Genre: Anthology
Director: Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Karim Hussain, Tom Savini, Richard Stanley
Country: USA
Availability: Amazon On Demand
Being a regular reader of Rue Morgue Magazine and of various horror movie websites it's always rather a surprise when I come across a new horror movie that I haven't heard of, especially one of such quality like The Theatre Bizarre. I stumbled upon this gem while watching trailers for new horror movies on Amazon On Demand in preparation for my weekly horror movie night with my best friends. Sure, the trailer looked awesome, but so often we are fooled in the horror world by fancy trailers when in reality the movie ends up being nothing more than a regurgitated, underwhelming mess. Not so with The Theatre Bizarre - we get what we paid for, and so much more.
The film contain six stories, each inspired by Paris’ legendary Grand Guignol theatre. Each story is roughly 20 minutes long and each is directed by a different director. The movie begins with an odd looking woman walking into an abandoned theatre only to discover that on stage is a strange looking marionette man that comes to life and starts to perform for her. He begins by telling the story of "The Mother of Toads", which in turn is our introduction to our first film. After each story we come back to the theatre where we watch our host bring out new and unusual marionette people who usher us into the next story. The theatre scenes are all beautifully done and sufficiently creepy, and sometimes it's so dreamlike that they start to remind us of a nightmare we're sure we had once.
The six films, while vastly different in style, all contain the same currents of theme running throughout - betrayal, comeuppance and addiction. Sure, we've all watched these topics surface and resurface time and time again in our entertainment. For the most part they're tired old themes, but they're human themes and the emotions that orbit them - like passion, rage, despair, sorrow, penance and need- are powerful tools for storytelling.
These six films: "The Mother of Toads", "I Love You", "Wet Dream", "The Accident", "Vision Stains", and "Sweets" (probably my favorite) - are all done with such style, force and disgusting gore that they leave you horrified and breathless and wanting for more. Bizarre indeed.
5 out of 5 stars
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