Boyd is my favourite movie. Not because of any cinematic genius of directorial kufuffle but it is a very entertaining movie to just to watch or fall asleep to. Me and this movie go way back. I remember back in ot '97 I would rent it everyday from my local video store. After not returning to the store once school started again I found that my dear Baldie's Video had gone out of business. This enraged me to the point average annoyence and vowed that I would meet that movie again someday. Months passed and my birthday rolled around. And it was on that day my friends that my friend Ryan purchased me my very own copy of the film in question ordering it from a shoppe in D-Troit. Now I am complete, Chillers and I later married (as legally as we could) in a chapel in Singipore where rice was thrown as well as minature chocolate doves which melted in a rather ironic tribute to me and my multi-media lifemate.

See it!

Chillers (1987)

The whole movie was very strange, no of these were really that good at all, Five passengers in a bus depot are waiting for a bus that is overdue. To pass the time, they start telling each other horror stories.

First story The first story which I think was just about decent, being the best of the a lot, this story is about girl who fallen her swimming instructor.

There was a twist to the story, nice but It was not creepy or scary at all and then she wakes up at bus station. tells everyone she just had a really bad dream.

The rest also seemed to a really bad dream as well.

The next story was about boy scout being terrorized by his scout master deep in the woods , very boring and wasn't really scary, had bit of blood in and one Jump scene

The third story tells the tale of a woman with a crush on a TV weatherman who shows up at her crib after sending him a lover letter, I forgot how that ended, as this bored me to sleep.

The next, which as got to worst acted story ever, It hard to take it serious, Bringing back people of dead and Funny silly twist end of this story!

The next story wasn't about was really decent, not as bad as the other stories, a professor who accidentally brings an ancient Spanish demon, Ixpe, into the present which proceeds to possess one of his students to disastrous results.

This story was really well done and really enjoyed that out of all those stories.

I was confused with ending of the movie, As they didn't really make clear at all, I didn't like how that movie end at all 4 out of 10

An entertainer, with most of the actors seemingly determined to act campy. Cheesy special effects and poor cinematography. But an entertainer, nonetheless.

Amongst the several sub-plots, the one with the kids is really cutesy and the story of the girl student possessed with an Aztec evil spirit is scary enough. The vampire-in-the-bedroom story is a bit confusing, though. The end is predictable enough, but still brings a smile on one's face.

Its surprising how such low-budget horror anthology flicks can deliver the goods, but many high-brow, high-tech and high-budget horror flicks fail miserably.

Quite enjoyable and never dull. I like the fact that this movie has a bunch of little movies in it so that it never gets boring. All the little movies are good, none of them suck.

My favorite, however, is the first one with the diving ghost guy. I love how all the people who ever died in the pool are there. I never thought I'd see a horror movie about a guy who died in a diving accident. It was so odd that it made me smile the entire time.

This film is made exciting by creative and original stories. I love the story about the newsman who ends up being a vampire. It makes sense that a newsman would be a vampire because he only works at night! And the rebelious little kids in the woods are great, they have the best lines.

Truly creative stories with a campy/humorous side. This movie is a keeper.

Going into this I was expecting anything really good, but after the damage this inflexed on me, I'm just happy to think strait. It's hard to think what the film-makers( HA!) this was a good movie. the stories, and I use the world loosely, are incoherent and do make any sense at all. There just stupid things that happen at random. the acting, if can be called acting is horrible I've seen batter acting in toy ads! I know it's a low-budget video-bin garbages, but still even it's not like they tried. Will after stetting thought it, I feel very sleepy and still #yawws# do, I'm going to go lie down.

WARNNING: DO NOT ATEMP TO DRIVE, WALK, READ OR DO ANY AFTER Watching CHILLERS. OTHER SIDE AFFECTTS MAY ENGULED LOSE OF ANY OR ALL METAL FUNKIONS.

While waiting for their bus, five passengers have just had horrible nightmares and decide to tell them to each other to help killing time. A swimmer, who has lessons in a swimming pool with a dead swimmer, tells the first one. A young boy, who goes camping with two friends and a crazy man as a leader, is the next. Then, a lonely woman, who has an infatuation with the anchor of a late night show, and finds that he is indeed a vampire. A young man, who finds he has the gift of bringing dead people back to life, brings a cold blood criminal back to life. Last, a skeptic professor of anthropology tells to his students about an evil Spanish creature from the Middle Ages called "Ixpe", and a young woman embodies it. When the bus arrives, they have a huge surprise.

"Chillers" is one of my favorite horror movies, but unfortunately it is very underrated in IMDb. I do not know how many times I have seen it, and I still like it very much. It looks like five episodes of "Twilight Zone" joined in the same movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Chillers – Passagem Para o Inferno" ("Chillers – Passage to Hell")

Intended to be slightly cheesy this film is fun. Locals will be more amused than others but it does have some laughs and scares. Especially effective is Brad Boll's performance as a crazed undead redneck. Definitely worth a rental.

People waiting at a bus terminal tell each other horror stories from their lives. Film has some good moments, but is hurt considerably by a low budget, poor effects, slack direction, mediocre performances, and a surprise ending you will see coming from miles away. Not nowhere near as bad as some of Troma's previous efforts though. Rated R; Violence, Sexual Situations, and Profanity.

A group of strangers stranded in an eerie bus station in the middle of the night, decide to swap scary stories until the bus to their final destination arrives - and I DO mean final! I find this a lot of fun and quite lovable despite, or perhaps because of how cheap and corny it is. I remember first seeing this macabre oddity many years ago late at night on the uk Horror Channel and for whatever reason I'd always find myself watching it and getting a weird Twilight Zone feeling because of just how bloody strange a little movie it is! It's a cobbled together mess for sure, technically awful, but still something about it speaks to me, it has an earnest kind of joy about itself, it wasn't just plodding through the motions and you feel like they really were trying to make a fun scary silly time, and for the most part, I do find it a fun and charmingly silly anthology to sit through, despite its many shortcomings! So about the stories, well for me none of them are all that good exactly, they're very stunted and held back by the production values and the acting, some actors more so than others, and the punchlines of the stories are hackneyed and delivered very clumsily and without the right kind of macabre flair, but what they do all have is a colourful ghoulish villain in them, like the evil ghost of a dead swim champ, a demented escaped maniac posing as a scout leader, a sexy charming vampire and his goth rock chick partner in crime, a psycho killer unwittingly brought back from the dead, and a girl possessed by the vicious bloodthirsty spirit of an Aztec goddess on the rampage! The stories are all really quick and to the point and pretty fast paced so they're usually over before you can get really sick of them. The ones I liked the most were the one with the haunted pool, I thought it was really creepy at points, and the one where the guy had the hokey power to bring someone back to life he sees in the obituaries because the acting of the gentleman that played the very ungrateful resurrected serial killer was so hilarious, his hammy delivery and facial expressions were on par with the great Eric Freeman of Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 fame! I love the setup of the wraparound segments and how it very much seems like they're all in purgatory on the road to hell but at the last minute there's a neat twist upon the twist where it's revealed that everything was just one big nightmare of a very imaginative little kid! Way to pull the rug out from under your audience but I do love that ending, Came as a genuine surprise! So while there are many more beloved and far better made horror anthology movies out there to enjoy, Chillers is nevertheless what I'd call a minor hidden gem and it is a nice little window of sorts into a weird shot on video anything goes vhs horror era that doesn't really exist anymore, everything's so wonderfully tacky and cheesy, compared to the bigger budgeted classic stuff movies like this are like the real troll films hiding under the proverbial bridge, but they need a little love to ya know! I like this kooky little anthology movie, it's cheap and goofy but overall a fun surreal time, one that you lean to love! X.

Horror is the genre, but not exactly the effect this movie evokes. Not an "even" film (pacing, transitions) and very reminiscent of the 60's B horror flicks, but it has some stellar moments. Those moments captured something that made me recall the grand horror movies that, as children, our neighborhood gang would plot all week long to watch on the TV's Friday night horror show. For nostalgia and some craft, I give it a score higher than many others.

Is certainly the best looking from this set, rare for such an obscure gem. Very clear picture and sound. Chillers is an episode film, and usually these don't work too well because not enough time is given in the short segments to build up tension, get to know the characters a.s.o. Here, however, in the 87 minutes the film lasts we are treated to no less than 5 stories that build up very well and involve many unexpected plot-twists. We get zombies, vampires, psychopaths, ghosts and possession plus an unexpected surprise ending (which is given away in the trailer that is included on the DVD, so watch this after the film). A group of travellers are stuck in a bus-depot that has all the hospitality of the one in Rock Bottom, where Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star get stranded, and in order to kill time they somehow wind up telling each other their worst nightmares. I won't give away any of the stories here, except that they range from very entertaining to truly frightening. Winner of the prestigious Silver Scream Award by the Acedemy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and rightfully so, Chillers is a very good horror movie that is one of those examples where a limited budget enhances the creativity of the filmmakers. A truly original visual paperback of great stories.

I thought it was creative to come up with something like this. It's quite rare to find. Truth to be told, I found this at a pawn shop called "Big Boys." Not only did I like the movie, but the music was awesome, especially during the time, the man telling his story about bringing back dead people he felt bad for. I still would like to know who made that song. It's very 80'sish and I love it. Most horror movies made during the 80's are my favorite. This was better then a lot of movies I've actually seen. It was quite interesting in my opinion. This kind of reminds me of "Tales From The Darkside" the movie somewhat because they are basically telling short stories about people. It's not just one main character.

I don't recommend this movie to anyone although my uncle is in the movie I must say this is not the best. Well this might be close to the bottom 100. Like I said this movie is not scary at all, it put up a good try but couldn't make it. So don't see it.

My review was written in November 1988 after watching the feature on Raedon video cassette.

"Chillers" is a so-so example of regional horror filmmaking, heading to the home video market in time for Halloween plus theatrical exposure on its home turf at the West Virginia film fest.

Five-part anthology resembles a road company version of classic "Dead of Night" with folks waiting at a bus station, soon to be en route to Hell where there's definitely room for one more.

The passengers' tales, punctuated by plenty of blood but unimaginative makeup effects, include a young girl romancing a diver who actually died five years ago. Another woman falls for a tv newsman, imagines him talking back to her through the tv set and ends up involved with vampires. Most elaborate fantasy deals with the Ixpe demon of the ancient Aztecs, but suffers from cheap, unconvincing sets.

Lack of interesting twists and absence of name actors sink this one.