“Tales of Halloween” offers ten loved-filled tributes to Halloween and is this seasons best treat!
Do you remember Halloween? No, no. Not in general, I mean specifically the Halloween in your past. Do you remember your favorite things? Was it trick-or-treating? Was it sorting your candy to find the best pieces and deciding what to eat first or save for last? How about the double-dog dare for your friends to go up and knock on the door of the spookiest, darkest house the street? Remember the house that always gave out the worst treats? Do you remember that stuff?
Well, the movie “Tales of Halloween” does, and they want you to recall those precious little moments with glee.
The Los Angeles premiere took place before a sold-out crowd at the opening night of this year’s ScreamfestLA. Check out the rest of their lineup here…
http://screamfestla.com
“Tales of Halloween” is an anthology featuring 10 short films that celebrate every aspect of Halloween imaginable. They dance through the topics mentioned above, plus play in the arena of horror films and slasher films and witches and goblins and demons and even the simple subject of what makes a good holiday yard display – it’s all here. Overall, there are far more grins and laughs than scares to be found, but the movie overflows with charm and wit.
This movie is a unapologetic love letter to everything that is Halloween – and if you like this time of year, if you’re a haunt fan, a horror movie fan, a dark literature fan or just like anything remotely creepy in your life, then there is something in this movie for you.
Never making the mistake of taking itself too seriously, this collection of films moves rapidly from story to story, sometimes featuring overlapping characters, sometimes dropping you into a nifty little independent universe to explore some aspect of Halloween celebrations
Along the way you’ll recognize a ton of familiar faces in an endless series of cameos that offer chuckles and winks along the way. Stuart Gordon, Mick Garris, John Landis, and Joe Dante all show up to share in the fun. Plus numerous genre veterans like Barbara Crampton and Adrienne Barbeau pop up around every corner, it seems.
Being an anthology, it can be somewhat uneven in tone and style, but the amount of successes here far outnumber the failures. It is always engaging. It is also refreshingly dark in some places, showing a willingness to be just a little nasty and mean-spirited when the story warrants it.
Along the way, there are many highlights such as a standout performance by Barry Bostwick as the ultimate prankster in “The Night Billy Raised Hell.” The evil mythological visitor in “Sweet Tooth” does not get a large amount of screen time, but certainly makes an impact. The creature effect in “Bad Seed” had the audience I was with howling with delight. “The Weak and the Wicked,” packs a surprising effective emotional punch in the middle of all this Halloween fright fare as a bullied teen reveals a rather twisted plea for help. “Trick” offers some nasty, shocking kills that may seem pointless at first, but a revelation comes that puts everything you have seen in question. “Grim Grinning Ghost” offers atmosphere aplenty and an ending that, even if you predict it, will absolutely elicit a scream from you. “The Ransom of Rusty Rex” spins a somewhat familiar tale of a kidnapping gone awry, but does so with a great deal of gusto, for sure. “This Means War” is the physical embodiment of an age old argument – what’s truly scary, the age old dark and creepy Halloween traditions or in-your-face gore and aggression?
My personal favorite of the whole bunch is “Friday the 31st,” a tribute to slasher films that offers a very unique role reversal for potential Final Girl and villain.
Tales of Halloween hits selected theaters and VOD on Friday, October 16th. If you want some good, rambunctious holiday fun – get yourself some candy and take in this collection of Halloween short films. I bet you will be grinning like a demented clown by the time it is over!
For more information on “Tales of Halloween”, please check out their Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/TalesOfHalloween
and check out the trailer below.
EDIT: Russell went a little nuts with puns for the titles, so I wanted to share them with you – Mike
“Tales of Halloween” – fun sized short films to fill your goodie bag
“Tales of Halloween” – @Scaryruss stops by ScreamfestLA to snack on this year’s highly anticipated anthology
“Tales of Halloween” – This season’s best treat