Deadhouse Dark

Caught this series at a film festival and thoroughly enjoyed it. Playing more in the psychological horror arena (apart from Joshua Long's "My Empire of Dirt" segment, which has some really fun effects that throw back to 80's and 90's horror) than a gorefest, it loosely interweaves a group of shorts in very clever ways, culminating in an episode that gives a loose explanation of the episodes before. While not ultimately explained in full, it is a satisfying conclusion.

Visually, all of the episodes are excellent in their quality and vision ("Dashcam" in particular was inventive in its composition, which worked incredibly well). They all have the unique touch of their individual creators, but showrunner Enzo Tedeschi and producer Rachele Wiggins have done an excellent job of maintaining a cohesive feeling to their style.

A fun slice of Australian filmmaking and worth checking out on Shudder April 28th.

I'm surprised this is rated so low for such a quick binge-watch gem. Horror titles in the past couple of years have been mostly duds with some exceptions. By duds, I mean; well, you know.. the usual feeling that it was shot on a phone, with single dimensional audio quality, bottom of the barrel effects, and script/acting that leaves you scratching your head in between yawns.. followed by the usual "Who green-lit this junker?"

In my opinion, this one is a solid exception. For starters, there are unique ideas here, or at least unique spins on ideas. This alone makes it worth the watch. Add to that some pretty darn good quality sets (some episodes more than others), effects, and very acceptable acting. Special call out to the final episode, My Empire of Dirt. I rated this episode separately as a 10 as the quality of the set is superb (in an effectively repulsive way) and the bathroom scene alone was awesome. I'm always on the lookout for the most disgusting bathroom scenes on film, and this one is in the top 3.

If you are like me, and always trying to navigate through a sea of horror duds to find something worth watching in the genre, then I recommend watching this one through.. It's short and easy to binge with engaging episodes. I want more!

This is by no means the "Tarantino" or "Coen Brothers" version of horror. But it's a rather effective, creepy collection of shorts worth viewing.

Episode 1: This is the "Found Footage" short, and despite the cliches (like malfunctioning video footage), it's pretty good. Somewhat original using elements quite familiar to the common horror junkie, it's a decent introduction to the series. Nothing mind-blowing, but something worth checking out at least.

Episode 2: Man, this episode is DAAAAAAAARRRK. I love it. How far is someone willing to go to achieve greatness? And how much is someone willing to trust a total stranger to reach that level of greatness? It has a simple story, with a simple ending, but it's quite effective, and rather disturbing. Feels like a chilling campfire story.

Episode 3: This one falls a bit flat. Brave past this kid's East coast accent (Jersey maybe? Interestingly enough, he loses it rather quickly) and annoying "just gotta get famous fast" characteristics, and it merely ends up being just a dime-a-dozen tale, related to Dante's Inferno. Worth a view, but nothing worth remembering, ironically enough. Onto the next one...

Episode 4: You really start to root for David, who just wants to have a nice date with a woman who is equally as nervous. But there are some dark elements, and "WTF" moments for sure. Ending is rather confusing, but if there's one good thing to say about it, it's definitely not predictable. One may think it's a thesis about OCD?

Episode 5: This is the episode in which the user realizes there's a sort of "connection" between all the stories. Other than that connection, nothing really special here. It's almost like the writers were trying too hard with this one.

Episode 6: Straight away, there's something very uneasy and wrong with this one. It could be that it focuses on the job that some people may have, which deals with death and helping others across the unknown veil. This comes off as rather creepy, but strangely beautiful. But the uneasiness gets worse as the episode continues, and I applaud it for that. Along with some really effective subtle scares and decent effects, this episode is a winner, and more so effective for ANYONE (such as myself) who has done any kind of "caregiving" work, especially through the middle of the night. This one gets the trophy of being the scariest of the lot. Well made.

This isn't horror, almost in any sense of the term. It's not bad, but the acting is subpar and the changing of accents from Australian to fake American or British is just cringey.

While the stories all have premise, the need to be punchier if they're only under 15 mins, or it's hard to follow so much crammed into such a short time.

Maybe I'm just not good with anthologies, but this just wasn't a home run for me and I like some pretty D grade stuff.