3's A Shroud (2012)
Summary: A
modern British horror anthology in the tradition of Asylum and Tales
From the Crypt. A babysitter tells disturbing tales to child
in her care as punishment, but little does she know that her life
depends on spinning the most horrific stories possible... a trilogy of
terror-filled stories, featuring slashers, monsters and ghosts. Stars
scream queens Suzi Lorraine, Dani Thompson and Emily
Booth.
I'm not sure what the general consensus is
on anthology films but I love them. I think it's a refreshing change up
with the way movies are done. I notice that there are a fair share of
movies, whether they be low budget or big
box office films, that seem to lose themselves in the movies. I'm not
sure if it's that writers have to many ideas and they try to fit them
all into the movie or that they ran out of ideas and are trying to patch
stuff together to get a complete movie but
I've seen plenty of movies where there were so many plot holes and
obvious flaws in the story. The anthology is a nice cure for that. When
all you are in charge of writing is a 15-20 minute short, everything in
the story is important. The other upside to an
anthology is that there are multiple stories. If you watch a movie
where the plot just isn't doing anything for you, you're pretty much
screwed because it's not gonna change. When you watch an anthology, if
one of the stories just isn't doing it for you, there
are still going to be 2-3 other stories to watch that you may enjoy
better. So I am huge fan of anthologies. Tales from the Crypt obviously
being the most popular but I wouldn't necessarily bundle TFTC with any
anthology film. It was a TV show, it's movies
were feature length films. When I think of Anthology films, I think of
Creepshow, Tales from the Darkside, Body Bags, and even more recently,
Volumes of Blood. While I wouldn't rate 3s a Shroud on the level of
those movies, it was a very well done movie.
For starters, you get the overall story.
This one isn't all that original but let's be honest, there are only so
many ways to build the story of a person telling stories so I'm not
going to hold that against them. In this case,
it's a babysitter telling bed time stories to the kid she is watching.
She asks what kind of story he wants to hear and he says something
scary, because that's what his teddy bear wants to hear. So like any
good babysitter would do, she starts off with a scary
story about what happened to the couple who lived in that house before
the boy and his family moved in....
***Unlike most anthologies, these segments aren't actually titled so I'll be making up my own on these***
Don't Answer The Door
This is a pretty good story to start off
with. It keeps it simple, only 2 characters; but it was done very well.
It starts off with a woman making breakfast and her husband comes
downstairs to eat. There is some tension between
them and the wife is clearly frustrated and the husband has no idea
why. She is apparently uncomfortable with how close he is with a female
at work although there are no signs given that he is actually cheating.
He gets frustrated and goes upstairs to get
ready for work. She follows him upstairs and apologizes through the
bathroom door than she leaves. He gets home from work early, makes a
nice dinner for the two of them that she doesn't show up for. Later on
in the night, she still hasn't gotten home and the
husband is on the couch watching TV. He gets a phone call from his wife
who tells him she will be home in a minute and than stresses for him to
not answer the door or let her in. When she gets home, she knocks on
the door and rings the door bell repeatedly,
This was the only part of the story that confused me, who the hell
knock on their own door? Anyway, from the other side of the door she is
telling him to let her in, but on the phone she is telling him not to
let her in. The actor who played the husband did
a fantastic job at portraying the sheer confusion and fear of the
situation that was unfolding. This struggle goes on for a few minutes
until the story finally concludes. This was a fantastic story. It was
very well written and portrayed. As the viewer, it
had me hooked feeling much of the same emotions the
husband did in trying to figure out what the hell was going on. And
while the ending was wrapped up very quickly, it did explain what
happened so we were left with no questions.
We go back to the babysitter and the boy.
The boy asks for another story because Teddy didn't like one. So now she
dives into a story that must be true because she heard it from a friend
of a friend of a relative etc... etc...
etc...
The Photographer
This is a story about a photographer who is
infatuated with one of his clients. There is a voice that at first
appears to be in head that is constantly telling him how the girls he
shoots doesn't compare to the one that he loves.
But she is in a relationship with some tool who cheats on her. He has
some clients come over and he takes pictures of them and they shortly
end up dead. We find out it is not the photographer killing them and
it's not a voice that's in his head. It's actually
a monster living in the basement. I have no idea what that monster was
suppose to be. Honestly, it looked like the illegitimate love child of
Belial (Basketcase) and one of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The
client he is infatuated with comes over which
leads to the finale of this story.
So back in the beginning of this review
when I said that one of the cool parts of anthologies is that if one of
the stories is bad, you still have other ones to watch; this was that
kind of situation. It wasn't horrible but it
wasn't all that great either. It was strange and the weird monster just
made it more awkward.
Back to the babysitter who goes into her last story...
Time Travel
I'm not really sure how to even explain
this story. It was about a bartender who has friends show up and
surprise her and there is a killer in the bar with them who is taking
out the girls. The main girl bartender passes out at
random times and seems to wake up in what can only really be described
as a ghost world. She goes back in time and can watch all of the murders
happen like she's watching a movie. I honestly don't know how well I'm
explaining that. I'm not sure if someone
who hasn't seen the movie will read that and have any clue what I'm
talking about. I'll just say that this story was so crazy and off the
wall that it was probably my favorite story in the anthology; I loved
it.
Than we go back to the babysitter who tells
the boy that was it and it's time for bed. As she leaves the room there
is an ominous knock at the door. She goes downstairs to see the
silhouette of a woman through the glass. When she
answers the door, it is the boy's mother, who lives in the house.
Again, as stated earlier, who the hell knocks on the door of their own
house? The mother goes up stairs to check on her son which, much like
the ending to my story summaries, triggers the finale
of the movie.
All in all, the movie was very well done.
The stories, for the most part for very well written and directed; the
acting was really good. Definitely a movie that I would watch again and I
would recommend checking out.
Reviewed by Bobby
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