A quirky, ambitious anthology effort is a love letter to VCR horror and the grindhouse genre, but its rough edges could use refining and structure.
“So, you like scary stuff?”
Campy episodic anthology horror is a beautiful thing. Even when it’s messy, it’s truly delightful when a team of writers and directors that unabashedly love horror and all its trappings decide to craft something together. While the onslaught of content from the various anthology horror efforts out there may take away some of its impact, it’s still exciting to see this type of storytelling stay alive.
I’m the kind of person that routinely decompresses by throwing on a random installment of Tales From the Crypt, Tales From the Darkside, or Monsters every night, so I am very much the audience for something like Skeletons in the Closet. That being said, quite honestly the whole retro ‘80s pastiche angle has sort of been done to death at this point, but that doesn’t mean that it should be wholly off limits, but rather that the filmmakers should have an actual reason for throwing back to this decade and knowing that alone won’t be enough. Skeletons in the Closet successfully emulates the pulpy grindhouse experience as a number of over-the-top archetypal horror tales are presented to the audience with plenty of loving commentary on the genre itself happening along the way.
Skeletons in the Closet begins with Jamie, a young kid who reads pulpy horror comics, as she waits with her babysitter, Tina, for late-night horror programming to commence. All of this is very aware of itself and its tone (the cable access-like station’s slogan is even, “Channel 13, fuck yeah!”). Say what you will about the movie, but Skeletons in the Closet knows exactly what it wants to be. The film makes use of a reasonably clever frame narrative where you watch the in-show, Skeletons in the Closet along with Jamie and Tina. You react along with them and get to check in between each segment, with Jamie’s babysitter very much stepping in as the uninformed audience surrogate. It’s like if Tales From the Darkside: The Movie was mashed together with V/H/S. This also contributes to a very casual, hangout vibe, which is great for a movie of this nature.
Skeletons in the Closet has a strangely reflexive quality since the characters in the in-film are also watching horror films, so you get to hear their banter and commentary on what they’re watching, as Jamie and her babysitter then do the same thing to them. You’re watching characters, watching characters, watching characters. If all of this isn’t enough, an escaped killer is also on the loose, which adds extra danger to the frame narrative and turns it into its own horror film. It’s a strangely ambitious structure, but it works more than it doesn’t, yet you easily could have just set this within Skeletons in the Closet or removed one of these frame narratives to little consequence. The tone between the hosts of Skeletons in the Closet is pretty hokey and tongue-in-cheek. It’s humorous and cute, like Elvira, and that attitude acts as a nice way to occasionally relieve tension. It all comes together to create a very variety show-like quality.
Directors B.A. Lewandowski and Tony Wash, with a script coming from Wash and Johnny Hlousek, may be relative newcomers and their raw nature shows at times, but this is still a fun piece of horror. It undisputedly looks like an ‘80s movie and has that grainy grindhouse touch. That’s not difficult to pull off, but it’s still appreciated here. At times certain aesthetic touches, like a VCR tracking menu will show up on the screen for good measure and throw you back to that basement horror atmosphere.
On that note, the film also makes excessive use of a frenetic, ADD-stricken, channel-surfing aesthetic. At times this even almost feels like a horror-themed interdimensional cable episode of Rick and Morty, which isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but it’s an interesting one. Sometimes there are just snippets of horror trailers that play and at other times there are just evocative images that flash across the screen before it moves onto something else. There’s a particularly distracting segment that’s ostensibly a sizzle reel montage that features footage from actual retro horror classics like The House on Haunted Hill and The Wasp Woman. It’s clearly meant to display the love for this subset of horror, but there are more original ways to do this. Additionally, the static-y, channel changing effect can be a little much at times and the film could stand to be more confident and not feel like it has to so often resort to such flashy touches.
The film is also a little genuinely confusing to follow at times and the stylistic touches can occasionally overpower the narrative itself. For instance, the first story uses cartoonish green mist transitions that don’t connect to the narrative and may evoke the spooky aesthetic, but they mostly just pull you out of the story. The most egregious example here is when characters just explain what happened in the film that they watched, because they can. Even if this is cute, the film should still be able to make its connections clear without a character needing to explain it to the audience.
There are essentially four short films that make up the bulk of Skeletons in the Closet. They all thematically link together and connect in some fashion, which is rewarding, but they each completely stand on their own, too. One story chronicles a mother and daughter’s stay at their ornery grandmother’s creepy house. Oh, and she may or may not be a cannibal. It really nails the creepy, overbearing grandma vibe well. There are visuals of her eating glass and peeling off her face that are genuinely unnerving. Some other scares throughout the film may fall flat, but it’s fair to say that there will be at least a few images from the movie that stick with you long after it’s over.
The following stories are unfortunately less interesting than what falls before them, but they still have their moments. One short is about misogyny, abuse, and revenge. There may not be much of a narrative here and it goes more for the bloody and sensationalistic route, but it gets out before it has a chance to really overstay its welcome. It’s a rather short story, but packs a punch. Finally, there’s a flashy, gangster heist-type story that’s dripping in machismo and testosterone, but never nails the tension that it wants to create. It turns into a sort of haunted hitman story, which feels like a horror-skewing take on the Punisher, but they never really bring the material to where it needs to be. It’s by far the weakest of the stories and could probably benefit by being cut in half and using that time to flesh the second story into more of a narrative, or throw in one last bonkers entry.
Story content aside, across the board the performances in the film are all rather melodramatic and big, but that’s the atmosphere that they’re going for here. At times this can go a little too far and reach a cringe-worthy, tone-deaf level, but the performances mostly fit with the B-movie vibe that it wants to create. Jamie and her babysitter do the best job out of the lot. Furthermore, from an aesthetic standpoint there are some really beautiful shots in this film. It also features some impressive cinematography that comes forward at unexpected moments. For instance, the first major story in the film uses color in some gorgeous ways that are evocative of Bava or Argento’s earlier works. The film also features serviceable music that fits the film. The music gets the job done and helps sell the tension and dread, but it never rises to incredible levels either.
More than anything else, Skeletons in the Closet feels like it’s a film about storytelling in its many forms and how we like to get scared and scare others. There’s a moment in the middle of the film where the characters take a break from watching their horror film to recant a scary local urban legend about an escaped killer. All the while an actual killer watches and stalks the storytellers and turns them into his own entertainment. And on top of that, you, the audience, are also watching all of this play out as a cohesive movie. So many different types of horror stories stumble over each other in this moment, all of which want to scare their respective audience, but they all reflect the various ways to craft a story.
Skeletons in the Closet is far from a perfect horror film, but in spite of its downfalls, the stories pass by quickly, the movie maintains a great energy, and it’s just fun. It’s hard to be angry at something that has such good intentions, presents a handful of entertaining tales, and never stops throwing stuff at the audience. Cannibals, mutants, murderous children, escaped mental patients, and light-hearted gags about necrophilia, nothing is off limits here. This enthusiasm helps the film get along, but Skeletons in the Closet is a horror movie where I like what it’s trying to do more than what it actually does. Lewandowski, Wash, and Hlousek all show great promise as horror filmmakers and I’d be curious to see what these guys could do with a more restrained, patient type of story. Why not even turn Skeletons in the Closet into an actual anthology TV show where their love for the genre can go even deeper?
‘Skeletons in the Closet’ sees its world premiere on September 7th in Chicago with a wider release date to follow
