*WARNING: This post contains a few graphic/gross images *
I’m a fan of horror movies. The scarier the better! Recently my husband and I tried to come up with or top 10 scariest movies. It seems like many of the classics were on our list like The Exorcist, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Amityville Horror and a few others.
One of the best horror movie writers and directors is George A. Romero. He has written, produced and/or directed such classic horror films like Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Creepshow (1982), Day of the Dead (1985), Monkey Shines (1988), Land of the Dead (2005) and The Crazies (2010).
I recently learned about a George A. Romero anthology called Deadtime Stories, Volume 1. It sounded really interesting and I was excited to have the opportunity to watch the DVD. The DVD will be available on July 12, 2011.
George A. Romero Presents: Deadtime Stories Volume 1 runs for 95 minutes and features three short movies entitled Valley of the Shadow, Wet and House Call. Throughout the movie George A. Romero recits some interesting poems for the viewer, as if he’s the one reading the view the bedtime, or shall I say “deadtime”, story.
Here is the movie’s trailer.
Valley of the Shadowis the story of a young women who leads an expedition into the jungle under the false pretense of finding a plant with great medicial properties. In actuality she is hoping to find her husband who went missing in the same area three years earlier. When members of their group are found murdered the survivors head off on a boast to escape whatever it is that is hunting them. They might have been able to outrun whoever was hunting them if it wasn’t for the women who forced them to go upstream in hopes she could still find her husband. What they do find is murder and mayhem.
Of the three stories this one was the weakest. The acting for laughable and the story was very perdictable. Even my 14 year old daughter wasn’t even slightly scared during this mini movie.
The next movie, Wet, was better then Valley of the Shadow. Wet is the story of a lonely drunk who scours the beach looking for treasures he can sell to a local antique store. One day he comes across a strange box made out of gold and jade. Knowing that the box might be very valuable he only brings in part of the box to the local store. The store owner refuses to purchase the box from him. He is frightened by the box and warns the man to quickly return the contents of the box to the beach and bury it again.
Not taking the warning seriously the man digs up more boxes from the beach and brings them into his home. Instead each of the boxes is a dismembered body part of a mysterious creature. Soon the man realizes that he should have heeded the warning of the shop owner when he finds himself face to face with something very evil.
The last story was in my opinion the best of the three. It is entitled House Call.
In House Call, a mother makes a frantic call to a doctor in the middle of the night. Her son is not well and she needs him to be seen right away. I cannot wait for the regular business hours.
When the doctor arrives he finds her son tied to his bed. The mother said she did it at her son’s request because he’s afraid he’s going to hurt her.
In speaking with the son the doctor determines that he thinks he’s come kind of an evil creature that feeds on others blood. The doctor does not take him seriously and tells his mother her son either has something medically wrong with him or perhaps he’s mentally ill.
I was very surprised at how this mini movie, House Call, ended. I did not expect how things turned out. I especially liked how it was filmed. It was shot in a very small, square “box”. The use of slow motion and up close images really added to the suspense of the story.
Overall I thought George A. Romero Presents: Deadtime Stories Volume 1 was OK. It’s along the same lines of Creepshow and Creepshow 2. None of the stories are scary (maybe for young teens or the easily frightened). A a dire hard horror movie fan I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting the DVD to be a “horror fest” to rival all of the “Dead” moves he has done (Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead…). With the exception of the first part of the film (Valley of the Shadow) the movie was entertaining enough. The last part of the film to provide some suspense and the first part of the film gave us a few chuckles.
There is some brief nudity in the third part of the film (House Call). Other then that it wasn’t gory or too scary.
George A. Romero Presents: Deadtime Stories Volume 1 will be available where ever DVDs are sold on July 12, 2011. Volume 2 should be released in the near future.
Kimberly
*I received a free screener sample copy in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinons expressed are my own.
Kayla says
I’m a huge horror movie fan, so I’m enjoying this review 🙂
won says
I’m not a fan of horror films, but I do like to find things to do with my son that he enjoys. It sounds like (from your review), this might be a good choice as it’s not too scary.
I can handle a bit of scary…
thisenvy says
Same as Kayla- I like horror films (not so much newer ones that aren’t done well…) and George Romero is a great artistic horror director.
The 2 picture stills above definitely reflect that! Yikes! 😀