Treasure Chest of Horrors III

Dysmorphia

USA 2013
produced by
James Cullen Bressack (executive), Jarret Cohen (executive), Doug Waugh (associate), JD Fairman (associate) for Psykik Junky Pictures
directed by James J. Coker (segments Uncle Chuck's Horror Tapes, Fatal Error), Shane Ryan (segment So, We Killed Our Parents), Shawn C. Phillips & Brendan Michtell (segment I Dare You), Doug Waugh (segment Knockers), Robert Biehn (segment Fatal Fantasy), The Cousin Bros (segment Sane: The Story of the Boredom Killings)
starring Uncle Chuck's Horror Tapes: JD Fairman, Kelsey Smoot, Anna Herbert; So, We Killed Our Parents: Shane Ryan, Rex Cobalt, Valerie Wheeler, Vicky Rodriguez; I Dare You: Shawn C. Phillips, Brendan Mitchell, Ethan Phillips, Dennis Haskins, Rebekah Kochan, Dante, Gabriel Mercado; Knockers: Chris DePretis, Alisha Scott, T.J. Akins, Aaron Granillo; Fatal Fantasy: Kurt Bloom, Tara Emerson; Fatal Error: Tim Maltby, James J. Coker, Brandon Rivas, Sue Kim
written by James J. Coker (segments Uncle Chuck's Horror Tapes, Fatal Error), Shane Ryan (segment So, We Killed Our Parents), Shawn C. Phillips & Brendan Michtell (segment I Dare You), Doug Waugh (segment Knockers), Tara Emerson (segment Fatal Fantasy), The Cousin Bros (segment Sane: The Story of the Boredom Killings), music by Ian Francis Smith, Boneshin (segment So, We Killed Our Parents)

Treasure Chest of Horrors

review by
Mike Haberfelner

In the wraparound segment Uncle Chuck's Horror Tapes, 2 teens (JD Fairman, Kelsey Smoot) find a treasure chest full of old horror VHS tapes and decide to watch them all, despite the warning of their aunt (Anna Herbert) that one of the tapes is lethal.

• So, We Killed Our Parents: Teenaged siblings Donny (Shane Ryan) and Denise (Vicky Rodriguez) are suffering under their parents (Rex Cobalt, Valerie Wheeler), as dad likes to rape Denise and beat Donny up while mum is a willing accomplice - then though the two youngsters pick up baseball bats, beat their parents to a pulp, and have sex with each other over their dead bodies.
• I Dare You: As a dare to cement their internet stardom, two overweight webshow hosts (Shawn C. Phillips, Brendan Mitchell) decide to lock themselves into the bathroom with very little food for a week ... which soon leads to them stealing each other's food - and much worse ...
• Knockers: A guy (Chris de Pretis) tries to bar a Jehova's witness (Alisha Scott) from entering his house - but she's not one to easily give up ...
• Fatal Fantasy: As a birthday surprise for her husband (Kurt Bloom), a woman (Tara Emerson) has slept with another man, just because she has taken one of his sexual fantasies to literally. Unfortunately, she has taken some other things he had said too literally as well ...
• Sane: the Story of the Boredom Killings: Two underaged guys start to randomly kill people - just to escape their boring lives for a bit.
• Fatal Error: A computer animator (Tim Maltby) launches a 3D rendering program to bring his new monster to life ... and it really brings the thing to life, for real ...

Only one tape is left in the box, so this must be the fatal one, right? And of course, our two teens are too curious not to watch it ...

Like the first two films in the Treasure Chest of Horrors-series, this one is a very mixed bag of goodies, with shorts ranging from the serious to the downright funny, varying vastly in quality, and lacking an overall theme - which might make the film a bit too heterogenous for some ... but all the more fun to watch for others, because it once again shows the wide variety of the indie horror scene, the passion of these filmmakers to make something out of, well, next to nothing, and quite simply fresh ideas in an only seemingly oversaturated market.

Interestingly though while the film as a whole (not so much the individual segments) has set out to pay hommage to the VHS-age, it really can't transmit the fascination of this technology of old to the audience, the segments that had a mock VHS-rendering done in post only look crappy and poor, and only remind one that VHS is not the vinyl of video, and in this instant, progress was a step in the right direction.

Apart from this though, the film is totally enjoyable!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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