 |
James Morris, Michael Ballif, Emily Broschinsky, Karlee Broschinsky, Charla Bocchiccio, Belle Warren, Stevie Dust, and an eBay's worth of vintage Halloween decorations.
More details here.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
THE ANGLE:
Five spooky Halloween tales unfold starting with:
Killer on the Loose
A young woman is stalked on Halloween night by an unseen lunatic. She breaks into a home to evade her pursuer.
But the killer is close behind and breaks into the home and continues his pursuit as the woman frantically tries to find a place to hide. His motivations are unknown but then again so are hers!
Princess
A single mom and her young daughter move into a new home in a new city to start a new life. The girl is not happy that she needs to adjust to an unfamiliar environment.
The laws of horror demand that any toy manufactured during the Toys R Us era must be possessed by a murderous demon and so the bedeviled bunny prepares to go all choppy-choppy on the young family with only the little girl standing in its way.
Not Alone
A man trying to catch some Z's is distracted by weird lights surrounding his house and scary shadow beings in his bedroom.
But is it all an insomniac's waking delusion or a full-scale alien invasion?
They Live Inside Us
A horror screenwriter plagued with writer's block seeks inspiration to complete his script. So he breaks into a rumored haunted house where a recent brutal murder occurred to spend the night.
He cycles through various horror tropes like masked killer, murder clown, and undead scarecrow with each scenario vividly coming to life in his mind.
Is That You?
A teenage girl on Halloween night texts her friends to go do something but all she receives is laters and the dreaded ellipses. Frustrated with her flaky pals, she starts to hear weird noises around her house.
Something is skulking amidst the holiday fun outside and it's made its way inside her house.
Setting up either the greatest scare prank of all time, the meanest trick or treat, or the last Halloween night of her life.
THE FINISHER:
Watching horror anthologies is like sitting around a summertime campfire and regaling scary legends, ghost stories, and other tales of woe. They’re the perfect type of movies to watch on a Halloween night, a mini-marathon in and of itself if you need to hit the hay early. Much like the classic anthologies like Creepshow, Trick r Treat, the criminally underrated Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, and many others, The Witching Season succeeds in providing a lineup of clever, unnerving stories featuring unexpected twists. The makers do a commendable job leading a cast with natural talent, avoid references to other films and franchises and try something new, and do not exceed an ambition beyond their financial means, an unfortunate quality I've encountered with horror shorts in the past which is why I tend to avoid them. The strongest entry is They Live Inside Us which has been expanded into a feature film released in 2020 and The Witching Season 2 is in the works. Much affection towards the season is on display here despite the challenges of low budget filmmaking. Especially worthy of note are the homages to the Beistle company, creators of the finest vintage Halloween decorations of yesterday and today.
The Witching Season makes for a perfect short night of Halloween night marathon fare along with one or all of the other films mentioned above if you need your scares short, sweet, and to the point.
As of 10/9/23, The Witching Season is streaming on Amazon Prime.
No comments:
Post a Comment