Hi-8

Director(s) - Ron Bonk (City of the Vampires), Donald Farmer (Vampire Cop), Marcus Koch (100 Tears), Tony Masiello, Tim Ritter (Killing Spree), Chris Seaver (Filthy McNasty), Todd Sheets (Zombie Bloodbath), and Brad Sykes (Camp Blood)
Starring - Vanessa Nocera, Andrea Adams (Blood Lake), and Kayla Barbour (The Prince of Power)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror
Format - VHS (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     There is just something strange and amazing about S.O.V. horror.  S.O.V. is something that I just learned the last few years was actually a thing.  I had seen some S.O.V. horror when I was younger when I would visit the local ma and pop video store but I just thought they were cheap movies.  However, I did learn they are movies that were actually shot on video to cut down production costs.  An entire community spawned from this that lasted well into the 90s with mavericks like Tim Ritter releasing vomit inducing films.  Anyway. late last year and early this year news started popping up about a S.O.V. anthology film in the works featuring stories from 8 S.O.V. and indie directors.  The film looked awesome especially when I found out directors Ron Bonk, Marcus Koch, Brad Sykes, Tim Ritter, and Chris Seaver were on board.  The rest were well known directors, editors, and so forth in the genre but, sadly, I have never seen their films.  I waited patiently for the release of the film and Wild Eye, my favorite indie distribution company, was kind enough to send me the film on VHS.
     This anthology has 8 stories.  The stories are Gang Them Style by Ron Bonk (my favorite of the film), Thicker than Water by Donald Farmer, A Very Bad Situation by Donald Farmer, The Tape by Tony Masiello, Switchblade Insane by Tim Ritter, Genre Bending by Chris Seaver, The Request by Todd Sheets, The Scout by Brad Sykes with the wraparound segment No Budget Films Presents by Sykes as well.  The stories range from snuff inspired slashers, gang bangers vs zombies, Night of the Comet inspired zombies, a switchblade wielding sex fiend, and even a jealous girlfriend with murder on her mind.
     I love anthologies.  I grew up on Creepshow, the original Tales from the Crypt film, Twilight Zone The Movie, and Tales from the Darkside The Movie so the thought of a S.O.V. horror film gives me a boner.  Every good horror anthology has a great wrap around story that serves as the perfect bookend for the film.  Creepshow 2 has the creep giving us our next story between segments, Tales from the Crypt had the cryptkeeper, so a film of this caliber needed something of that nature to tie the stories together.  Sadly, this film does not have a good wraparound film the ties the other stories together but the wraparound we do get would have been an amazing segment by itself and part of the anthology.  The acting in this film is not the best I have seen but it is far from being the worst.  The cast tries, with most showing some real talent, but a majority just lack the experience needed to make their roles enjoyable.  Some just tried way to hard to be convincing which ruined some of the scenes.  With that being said, a few of the shorts are hard to judge because the characters are so over the top.  Case in point is Ron Bonk's segment Gang Them Style.  In this short the acting is bad on purpose making this short fun.  The stories for these are fun, for the most part, but most are ones we have seen before.  Some reminded me a lot of other films like Night of the Comet (A Very Bad Situation), Natural Born Killers, and several other films.  What makes these stories different from the others is how this film gave a lot of twists and turns while delivering some great camp and cheese to go along with the gore.  Sadly, not all the stories in this film are on the same level.  Some are better than others which is usual when dealing with an anthology where various directors handles different segments.  Finally, this film is one big bloody mess with all the blood and gore.  We get a tremendous amount of on screen kills that not only impressive but some are very unique which is something most of the original S.O.V. horror films were known for.  We also get some solid practical effects that take us back to the time when S.O.V. ruled the video stores.  Overall, Hi-8 is a love letter to the golden age of horror when horror fans treated the local video stores as chapels and worshiped rare and unusual S.O.V. horror.  This film may not be the best movie ever made but it is a damn important film in horror history with this colossal line-up of indie directors assembled on one title.  Check it out and witness history!