Trapped Ashes (2006)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

TRAPPED ASHES is a very low budget anthology horror made in the same style as DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS or CREEPSHOW. It has an admirably old-fashioned feel to it, but unfortunately the constraints of budget and general cheesiness of the execution means that it disappoints rather than innovates throughout.Unusually enough for a horror anthology, the best part of the film is the wraparound segment. This is directed by Joe Dante, who can't resist throwing in some old timers like his beloved Dick Miller and Henry Gibson (THE BURBS), who acts as a tour guide showing a group around an old haunted house. The stories that take place are as follows: The first, THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN BREASTS, is an awful bad taste joke about a woman whose breast enlargement operation goes awry. This one's directed by Ken Russell, who also cameos, and it's terrible from beginning to end. The second, JIBAKU, is directed by Friday THE 13TH's Sean S. Cunningham and is a Japanese-set ghost story. Sadly, the events that play out are entirely predictable, although Ryo Ishibashi (SUICIDE CLUB) bags a small role.The third story, STANLEY'S GIRLFRIEND, arouses some mild interest by tackling the weighty subject of Stanley Kubrick, but it turns out to be routine despite the welcome presence of old-timer John Saxon. The final story, MY TWIN, MY WORM, is another bad taste story and the title tells you everything you need to know about that. I only really enjoyed TRAPPED ASHES for seeing the three old-time actors on-screen but the young cast members are very poor here and the directors appear to be slumming it. It's a pity.

Anthology shaped in spirit after the Amicus films from back in the day. Except, unlike those past anthologies where one director helmed the entire series of stories throughout the omnibus, "Trapped Ashes" features stories directed by a series of familiar names. Joe Dante(Gremlins;The Howling;Matinée)directs the wraparound story about various people(a screenwriter & his actress wife, a disgruntled married couple with issues, a down-on-his-luck writer whose now a relic, a weird employee at a theater who books films there(..perhaps modeled after Dennis Bartok himself who wrote "Trapped Ashes)and has a case of the munchies) who converge to ride a studios tour, guided by Henry Gibson. They plead in visiting the forbidden "Hysteria" mansion once operated by an effects maestro, known for his salacious sexual behavior and wicked parties, who was abandoned by Ultra Studios(..the setting for this film). Once inside the characters and their guide find themselves trapped in a room with seemingly no exits, this scenario perhaps modeled after the film Hysteria where the mansion was it's setting. The tour guide proposes that horrific stories shared by members of the trapped group might lead to their exit from the mansion and so the anthology begins.Ken Russell(Gothic;Lair of the White Worm)directs the first tale regarding a pretty actress, nearing 30(..which is 60 in dog years in Hollywood)who decides to try out a new breast implant procedure(..using flesh from cadavers)in the hopes that it'll assist her non-successful career. The procedure has a nasty side-effect..her breast implants need human blood and drain the bodies of victims! The second tale, directed by Sean Cunningham(The New Kids;Friday the 13th)concerns a married couple in Japan and the wife who is haunted by a monk who committed suicide, ravaging her body as a rotting corpse, kidnapping her soul with the husband having to enter a hole to hell in order to save her. The third tale, from Monte Hellman(Two-Lane Black Top;Silent Night, Deadly Night III), shows how a seductress, with a taste for human blood, comes between friends, a director named Stanley(*wink*)and a writer, both whose careers are on the rise. The fourth tale, from John Gaeta(a visual effects expert), focuses on a pregnancy where the baby must share her womb with a parasitic worm which was ingested as the mother ate undercooked meat, and the aftermath. Lots of nudity(..the Russell tale obviously displays breasts, because Rachel Veltri's are creatures which suck blood), necrophilia(..during Lara Harris' "assault", mostly consensual, she actually puts her fingers into his face and under a chest bone while riding him on top!), a parasite molesting a female victim(..she's the stepmother of Michèle-Barbara Pelletier's girl-child who beguiled her father away from her mother), animation mixed with live action(..while the husband searches for his possessed wife in hell, Cunningham's tale uses anime to enliven certain aspects the low budget couldn't compensate), and some minor computer graphics(..in Gaeta's tale, we see inside the womb how the baby is affected by her mother and father's broken marriage with all the shouting). VERY low-budget, and perhaps shows signs of an amateur screen-writer, Dennis Bartok(..who operates the American Cinematheque)because, disappointing to me at least, the tales aren't quite up to par. I didn't think the cast was as bad as others, but the talents involved in this film perhaps deserved better material and actors(..other than the reliable vets, Dick Miller, who barely has any lines, and, especially, Gibson)than were given to them. Most of the tales, other than the Hellman tale, Stanley's Girlfriend, which was pretty much memorable for who the director turned out to actually be, left me rather underwhelmed(..particularly Cunningham's, which I felt needed more exposition). I thought Russell's was sick and morbid enough, also containing a wicked sense of humor and playful performance from the adorable Veltri, but most of the tales really leave anything to be desired. It was great seeing John Saxon in a major role within the film, hitting on a married woman, so there are a few treats for horror buffs. Maybe not enough, though, to recommend to the average horror fan. There's a great deal of unpleasant violence(..the aforementioned necrophilia, finger nails scratching down a man's chest before the woman drinks his blood, and a torn throat of a victim whose blood is used to nourish Veltri's monster tits)which might bode well with gorehounds. Maybe, anticipating this as much as I was, the film couldn't live up to my expectations, but I was expecting so much more than the results provided.

A group of tourists on a movie studio lot are locked in the House of Horror and forced to tell 'true' ghost stories about themselves in order to be released. The stories range from plastic surgery nightmares to necrophilia.Mysteriously, this film started filming shortly after Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted was released. . . but, I'll just chalk that up to coincidence. From some of the (former) great minds of horror that have brought us such horrors as Friday the 13th, Altered States, The Lair of the White Worm, The Howling, Piranha, Gremlins, The 'burbs, and. . . umm. . . Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!. . . we're now given Trapped Ashes. It's anthology of four (plus wraparound) stories that vary in quality from the average 'Jibaku' to the pathetic 'Golden Breasts,' we're given quite an array of 'terrifying' tales. Like most anthologies, it's not so much the point of the stories. . . just the stories themselves. However, Trapped Ashes did manage to give a reason for the anthology, so kudos to that. As far as the stories go:The Girl with Golden Breasts: The idea was interesting, like Teeth, but with a different part of the female anatomy. There was some good, cringeworthy gore. . . but that's about it. The acting was amateurish, only accentuated by terrible dialogue (including my most hated error: outwardly spoken inner dialogue). As the story progressed, it became more and more ridiculous, resulting in an almost embarrassing conclusion.Jibaku: In hopes of classing up the film with some Asian flare, the next story headed to Japan. It's fairly disgusting as it studies some weird necrophiliac fantasies and the story is interesting, but it becomes a bit muddled as it goes through and is ultimately forgettable.Stanley's Girlfriend: The third tale, this one about the peril of deceit, is the 'classiest' of the bunch, utilizing mood & suspense more than outward horror. Unfortunately, in an attempt to be slow-burning, it ends up just being downright slow. It's not poorly made, just seems rather unimportant until the final reveal.My Twin – The Worm: Uninvolving is probably the best word to describe this one. It was an interesting parasite-twin story. . . but, I didn't really care all that much and found myself easily distracted.Although I didn't like the tales, I did like the idea for the wraparound. Unfortunately, an anthology made up of lame stories makes for a lame anthology. And, overall, that's what this film turns out to be: pretty lame. If you're heavy into anthologies, give it a look. . . but you can do much better.Final verdict: 4/10.

Anthology films rarely work for me. Most of them are as uneven as twenty miles of bad road. TRAPPED ASHES was yet another bumpy ride.Six people are trapped in a room and must relate terrible things that they've had happen to them to their host (Henry Gibson). What follows are four segments directed by auteurs not necessarily known for their horror chops (with the possible exception of Sean S. Cunningham). Each segment prominently features the ties between sex and death so prevalent in horror films. One features a woman with vampiric breasts whose lamprey mouthed nipples sucks the blood of her lovers. Another woman falls for a corpse who whisks her away to hell while on Japanese holiday. A succubus falls for Stanley Kubrick. And the last, poor woman shares the insatiable hunger of her fraternal twin, a tapeworm.The first segment sets up expectations that TRAPPED ASHES will be a much more lighthearted film. Surprisingly, this segment was directed by Ken Russell though it felt like something from Joe Dante or Paul Bartel (it was especially reminiscent of Irvin Kershner's "Hell Toupee" episode of "Amazing Stories"). The Sean S. Cunningham sequence felt like a pail gaijin aping of Hideo Nakata (THE RING) and John Gaeta's just didn't work at all. I enjoyed the Kubrick bit, courtesy of Monte Hellman - a perennial Cashiers du Cinemart fave - except that the horror element seemed like an afterthought.Surprised that this wasn't called TALES FROM THE CRYPT: TRAPPED ASHES, this is one that can be missed by all except die hard John Saxon fans.