Tales of Halloween is a ten story anthology flick revolving around the scariest night of the year, Halloween. Each of the tales was directed by a different person, giving them all their own, unique style. These anthology flicks are becoming a lot more popular these days, with movies such as the ABCs of Death and V/H/S sprawling into full franchises. Of course, these types of films have been around a while with Tales from the Crypt, “Tales from the Darkside”, and “Trick ‘r Treat”.
Some of the standout tales include “The Ransome of Rusty Rex” by Ryan Schifrin, “The Night Billy Raised Hell” by Darren Lynn Bousman, and “This Means War” by Andrew Kasch and John Skipp – although, there is something to like about all of the tales presented in the film. The only tale that didn’t quite resonate with me was “The Weak and the Wicked” by Paul Solet which, while I admire its high-concept, just didn’t come together enough in execution.
The segments are sometimes spooky, sometimes gory but always entertaining, and I loved Adrienne Barbeau in the role of a radio disc jokey (an homage to her role in John Carpenter’s The Fog) to act as a link between all of the tales. Speaking of homages, the film has a ton of genre cred. For instance, the kid in the film’s first segment, titled “Sweet Tooth”, is dressed up as Snake Plissken from John Carpenter’s Escape from New York! Also making cameos are John Landis, Barbara Crampton, to name just a couple. Just keep your eyes peeled as there are a ton more to notice in the film.
Overall, Tales of Halloween is an entertaining horror-comedy anthology that is worth watching this Halloween season. Hopefully, it will spawn a sequel and become a franchise so we can see more Tales of Halloween next Halloween!
Tales of Halloween
Release through Video on Demand: October 16, 2015
Rated: R
[easyreview title=”Tales of Halloween Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]
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