The Theatre Bizarre (The Theater Bizarre) (V)
| release date | April 24 2012 |
| studio | Severin |
| director | Various |
| writer | Various |
| starring | Udo Kier, Tom Savini, Kaniehtiio Horn, Debbie Rochon, Catriona MacColl, André Hennicke, Elissa Dowling, Suzan Anbeh |
| rating | R |
| site | facebook.com/thetheatrebizarre |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
8 Comments
When I was little, I had a recurring nightmare in which I would crawl through a tunnel and at the end of it, I would find an eyeball inside a mouth, staring at me. So, of course when I saw this movie cover, I felt intrigued! I read the review on Bloody Disgusting and decided to give it a shot. I had high expectations and found myself pleasantly surprised. The Theatre Guignol that came in between each short was very nice — it was delightfully creepy and provided a small bit of insight into each of the upcoming shorts. My main problem with this anthology is Mother of Toads. I found it to be a horrible opener, I feel like most viewers might have trouble sticking around after this one — it was cheesy and predictable. The old lady acting in it was the only redeeming quality, she did a nice job. I Love You was pretty good. It slowly built towards the end and was well acted. I actually really enjoyed Wet Dreams. I considered it equally disturbing and hilarious. The imagery was delightfully gory but sometimes in a campy way. The Accident was definitely the highlight of this anthology. I don’t even think it should be on here, it could exist on its own. It was so well done and just…gorgeous and thoughtful. Vision Stains was average. It had a marvelous plot but the voice over was silly and the ending seemed abrupt and overdone. Sweets was an excellent end, almost a venture into the terrifying level of obesity in America! This short would satisfy both intellectual horror fans and gore fans. The ending of Sweets was delightful. Overall, I would say if you are going to check the Theatre Bizarre out, definitely watch The Accident and Sweets. I loved Wet Dreams but it was a bit of an acquired taste. If you have time, check out Vision Stains for the interesting concept and I Love You for its simplicity (and just because its very crisp and well done). Seriously though, I would skip Mother of Toads, it was just…silly to me.
+ Brings nothing less than what the title suggests
+ Great, creepy main intermittent segment
+ One story involving needles in eyeballs was hard to watch
○ Good ratio of Bizarre/weird/horror stories, some leaning more one way than others, but one seems a bit out of place