By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I admit that much to my own discontent, I can be somewhat of a low budget snob. It takes a lot for a movie with no money behind it to bring me. The acting can be dreadful, the productions often try to be too artsy and the storylines are carbon copies of blockbusters. I can’t tell you how many Blair Witch Project ripoffs I sat through. Still, when you find a really good one with heart and originality behind it, there’s nothing better.
Hollywood Scarefest, is a combination of what is best and worst about low budget horror. It’s a bunch of film shorts.
The first is great. It’s about a man who obtains an eye implant which changes his perspective and ends with disastrous results. It has a great twist and is paced really well.
What follows is a series of shorts that attempt to be extremely artistic but fail. Some are shot in black-and-white and strange angles that adds nothing to the overall production are used.
Three others do stand out. One follows a reporter for a rag newspaper as he drives to a gas station only to be visited by real monsters.
Another appears to take place in the 50s. A man living the American dream is faced down by people wearing gas masks. What seems to be happening isn’t exactly the case and the ending is awesome.
The last follows a man who calls his daughter to tell her that he’s stuck in traffic. He is told that his wife is upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Wim. It soon appears his wife is in an enticing affair. This too has a really cool conclusion.
Sadly, too many of the shorts are pointless and poor. Cellular for example is about a guy who is tied to his cellphone so much so that it grows into him. Another is about a man who hears noises in his walls. The whole thing is narrated and it just tries too hard. It attempts to be symbolic with the ending but in actuality it’s just stupid.
Despite, the bad ones – I do highly suggest this.
I bought it for $5.00 on a jumbo pack of movies.
Scared Stiff Rating: 5/10
