The Theatre Bizarre (2012)

Very disappointing...

Powerful

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Let me make clear that I'm not giving my review of the whole movie, my review is strictly for the segment: The accident,which caught my eye when I saw it, the segment is very different from the others in perspective it does not fit into the hole movie which focuses on horror and gore.What separates it from the other shorts is its gentle nature in the narrative of properly speaking of what is death,how a child has her first experience with death,to be more precise how a mother explains to her what is death,this narrative jumps from the day of the accident to a conversation from mother to daughter that same night,we see images of motorcycle accident which are witness by both and we cut to a warm moment between mother and daughter, daughter in her bed and her mother beside her explaining the meaning of life and death for the first time to her child,the girl asking her questions about why people die and how the mother dose not have the answer to it and trying to convince her that death is not always a bad thing.The accident is incredible mixture of storytelling and music, the song is a combination of orchestra with electronic sounds with vocal samples, giving us a calm vibe and a little disturbing at the same time fitting perfectly with the story.It's not morbid to talk about death. Most people don't worry about death, they worry about a bad death-Terry Pratchett

A six part anthology horror film has an effective wrap around segment Directed by Jeremy Kasten. It tells of a young woman (Virginia Newcomb) who is drawn to a rundown Theatre where a marionette-like man (Udo Keir) introduces the stories. The first is "The Mother of Toads" based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, this bizarre tale tells of a couple in the outskirts of France who meet an old witch (Catriona Maccoll) who entices Martin (Woodward) with a real copy of the Necronomicon. Not all is what it seems and the cursed witch and her evil powers have a surprise waiting. This is the most atmospheric and scary segment of the entire movie. Directed by Richard Stanley mixes bizarre imagery and some gooey F/X into this standout segment. "I Love You" tells of Axel (Hennicke), a paranoid lover who wants one more chance with his wife (Suzan Anbeh) before he goes off and does something bloody to her. Directed by Buddy Giovinazzo this segment keeps your interest and plays it all for the end twist which is decent and bloody. "Wet Dreams' Directed by Tom Savini tells of Donnie (James Gill) who is having dreams he can't control. This dream within a dream segment has some intense gore scenes including limbs being pulled off on a rack and a good cast but isn't very fulfilling story wise. "The Accident" Directed by Douglas Buck is a serious drama piece told through the eyes of a young girl (Melodie Simard) who witnesses an accident on the road and tries to understand death. An art house segment that is thoughtful, but ultimately out of place in this collection of stories. "Vision Stains" Directed by Karim Hussain tells of a woman (Kaniehtiio) obsessed with other people's memories. She stalks them and kills them and drains their eye fluid and injects it into her own to see their memories and tell their stories. Nasty and not very much fun this is an experimental segment with a weak payoff. The final segment is "Sweets" which is an avant-garde piece by David Gregory that truly marches to its own tune. Greg (Guilford Adams) has been sucked into an unusual relationship with candy and dessert obsessed Estelle (Goranson) who has completely changed him. When the segment starts Estelle is leaving him and the blubbering Greg is desperate which leads to him coming to a dinner party where what is on the menu is truly depraved. The blood soaked and gory ending is an eye popper that caps off this truly bizarre story. It gets high marks for originality but may turn off many mainstream horror fans. This is a new form of anthology movie which has different Directors doing each segment. Like "The ABCs of Death", this makes for a rather unbalanced affair overall. The vision, style and type of story are so varied that no wrap-around story can tie them together. You will end up liking some and not others.

It's pretty hard for a movie anthology with six different segments to strike out six times in a row, but this mess managed to fail on every occasion. Sure, there are terrible movies that are just an excuse for sex and/or gore, but at least some of those are either clever or have some actual eroticism in them. This waste of time was just repulsive from the word go, and had not one coherent storyline in any of the six miserable stories. I'm a big horror fan, and even I was disgusted by this pitiful attempt at horror storytelling. I couldn't wait for this over-produced mess to end. It's very difficult to come up with six stories that had no point to them. The idiots that directed and wrote this garbage should be proud of the fact that they could accomplish such a difficult feat.

This is one to avoid IMO. It's a compilation of different strange stories joined together by the main one. The first short story was okay and scary in a H.P. Lovecraft way. They are also R-rated, some contain adult situations and nudity besides excessive gore. We had to stop about half way through the film. The short stories were progressively gory and depressing as the movie went on. I especially didn't care for the scene with the motorcycle accident and the little girl who witnesses it. They made it a point to dwell on the deer that was involved in the accident and it's suffering. My advice is to avoid this flick, if you think you have an opinion in any way similar to mine about graphic gore and depressing stories.