Should be called ‘Fails of Halloween’. Am I right? Tough crowd…
Horror compendiums have had a bit of a revival in recent years with the V/H/S and The ABC’s of Death series both receiving modest praise. If The ABC’s of Death represents the more arty end of the horror spectrum and V/H/S the more weird, Tales of Halloween falls somewhere in the middle with a healthy dollop of Tales from the Crypt style Halloween camp.
Tales of Halloween is a throw back but not in the same way as Ti West with his recent work that harks back to the golden age of the 70’s. The Halloween tales of the title are more indebted to monster movies of the 40’s and 50’s and the kitsch cheesy Lovecraftian horror films that were so popular in the 80’s. The problem with this approach is those films were so of their time that any attempt to replicate that now just doesn’t really work.
Yep. That would be a pumpkin coming to life to eat someone’s head.
The other problem is basics such as decent acting and clever scripting are missing and a couple of the ten stories presented here are actually really good it isn’t enough to save the film as a whole.
8 years ago Michael Dougherty released similar film Trick ‘r’ Treat which also had interwoven stories that take place on Halloween. The fact that ten different directors have come together to make Tales of Halloween and have failed to improve on Trick ‘r’ Treat is a damning indictment of its lack of quality.