Phobophobia

Director(s) - Chris Leto (Death Blow, The Cheerleader Sleepover Slaughter) and Sean Donohue (Cannibal Claus, Zed's Dead)

Starring - Jess Flux (Murdercise, CarousHELL 3)

Release Date - 2023

Genre - Horror

Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

      I've been writing reviews for indie horror releases for over a decade now and during that time I've met some filmmakers that I greatly admire. Florida based filmmakers Sean Donohue and Chris Leto were among the first directors to allow me to review their work, which is something that meant a lot to me. I've reviewed a lot, if not all, of their films to date so when Sean hit me up to review their new anthology, I quickly agreed to it. I want to thank Sean for sending Phobophobia my way to review! 

      The film follows the "final ghoul" Jessa Flux as she shows us several different stories featuring different phobias ranging from clowns, animals, intruders, and confined to small spaces. 

      Phobophobia is a fun indie horror anthology that progressively gets better as the film moves along. The first few stories had me second guessing myself and why I hit play, but it was around the third segment that I started to enjoy myself. This is fairly common in indie horror anthologies and something I've come to expect when I turn them on. The acting in this one is a lot of fun. I'm a huge fan of Jessa Flux and love seeing her take on the role of a horror host. Her charisma and sex appeal holds the viewer's attention, and her whit is quick to remind viewers of the equally sexy and funny Elvira. The segments in the anthology is fairly well acted as well but I am unable to find names due to the imdb page for the film only listing Flux. This leads me to believe that these were possible films sometime back and put together with Flux tying them all together. The stories for these segments are inconsistent but it works if you stick with it. I didn't care for the claustrophobic and coulrophobic stories, however, the next four segments make up for it. We have a fear of witches, animals, intruders, and aliens. The segment about witches and the one about animals are easily my favorite but these last four make the film for me. They are not too long, have solid characters, and some have some seriously fun gore. Finally, the segments, much like the quality, vary in blood and gore. The blood and gore that we do get looks absolutely fantastic. I as seriously impressed by it and hoped that it would lead to even more blood in the coming shorts. Unfortunately, most of the shorts are bone dry, which is a shame. Overall, Phobophobia starts out slowly but does find it's footing as the film moves on. It ends on a strong foot and the idea behind it could be carried on to more films. Honestly, it works and could easily be pushed into a sequel or even a trilogy with Miss Flux hosting. Check it out.