The 80's is the decade famous for delivering many a camp horror movie, so going into this omnibus film, I was expecting a very camp time indeed. Suffice to say, this film didn't live up to my expectations and all it offers is four, very mundane, tales of 'horror'. As usual with omnibuses, the tales themselves are of varying quality; but the ones in this film are all low quality, and none of them really stand out enough to make the film memorable on the whole. The first one is the most dismal of them all, and simply follows a woman out late at night. There's a maniac on the loose...and I'm sure you'll be able to see what's coming. I couldn't believe how mundane it was. The second, and probably best, of the omnibus sees a kid obsessed by a video game. Emilo Estivez takes the lead role in the tale about obsession and actually does a fairly good job. You can believe that he would be addicted to an arcade game. The best thing about this tale for me wasn't the horror at all, however, it was the way it showed how rubbish electronics were in the eighties. Seeing the kid's personal tape player is almost surreal when compared to the mp3 players we have nowadays.
The fourth tale stars Lance Henriksen and I thought it might be worth watching for that reason. It actually turned out to be a lot like the first tale, in that it's unbelievably shallow and the plot is overly simplistic. It's like Dual, with a supernatural twist. Not really horror though...more of a chase thriller. Not worth watching really. The fourth tale is about a giant rat, and I thought that it might add some much needed fun into the film. I was wrong again, as although it's not a bad little story, and easily better than tales number one and three; the way it's handled once again lets it down. It takes ages for anything to happen, and although the build up to seeing the giant rat at the end has some suspense; for a daft eighties horror, it has very little payoff. The giant rat is hilarious, though, and the way that the climax is handled is good in that it actually has a little bit of emotion! On the whole, even if you like omnibus horror films, I don't recommend this one. See Dead of Night, or Black Sabbath, or one of the Amicus omnibuses from the seventies...this film is worth missing.
The fourth tale stars Lance Henriksen and I thought it might be worth watching for that reason. It actually turned out to be a lot like the first tale, in that it's unbelievably shallow and the plot is overly simplistic. It's like Dual, with a supernatural twist. Not really horror though...more of a chase thriller. Not worth watching really. The fourth tale is about a giant rat, and I thought that it might add some much needed fun into the film. I was wrong again, as although it's not a bad little story, and easily better than tales number one and three; the way it's handled once again lets it down. It takes ages for anything to happen, and although the build up to seeing the giant rat at the end has some suspense; for a daft eighties horror, it has very little payoff. The giant rat is hilarious, though, and the way that the climax is handled is good in that it actually has a little bit of emotion! On the whole, even if you like omnibus horror films, I don't recommend this one. See Dead of Night, or Black Sabbath, or one of the Amicus omnibuses from the seventies...this film is worth missing.