A teenager is abducted and forced to tell the scariest tales she knows, leading to this anthology of four stories: a brother and sister are under siege while home alone; a killer escapes police custody mid-flight; step-sisters take plastic surgery to nightmarishly macabre extremes; a paramedic and mother standoff over her infected young daughter.
Horror Stories Review: Asian Horror Movie Reviews Blog
I have been a fan of horror anthologies since the time of Tales from the Crypt, Creepshow 1 & 2, The House That Dripped Blood to Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Trick r’ Treat, V/H/S, Southbound, Tales from the Hood, A Christmas Horror Story and countless more. Not only do I enjoy the sub-genre in the film medium, but I also appreciate it in the literature format. My first taste of an international anthology (that I can remember) was the Spanish series of TV movies, Peliculas para no Dormir.” Then I focused on Asian horror movies and gave the Three Extremes a look so many years ago, which features short films from indie directors from different countries. Other similar films waiting to be viewed in my collection are the Phobia films from Thailand and Horror Stories 1 & 2 from South Korea. I finally got around to watching Horror Stories.
Horror Stories starts with a kidnapped young woman who is forced to tell her captor horror stories to help him fall asleep. An interesting premise that I thought would have worked better if said captor kidnapped the young woman to tell his kid bedtime stories of the scary variety. In my opinion, I would have loved to see a twisted family rather than a lone captor with no viable reason other than to be told horror stories for the sake of helping him fall asleep. I suppose that in and of itself is twisted. These stories are the basis of the film.
First Story: Don’t Answer the Door
A mother calls to tell her son and daughter, who are at home alone… at night to expect a package that night. To air on the side of caution, she gives her kids instructions that the delivery man is to leave the box just outside the door. The kids are to tell the delivery man that their father is currently in the shower and their mother is on the way home. A ruse, as they don’t live with their father, won’t have to open the door to the stranger. There is more than meets the eye and things, as one might suspect, don’t go according to plan, and the little girl’s imagination gets the better of her. This reminded me of the second episode of HBO’s Tales from the Crypt, “And All Through the House.” No, this was not a Christmas tale; however, there was that creepy vibe all over this one and an ending that was just ‘wow.’
Second Story: Endless Flight
The second story features a prisoner’s transfer to Seoul aboard an empty flight accompanied by two detectives and the flight crew. Again, things don’t go accordingly when the killer escapes custody. The passengers aboard have to fend for themselves and survive the short trip to Seoul. This was a fun thriller with little in the way of horror. I mean besides being trapped thirty thousand feet in the air with a serial killer and the ghost of one of his victims and nowhere to go. So yes, slightly scary.
Third Story: Secret Recipe
Secret Recipe is a story that I would consider one that was reminiscent of a semi-rendition of Cinderella. Of course, it would be a horror version. While there are some similarities to the classic Disney tale, there are some significant differences, namely the blood and gore. This segment is a tale of rivaling step-sisters whose mom is, clearly, on one side. The two sisters are hell-bent on winning the heart of a wealthy and suave man. A strange tale and one I felt had been done before. It was somewhat predictable, albeit enjoyable.
Fourth Story: Ambulance on the Death Zone
This fourth and final story tackled the apocalypse. This was a fitting narrative to today’s current events with the rise of COVID-19, so it made this one all the more eerier. There is no flu-like pandemic; however, there were similarities with the 2002 Danny Boyle horror film, 28 Days Later. This story featured an outbreak of sorts from rats who infect people if bitten and turn them into flesh-eating maniacs. I know it sounds typical, but there is suspense, action, drama, and horror all entwined in this short. An ambulance goes into the danger zone where the infected are rampant. There, they find survivors, a mother, and daughter, who take up stock in the back of the ambulance. A doctor and nurse aboard the ambulance are at odds with each other as they try to decipher whether the little girl suffered a bite and is infected.
Horror Stories was a fun anthology with a few problems that I was willing to overlook. The first two segments left me hanging. This tactic worked better with Don’t Open the Door because it left me pondering and left it up to my imagination. I can appreciate that, but with Endless Flight, I had a harder time doing that as I wanted to know what happened at the end. Let’s just say the ending felt incomplete with that one as if the filmmakers didn’t know how to end it. There are a plethora of fake-outs in all of the shorts, and I don’t mean jump scares, although there are plenty of those.
If I had to arrange the stories from better to worse, it would look something like this:
1. Don’t Open the Door
2. Ambulance on the Death Zone
3. Endless Flight
4. Secret Recipe
Horror Stories is a great anthology film that features great thriller, horror, and supernatural elements to most of the stories even if the wrap-around didn’t make a lot of sense. However, it was still good enough to creep me out a bit, given the predicament the young teenager was placed in. It is a good time, and while I have seen better, it would not be hard to recommend giving this one a watch.
A teenager is abducted and forced to tell the scariest tales she knows, leading to this anthology of four stories: a brother and sister are under siege while home alone; a killer escapes police custody mid-flight; step-sisters take plastic surgery to nightmarishly macabre extremes; a paramedic and mother standoff over her infected young daughter.