Deadhouse Dark Review: Hit-and-Miss Horror Anthology with a Huge Gross-Out

The horror genre may be best suited for the short-film format. The tension and suspense are both good and meaningful, and they benefit from the slow-burning, prolonged approach of horror directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Ben Wheatley, or Jennifer Kent. But straight terror? Terror is an immediate response that allows films such as compressed storytelling and anthology Horror stories to tell in the dark And Morgue collection Take advantage of this quality for their benefit. Each of those anthologies scare 20 minutes or so into growth, from the eroding spider bite of the former to the elaborate babysitting frame story of the latter. The buildups are quick, and the payoffs are satisfactorily unstable.

The latest offering in this subgenre, Shudder’s Anthology Horror Collection Deadhouse darkFor its six stories it relies on the same approach that is loosely associated with a general fear of the “Dark Web”. But a pair of exceptionally shocking moments, Deadhouse dark There is an unstable collection that does not take advantage of the unique interconnectedness that the anthology format can offer.

Most films about social media have a broad “risky to rely on technology” angle: like Henry Jost and Ariel Jewelers, literally Vein, Or figuratively, like Jia Coppola’s forthcoming Mainstream. Deadhouse dark Falls somewhere in the middle, both horrified and with dissidents. For the most part, the film’s six stories share a predictable commonality: the suggestion that our desire to filter through social media, is our biggest weakness. Obvious sources of danger include immediately believing that people met online, and craving approval from strangers. And Deadhouse dark The installments have “no pain” and the “stage” has a bit of afterschool-special vibe.

But among its strongest entries, Deadhouse dark It does not focus on technology itself as a threat – it refuses to submit the mines to their right from the friction between our belief in technology and the natural world. (See also: Wheatley’s in the earth.) Deadhouse dark The director makes a strong debut with “Dashcam” from Rosie Lourde, in which two sisters returning home from a Halloween party arrive in an abandoned car on One Road. Through dashcam footage, we see the older sister walk out and inspect the scene, while her younger sister takes photos of the wreckage from inside; The duality of dashcams and cellphones simultaneously creates an unnecessary feeling. “Dashcam” doubles through its true conclusion, rearranging all those elements – the dark forest, a girl who sits side-by-side in a blood-soaked dress, reverberating through the forest, howls and screams – In an effectively creepy tableau.

The later installment “A Tangled Web We Weave” is similarly winning as it extends genre conventions. While Nicholas Hope’s David prepares for a man’s date with a woman he met through a dating app, he hears a creepy noise in his house. Does he have a rodent problem? As he trusts the little superintendent, writer-director Enzo Tedeski shares clues about David’s obsessive sense of order: piles of soup cans in his pantry, rat trap lines along his kitchen floor. When Ellen (Barbara Bingham) arrives for her date, she also senses that something has stopped, and then the story turns in a subversive direction.

“Ek Tangled Web Hum Bun” is a nod towards revenge-centric films that have given priority to horror female characters since the 1970s. Its ending, like the “dashcam”, cleverly used technology as a tool for documentation, not as something dangerous. And Joshua Long’s Grotesque section concludes the section “My Empire of Dirt”, which focuses on a character who refuses to die while being surrounded by a heaven of decay paradise, nothing to do with technology. is. Grace like Annie Finster’s rough wet corpse, her lungs full of fluid and her body full of wounds that will entice the audience, but what does “The Kingdom of My Dirt” have to do with the rest Deadhouse darkThe

Photo: Shiver

This discrepancy is the most disappointing in terms of narrative theme and overlap. Deadhouse dark, Which explicitly links “A Tangled Web We Weave” and “The Mirror Box”, but fails to weave the other installments together. Lack of connective tissue is a hindrance, and this results Deadhouse dark Lack of harmony with other scary sensations. How should these stories be considered and compared or taken as a whole? Deadhouse dark Avoids those questions, and feels indifferent to the technical use of “dashcam” or “a tricky web we bun”, which does not make up for the lack of a greater compliment. There are intermittent areas here, especially in “My Kingdom of the Dirt”, a serious investigation of mortality, but, Deadhouse dark Fails to hang together.

Deadhouse dark Now streaming on Shudder.