I enjoy anthology horror series. However only two of these had a beginning, middle and an end. The rest looks like they started out with an idea and just stopped.
3 Reviews
Low budget horror with no horror
omendata16 January 2020
Avoid the one shill review on here, this is the only honest review.
First the good - Camera work is good, it looks professional and the old guy who introduces the stories is rather excellent and boded well for what was to come.
The bad - What was to come lol
Sadly all of the stories have no horror, meaningful story or denouement. For me I am looking for clever stories with a twist in the tale like the old Hammer Horror tales or Tales Of The Unexpected and these days with CGI and more money you would expect better ideas and real horror but this is not horror it is more shock horror with some poor acting, terrible SFX if you can call them that.
Sorry guys but this one is a cinematic landmine - walk around this one!
First the good - Camera work is good, it looks professional and the old guy who introduces the stories is rather excellent and boded well for what was to come.
The bad - What was to come lol
Sadly all of the stories have no horror, meaningful story or denouement. For me I am looking for clever stories with a twist in the tale like the old Hammer Horror tales or Tales Of The Unexpected and these days with CGI and more money you would expect better ideas and real horror but this is not horror it is more shock horror with some poor acting, terrible SFX if you can call them that.
Sorry guys but this one is a cinematic landmine - walk around this one!
Great collection of contemporary horror in the anthology tradition
aalienated7 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Halloween may be over but the darkening days means it's still the season for horror stories. The latest offering from a collective of Ottawa filmmakers serves up a fresh take on a very old tradition, opening with a credit dreamscape of surreal, smoky images. From ancient legends told to shivering listeners around campfires, to the raconteur poised in front of the mantelpiece at the gentleman's club (the framing narrative of so many classic 19th and early 20th century fictions), to the horror anthology films of studios like Amicus, followed by others such as Creepshow (based on serial horror comics), to the Masters of Horror TV series (mainly adaptations of classic short fiction), horror's natural form is the short form.
Faithful to this tradition, Ottawa's Monster Pool, which producers Randy Smith and Vincent Valentino tell us on their website, was "created to provide a creative outlet for filmmakers in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada," brings seven local directors together for an anthology of thematic treatments of the biblical Seven Deadly Sins. Here's another old and overlapping tradition: audiences since the Middle Ages have delighted in seeing vices portrayed and punished in morality plays and what is horror but a morality play sometimes? But Monster Pool's sinners inhabit a very different time from traditional allegories. Se7en updated the Seven Deadly Sins for the age of serial killers but the troubled characters in this film are wrestling with far more recent temptations, such as smart phone distraction/isolation, hook-up culture, and the baleful influence of energy drinks (no really, they'll mess you up, check out what happens to the director, played by actual segment director Tyler Pearce, in "Sloth").
At the same time, the directors resist the compulsion to over-moralize, as do their framework story characters, a supernatural pairing of Johni Keyworth, playing an elder mentor – a cross between Gandalf and George Burns – and Rachel Nicole Shugar as a sweetly stern young girl. We are unsure of their "kind" and, indeed, whether they are angelic or demonic figures; only that they have a duty to do, setting the scene for each director's segment.
The shorts themselves often tend to go in refreshingly unexpected directions for such a venerable genre. On first viewing, there was little that was predictable, even though the usual horror tropes abounded: witches, demons, backwoods cannibal families, aliens, serial killers, creepy clowns, reproductive horror, etc. Also enjoyable were the many homages to the genre that horror fans delight in spotting: references to Get Out, Creepshow, Dread, Nosferatu, A L'Interieur, We Need to Talk About Kevin and fellow Ottawa filmmaker Lee DeMarbre's Smash Cut. Even a couple of older TV sitcom references are mixed in, albeit with twists; the roomies oppressing another independent woman in "Greed" are named Kate and Allie, while "Pride" contains a Bill Cosby impersonator who is creepily unforgettable (much like Cosby himself).
One bonus of the anthology format is that it does not have to stick to one particular horror sub- genre, whether it be comedy, gore or political/social sub-text; like a big bag of Halloween candy, there's something for every taste here. Another impressive aspect of Seven Deadly Sins was that it completely avoided the stale and clichéd representations found in far too many films – horror or otherwise – of Hollywood-type "beautiful" people. The range of actors spans many different body types and ages; however, as with most horror films, there is a regrettable dearth of representation of different ethnicities, with a couple of exceptions.
In some of the segments, the tendency to overdo things was apparent, such as the all-too- common overuse of shaky camera and exceptionally lurid lighting, which tends to undermine rather than amplify horror's effects. Some wooden acting also crept in here and there, but on the whole, the acting is remarkably solid, with some real standouts, including Jake William Smith as the epitome of the dorky date with a dark secret, what can only be described as the Napoleon Dynamite of scary clowns, and Meri Spencer appearing twice and both times most effectively. Special kudos go to Ottawa burlesque bombshells Randi Rouge and Rhapsody Blue, both embodying feminine sexual power in "Lust," along with Buffy wannabe Kaleena Jay. Randi's musings on Batman are absolutely priceless. We will not spoil the context for you.
In particular, the closing "Wrath" segment was brilliant. Michael Brigden simultaneously steals our hearts and punches us in the guts as Jacob, the agonized parent of a school shooter, who is wrestling with the actions of his troubled son, Isaac (Troy Arsenian). Both with its emotional power and its technical prowess. "Wrath" burrows to the heart of contemporary horror. No shaky cams or lurid lighting necessary here.
By Aalya Ahmad and Kier Cecil Sider
Faithful to this tradition, Ottawa's Monster Pool, which producers Randy Smith and Vincent Valentino tell us on their website, was "created to provide a creative outlet for filmmakers in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada," brings seven local directors together for an anthology of thematic treatments of the biblical Seven Deadly Sins. Here's another old and overlapping tradition: audiences since the Middle Ages have delighted in seeing vices portrayed and punished in morality plays and what is horror but a morality play sometimes? But Monster Pool's sinners inhabit a very different time from traditional allegories. Se7en updated the Seven Deadly Sins for the age of serial killers but the troubled characters in this film are wrestling with far more recent temptations, such as smart phone distraction/isolation, hook-up culture, and the baleful influence of energy drinks (no really, they'll mess you up, check out what happens to the director, played by actual segment director Tyler Pearce, in "Sloth").
At the same time, the directors resist the compulsion to over-moralize, as do their framework story characters, a supernatural pairing of Johni Keyworth, playing an elder mentor – a cross between Gandalf and George Burns – and Rachel Nicole Shugar as a sweetly stern young girl. We are unsure of their "kind" and, indeed, whether they are angelic or demonic figures; only that they have a duty to do, setting the scene for each director's segment.
The shorts themselves often tend to go in refreshingly unexpected directions for such a venerable genre. On first viewing, there was little that was predictable, even though the usual horror tropes abounded: witches, demons, backwoods cannibal families, aliens, serial killers, creepy clowns, reproductive horror, etc. Also enjoyable were the many homages to the genre that horror fans delight in spotting: references to Get Out, Creepshow, Dread, Nosferatu, A L'Interieur, We Need to Talk About Kevin and fellow Ottawa filmmaker Lee DeMarbre's Smash Cut. Even a couple of older TV sitcom references are mixed in, albeit with twists; the roomies oppressing another independent woman in "Greed" are named Kate and Allie, while "Pride" contains a Bill Cosby impersonator who is creepily unforgettable (much like Cosby himself).
One bonus of the anthology format is that it does not have to stick to one particular horror sub- genre, whether it be comedy, gore or political/social sub-text; like a big bag of Halloween candy, there's something for every taste here. Another impressive aspect of Seven Deadly Sins was that it completely avoided the stale and clichéd representations found in far too many films – horror or otherwise – of Hollywood-type "beautiful" people. The range of actors spans many different body types and ages; however, as with most horror films, there is a regrettable dearth of representation of different ethnicities, with a couple of exceptions.
In some of the segments, the tendency to overdo things was apparent, such as the all-too- common overuse of shaky camera and exceptionally lurid lighting, which tends to undermine rather than amplify horror's effects. Some wooden acting also crept in here and there, but on the whole, the acting is remarkably solid, with some real standouts, including Jake William Smith as the epitome of the dorky date with a dark secret, what can only be described as the Napoleon Dynamite of scary clowns, and Meri Spencer appearing twice and both times most effectively. Special kudos go to Ottawa burlesque bombshells Randi Rouge and Rhapsody Blue, both embodying feminine sexual power in "Lust," along with Buffy wannabe Kaleena Jay. Randi's musings on Batman are absolutely priceless. We will not spoil the context for you.
In particular, the closing "Wrath" segment was brilliant. Michael Brigden simultaneously steals our hearts and punches us in the guts as Jacob, the agonized parent of a school shooter, who is wrestling with the actions of his troubled son, Isaac (Troy Arsenian). Both with its emotional power and its technical prowess. "Wrath" burrows to the heart of contemporary horror. No shaky cams or lurid lighting necessary here.
By Aalya Ahmad and Kier Cecil Sider
See also
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