 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Tales of Halloween • Year: 2015 • Country: USA • Directors: Darren Lynn Bousman, Axelle Carolyn, Adam Gierasch, Andrew Kasch, Neil Marshall, Lucky McKee, Mike Mendez, Dave Parker, Ryan Schifrin, John Skipp, Paul Solet • Main cast: Adrienne Barbeau, Hunter Smit, Cameron Easton • Runtime: 92 minutes • Production company: Epic Pictures Group, Film Entertainment Services • TRAILER |
It is pretty obvious that Tales of Halloween try somehow to pay homage to the classic Tales from the Crypt series that scared the audiences from TV shows and movies from the 1970s to the 1990s. That formula was kind of magic, to have a back character introducing each one of the pieces and short soft horror stories with monsters, ghosts, ghouls, curses, demons and murderers. And even also insects and plants, why not!. But those were other times, and some mild-scary stories were allowed on the TV.
Tales of Halloween are 10 stories made by different directors, some of them related, some others independent, that happen on Halloween night in an american middle class quiet neighbourhood. And as a good homage, the range of creatures starring the different segments go from demonical pumpkins to derange serial killers, aliens, demons… All the cool things that entertained those lucky audiences some decades ago. The stories are very short, to fit those 10 pieces in merely one hour and half of footage, so the action can’t develop into crazy plots. Some people say that’s good, some other people will say that’s lame.
The global feeling of a parody is around the whole movie, and that is not for the taste of everybody. I am sure the filmmakers were aware that a big segment of the audience will take that as a disadvantage feeling that this is nothing but a joke, but to me it worked well. After all, these kind of stories were created to innocently scare the younger ones, but also entertain the adults with a childish soul. That must be the key, maybe the target for this movie are the adults with a strong childish side, not the preppy square heads looking for “perfection” or coherence. Even the name of the movie warns you, these are “tales”.
Another fact from Tales of Halloween is to be a homage to classic horror film directors. Not only names like John Landis, Joe Dante or Stuart Gordon have small roles, but also a list of references to the John Carpenter universe is present, such as the Halloween title itself, Adrienne Barbeau as the narrator, the pumpkin monster that looks like The Thing (1982) creature, a kid dressing like Snake Plissken, the Carpenter Bar candy bar, and probably some others that I didn’t catch or now I don’t recall. That obviously makes Tales of Halloween a movie made by fans and for the fans, and with that premise, some investment, a decent idea and a little bit of talent, you can’t miss.
I enjoyed watching it, and totally brought me back to the Tales from the Crypt times. It’s pure Halloween night entertainment, with candy, trick or treats, funny monsters and blood. That is the deal, and I take it.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4163020
