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Fun Size Horror: Volume Two
by Various directors

Anthologies!! You love 'em, I love 'em. The elderly love 'em, kids love 'em, everyone does. It's what unites us as a planet. A while back I reviewed a film called Fun Size Horror: Volume One. It's a super fun project filled with monsters, creepy kids, ghosts, and dismemberment. I was happy to discover that the second installment was available and eager to check it out. So I did.

Fun Size Horror: Volume Two follows its predecessor in design, featuring an assortment of bite-sized stories rather than a more classical, frame-story centered film with a few longer tales. The film gets rolling right away and we are greeted with an aging former old-time sitcom star who's recently lost his former co-star. We meet a disturbed woman who sees herself as the Angel of Death, killing demons with fangs and filled with confetti who are actually innocent folk filled with good 'ol fashioned human fixin's. All the stories have title screens, giving it a nice segmented feel.

The entries range in subject, style, and tone vastly. Some have a more comedic and wacky tone. One example is Playing Dead, which deals with a group of young people who have formed a club in which they horribly mutilate themselves and each other for fun in increasingly over-the-top ways. Another example would have to be Pillow Fright which sees a group of girls being attacked by homicidal pillows. Some have a far more serious spin such as And They Watched dealing with the vengeful spirit of a condemned and executed man. This also applies to Whispers which deals with a man taunted by rats. But what is really going on with him?

The mixture of various elements and expression is handled nicely and the overall film never lets itself stay in one wheelhouse for too long. The serious times will be complimented by the humorous, the more psychological with something more gory and tactile. There's always a refreshing breath of air around every corner and while some segments may be more memorable than others, none of them are particularly low notes.

The diversity displayed in the film is wonderful and one segment is even animated. This one deals with a struggling magician who goes by The Great Corben who finds what the audience really wants is to see some bloodshed. There are references to the horror genre itself and the films therein even feature a tale of a horror actress trying to live with a withering career. I found this one to be one of the sadder, more emotionally relevant stories.

I won't go into all of them but there is a wide array of tales on display. Tales of mutants, murderers and mysterious beings. Moments of cut-off faces and dental floss strangulation. Everyone does a great job with their roles and I was impressed with how the acting stayed consistent throughout so many segments and different directors. All in all, it is clear that everyone involved was on board for a howling good time and that's exactly what they produced. Here's to looking onward to Volume Three!

P.J. Griffin, HMS

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