Night Terrors

Director(s) - Alex Lukens and Jason Zink (When I Die)
Starring - Miranda Howard (E! Live From the Red Carpet), Alex Lukens (The Vampire Diaries), and Richard Hackel (Phobia)
Release Date - 2013
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "The return of VHS horror"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     A few months back a friend of mine, Ryan Musick, invited me to a Facebook group called Bloody Banter and Bazaar in which he is one of the admins.  The group is a great way to discover indie and underground horror flicks.  A few weeks ago a fellow member posted about the anthology film Night Terrors.  This was a film that was sitting in my review pile.  After hearing all the praise about the film I decided to move it up in the stack even though I was trying to hold off on reviewing it due to one of the segments taking place at Christmas until the time was right.    The film was sent to me for review from Alternative Cinema and was released by Camp Motion Pictures.  Thanks guys for allowing me to check out this amazing anthology.  

     The film begins with a young woman who is trying to get her little brother to go to bed but he is refusing.  She tries a different tactic and tries to scare the shit out of the kid in order to make him go to bed.  The first story follows a killer Santa who rubs out anyone who has not been good.  He finds a small house party and kills all the party goers.  The second story follows a university professor who is under investigation for experimenting on stem cells while trying to find a cure for a terrible disease that has afflicted his daughter.  The police are closing in so he sneaks out from his home back into the university to get his work and is caught while there.  He kills the janitor and returns home where he sets his vicious sights on the pregnant woman next door.  The third and final tale follows two college friends who go to class and discover that a zombie outbreak has happened on campus and the two must fight to survive.  

     Most of the time indie horror anthologies fall apart is the wrap around segments fail to properly tie them together.  So many anthology flicks fail to do this and it results in the viewer watching a series of shorts that have nothing to do with one another due to that weak wrap around story.  Lucky for us, Night Terrors has a decent wrap around story that holds the stories together and does not take too much focus from each story.  The acting in this one is fairly well done by the entire cast in each segment with the wrap around included.  The cast in convincing and they really help the stories they are in move around.  Each segment also has cast members that stick out and deliver superb performances with the films best performance coming from Richard Hackel.  His role as the professor is nothing short of brilliant.  The stories for this one are fun but some are not original.  The wrap around story put me in mind of the classic Vincent Price anthology film From a Whisper to a Scream.  After that the stories just continue to remind me of films I love to this day including Silent Night, Deadly Night and Dorm of the Dead.  Originality may have went out the window but entertainment filled the room with these stories.  Though these stories reminded me of other films and borrowed heavily from them they still made it their own.  Finally, the film is full of great kills but some segments are bloodier than others.  The first segment following the killer Santa is soaked in blood and gore while the remainder of the film is relatively tame.  With that being said, the practical effects for the kills are great and added a lot of fun to the killers.  Overall, Night Terrors is a fucking fantastic anthology that satisfies.  IF you want an fun indie horror film then grab a copy of Night Terrors.  Well worth your time.