Horror-tober 1: Holidays

I thought it fitting to start off this year's Horror fest with an anthology about horrific holidays.

It starts with Valentine's day, and this one was sort of reminiscent of the Horror flick My Bloody Valentine. A young girl picked on by fellow students is in love with her diving coach who needs surgery for a heart transplant. In the end, she finds a creative way to ensure his well-being.

We then move to St. Patrick's Day where a school teacher longs for a child of her own. When a new student in class informs her that she (the student) will smile when her deepest desire is fulfilled, the school teacher learns she is pregnant after a memorable (yet forgotten) St. Patrick's Day romp. Although it is not exactly what she hoped for. This one is pretty zany, and darkly humorous.

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the Easter Bunny and the hunt or colorful eggs has become the main celebration for those that aren't devoutly religious. So no surprise that the Easter Bunny presented in this horrific tale isn't the cute and fluffy one we all expect.

I wasn't really expecting a tale for Mother's day or Father's day for that matter. But both were decently done and played with some Satanic and otherworldly horror themes. Actually, I am still not sure who "He" was in the Father's day tale, but that is what makes it kind of interesting. You can speculate and come to your own conclusions with this story. Also the videography in Father's Day was definitely my favorite of all of them.

Mother's Day

Father's Day

That brings us to the most important holiday of all, Halloween! This story was directed by Kevin Smith and didn't disappoint. A little torture porn tale blending in the modern technical age of webcams. Also stars his daughter, who was delightfully sadistic.

Leaving, the best holiday we visit Christmas. Seth Green makes an appearance in this tale, and it is a pretty funny one. A new device, UVU, shows us how the stress and pressure of the holidays can turn us into monsters.

The anthology is rounded out with a tale about New Year's Eve. It kind of rounds out the this holidays flick when a man is flipping through a photo album of his recent kidnapee in different holiday outfits. Bored and feeling underappreciated by this woman (named Mandy no less) he moves on to find a new victim. But little does he know, he isn't the only creep searching for "love" on New Year's Eve.

I felt the same way about this anthology as I have with past ones (V/H/S and The ABCs of Death namely), that you kind of get a mediocre grouping of horror tales that have some vision, but that end awkwardly or are just plain boring and predictable. I enjoyed about 3 of these. I did find the Easter one to be pretty disturbing (just that bunny, yeesh), but otherwise the story was lacking and a bit confusing. The best part of the anthology is to see the different styles of each director, from the feeling of an 80's slasher in Valentine's Day to the psycho-trip of Satanic worshiping in Mother's Day. Overall, this one was fun in some instances, but pretty mundane as a whole.