The Horror Show
In the Dark
by David Buchert, Chris St. Croix
I'm part of the video store generation. Post having to rent a VCR (as the appliance had become commonplace in the average household) but when video tapes were really at the height of their popularity. I always loved walking down the aisles of the video store and finding new movies that I hadn't heard of simply by checking out the boxes. Even with the internet being a monstrous element now where you can find out just about anything, there are still plenty of movies that slip through the cracks and I would not have heard about them unless faced with a titillating cover. Scanning images on the web is far from the same thrill as checking out a quality video store but every once in a while my eyes catch an interesting looking piece.
I came across In the Dark on Amazon Prime while looking up new movies to check out. The cover looked interesting enough and while I've been burned by judging a flick by its artwork before, the description sounded intriguing enough as well, so I gave it a go. While the description pulled me in, I wasn't quite sure if it was an anthology film or simply a movie that had a lot of different things going on. In the end, it turned out to be an anthology. This was to my delight as I've spoken in volume many times before about my love for the sub-genre.
The frame story of In the Dark reminded me of a combination of the V/H/S series and Screamtime. It centers on a series of unexpected tapes, but ones that are established as real movies; they have box art and even closing titles. The movies come into the possession of two sisters who are also two of the most attractive killers I've ever seen. They both just got done with a shady job for someone named Salazar which leads to the tapes falling into their criminal hands. The two young women find themselves holed up in a motel room with nothing better to do than wait and check out the tapes. This is where the stories come from.
The first story concerns a group that I can only describe as criminals. I love their style, but they're portrayed as nasty individuals who kill for fun and argue with one another on a regular basis. One of the girls in the group clearly doesn't belong but the main bad dude is sweet on her so she's involved. Like with other elements in the other stories, the viewer isn't bombarded with exposition. You're given what you need to know to get the general gist and move on from there, a tactic that works well within the anthology brand. The ins and outs of what these people usually do or how this girl wound up with them isn't described in detail, nor does it need to be. To say anything more about this story would be to ruin the fun, so I'll move on. The second story involves a troubled young boy and his therapy doll. I was expecting a traditional “killer doll” story but what I got was actually quite different than I thought. This story is all about the twists and turns it takes and cross-breeds several different types of horror concepts into one neat little story.
The frame story with the sisters evolves between each short segment. Things go from suspicious to worse for them as they find that the scary movies they are watching aren't the only things they have to fear. It's not a whole lot of story, but just enough. If there's too much going on in the frame story things can get garbled; not always, but often. In the Dark knew to keep it simple while still allowing the frame story to be something and tell a little mini-story of its own.
The third and final story deals with a young man who moves into his recently deceased mother's apartment. This story's protagonist is, unfortunately for him, a little on the dorky side, something he finds frustrating. He begins taking instructions from his mother's VCR with the help of a mysterious VHS tape. I won't reveal much more other than to say that fellow Little Shop of Horror Fans should get a kick out of the overall concept.
All in all I was quite happy with this entry into the anthology world. It had a consistent framing story and all the stories were all different from one another. Not only that but they were all really good stories that were fun in their own way. The changing of tone and style while still remaining true to the project impressed me. I've seen quite a few mediocre anthologies before and a lot of the stories in those blur together and are easily forgotten. This one, however, knew what it was doing and I'll remember what movies these stories came from when they pop into my head every now and again. It combines a lot of known elements of the horror world, but in a way that makes the stories unique, something that is just fine with me.
P.J. Griffin, HMS
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