scottp120

I currently am trying to rent it from Netflix with a VERY LONG WAIT status. Is this worth a buy? It's $15.99 and almost bought it at Best Buy last night. I love horror movies and this seems like a Tales From the Crypt kind of thing which I would enjoy. Just wondering if the stories are any good.

Adam Tyner

You can read DVD Talk's review for one opinion.

digitallyObsessed have also posted a review.

Pointyskull

I wrote the digitallyObsessed review (thanks for the plug, Adam).

scottp120, bear in mind these are amateur winners, so the quality is not necessarily Tales From The Crypt-like.

Each of the 7 short films run about 10 minutes or so, and there are some that show some real visual promise for all of their low-budget roots, but storytelling is a little loose on all counts - as you might expect on things that run under 10 minutes in length.

If you love horror, some of the titles on the disc are certainly worth seeing - at least as a rental - but I can't necessarily endorse it as a 'must buy'.

scottp120

Yeah, I think I'll wait until Netflix gets it in. Thanks.

thegame370

Ive been thinking about getting this as well, but ill probably wait for it to reach 10 bucks or something like that, just incase.

Ghostface180

I rented it this past week and was very disappointed with the shorts. The only ones I found to be worthwhile were "Inside" and "The Hitch".

bboisvert

This is definitely not a blind buy type of DVD. I would say it's a rental, and only a casual rental at that. (Although INSIDE was pretty decent.) I personally think the DVDTalk review was waaay too generous. Highly recommended?!?

Yes, a couple of the shorts are interesting (visually) for amateur work. But most are either bad or very derivative. And all of these are VERY amateurish... nothing you'd want to rewatch ever, or spend any real money on. I would have prefered just to have these up on a web site for quick download.

freudguy

I absolutely hated this DVD. I realize that the participants had next to no budget, used less than amateur actors and only had 10 minutes to tell their story. However, the stories were awful with only hints of inspiration here and there. I watch all the shorts on this thing and realized at the end what a complete waste of time it was. One realizes why good horror movies are few and far between while watching this DVD as you can see the absolute lack of originality that these budding filmmakers emit in their films.

The Hitch - not bad until the awful, uninspired ending.

A Man and His Finger - awful awful awful attempt at humor. Like the DVDTalk reviewer said, it blatantly ripped off the sound effects from Evil Dead II.

"Inside" showed a little inspiration plus experimental cinematography. I was probably impressed the most by this one.

Shadows of the Dead - the second best on the disc, some haunting visuals but NOTHING original IMHO

Mister Eryams - WTF was this? Nice topeless scene doesn't even save this one.

Disturbances - this one did disturb me....because it was so damn derivative.

Song of the Dead - What the hell were the Fangoria staff smoking when they picked this as one of the best ones?

I would hate to see some of the losers if these are the cream of the crop.


When is the next contest? I may have to break out the video camera and do something of my own. Maybe I can even make it to the DVD and have someone rip my work apart Seriously, though, I am thinking I will actually try to enter next time. I sure as hell can do better than at least 1 or 2 on this disc.

DRG

I had to check this out due to the fact that I entered a short to this contest. My film was plagued by logistical problems... I was shooting at the house of a buddy who worked two jobs and my lead actress was a college student involved in a lot of activities. So I had to pretty much rush film the whole thing, and I didn't have time to get the lighting and makeup effects right. Plus, there were a lot of things I wish I could've reshot because I simply didn't get them right the first time. I had to run it through some funky filters to cover up some accidental lighting inconsistencies.

Unfortunately, by the time I finally got everyone together for the last footage I only had a week to edit it together, score the music, and get it sent out. All things considered, it turned out okay.

The films that beat mine were for the most part more polished, as it appeared they had more time to get it right. But I wasn't really that impressed with the storylines. A few start off good, but then veer off into weirdness for the sake of a 'plot twist'. are guilty of this. Some have decent bizarre/creepy imagery but really don't have anything to say (). And two are just campy stupidity... "Song of the Dead" and "A Man and His Finger".

"Shadows of the Dead" was actually similar to mine in plot, but its punchline was the driving force of my story.

I think I was probably screwed because their film was similar but they did a better job with production. Oh well.

Anyway, it's entertaining from an amateur filmmaker point of view. I just wish they would've done some follow-up interviews with the winners, explaining what went into the making of these films. As it stands, the films are okay, but not the best. There is also a lengthy interview with Stan Winston and a Clive Barker piece I haven't watched yet.

JaxComet

I agree with the two shorts you've selected. It's hard to believe that these were selected from thousands of entries. I'd hate to see the bad ones........

mikewendt

I got it on Netflix... It's an Ok rental at best.