THEATRE BIZARRE (2011)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed by Jeremy Kasten (framing segments), Douglas Buck (segment “The Accident”), Buddy Giovinazzo (segment “I Love You”), David Gregory (segment “Sweets”), Karim Hussain (segment “Vision Stains”), Tom Savini (segment “Wet Dreams”), Richard Stanley (segment “The Mother Of Toads”)
Written by Zach Chassler (framing segments), Douglas Buck (“The Accident”), Buddy Giovinazzo (“I Love You”), David Gregory (“Sweets”), Karim Hussain (“Vision Stains”), Richard Stanley & Scarlett Amaris (“The Mother of Toads” and “Vision Stains”), Emiliano Ranzani (“The Mother of Toads”)
Starring Udo Keir, Virginia Newcome, Amanda Marquardt, Amelia M. Gotham (framing sequence), Lena Kleine, Mélodie Simard, Jean-Paul Rivière, Bruno Decary (“The Accident”), André Hennicke, Suzan Anbeh, Harvey Friedman (“I Love You”), Lynn Lowry, Lindsay Goranson, Guilford Adams, Jessica Remmers, Elissa Dowling, Jeff Dylan Graham, Erin Marie Hogan (“Sweets”), Kaniehtiio Horn, Cynthia Wu-Maheux, Imogen Haworth, Rachelle Glait (“Vision Stains”), Debbie Rochon, Tom Savini, James Gill, Jodii Christianson (“Wet Dreams”), Catriona MacColl, Shane Woodward, Victoria Maurette (“Mother of Toads”)

THEATRE BIZARRE is an anthology featuring quite an impressive line up of horror filmmakers. Each filmmaker was given a very limited budget to make a segment of the film with the only guideline being that the story would play in a Grand Guignol Theatre set in a real movie theater. As with most anthologies, this film is a mixed bag. Framed with a funhouse style sequence with a clockwork Udo Kier introducing each chapter and viewed by a spooky eyed audience member who believes she’s in for a fun filled show, THEATRE BIZARRE proves to be an impressive compilation of horrors.

Part one “The Mother of Toads” is by HARDWARE’s Richard Stanley, a director who made a lot of waves when he first came into the scene and one who seems to have fallen off the radar in recent years. Here he offers a story of a pair of Americans in France happening upon the real Necronomicon and a deity known as the Mother of Toads. Stanley definitely stills knows how to creep the viewer out with ominous monster POV shots and more shots of smoky moors and hillsides. Though the delivery of lines by lead actor Shane Woodward is a bit wooden, Stanley takes full advantage of the moody environment and amps up the scares with a haunting soundtrack of a moaning/wailing woman. Filled with slime and ookiness, “The Mother of Toads” serves as a nice opener to this anthology.

“I Love You” plays next from Buddy Giovinazzo, the twisted mind behind COMBAT SHOCK. This one is about a man falling apart as his wife leaves him. Filmed inside an apartment in Berlin, this is a brutal tale of love gone wrong and makes me want to break out my copy of COMBAT SHOCK to re-experience that warped masterpiece again. Though this segment is a slow starter, the gory finale makes it all worth the wait.

Next up is “Wet Dreams” from SFX godfather Tom Savini. As one might expect from a Tom Savini film, the strength here lies in the imaginative effects rather than story. A cheating husband has repeated dreams of castration and goes to his psychologist (played by Savini) who offers some rudimentary psych advice. Though this one is shorter than others and views as somewhat trite, it definitely proves to be one of the more memorable offerings due to the graphic nature of the effects and proof positive that Savini still has it when it comes to gore.

Douglas Buck (directors of the SISTERS remake) comes next with “The Accident”; a tragic look at death through the innocent eyes of a child. Buck’s soulful story reminded me more of a Terrence Malick film than anything else and proved to be the most resonating short of the bunch. With effects that seemed all too disturbingly real, I found this one to be completely unnerving in a very good way.

SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY’s Karin Hussein directed “Vision Stains” which contains some absolutely toe-curling moments of bizarre gore and gruesomeness. This one is definitely not for the squeamish with eye torture galore. Hussein has a knack for getting under the skin here, making this hardened gore-hound wince more than once during this segment. Anyone who has seen the experimental film UN CHIEN ANDALOU knows how disturbing this kind of imagery can be. Though some of the shorts here are more soulful or funny or emotionally impactful, this story about a shady female serial killer who steals memories by drawing eyeball matter through a syringe then injects the matter into her own eye to experience the memories herself is one story that may turn even the most hardened of stomachs. But its not only the imagery here that disturbs, the questions this short film asks are enough to fill an entire full length film.

Finally, David Gregory offers up “Sweets”. The director of PLAGUE TOWN serves up a devious story of love and gluttony. Though it may seem at the beginning of this tale that this is going down familiar territory blazed by some of the previous segments, Gregory takes things in a ludicrously gross direction. Darkly comical and decadently wretched, “Sweets” is another one that might just make the more delicate viewers gag. I couldn’t help but admire the depravity going on in this segment.

Though this anthology proved to be a mixed bag of good and not so much, I have a special place in my cold dead heart for this type of film. THEATRE BIZARRE is what its name indicates; a collection of grotesque imagery set to twisted tales of madness, torment, and sorrow. There are no happy endings wrapped in a bow with this film, yet I found most of them to be utterly satisfying. Just when the film tends to take itself too seriously and is thematically dreary, it plops out a short that does the opposite. This collection of twisted tales is definitely something to seek out if you’re in the mood for horror in short digestible chunks. Totally gory and devious to its core, THEATRE BIZARRE is something I hope to see more of in horror. I for one hope more films like CHILLERMA, LITTLE DEATHS, and now THEATRE BIZARRE are made to twist our intestines and chill our spines in short, sweet doses.

Check out the trailer here!!