Review of Southbound (2015) by Brandon W — 27 May 2016

The Way Out: I'm actually very excited for the segments for Southbound since the film is apparently really good, and as the first segment that's by Radio Silence, it's a great first segment. It's about two guys that are driving away from something, and when they get to the diner, they can't get out. Sounds simple enough and very Twilight Zone, but it gets more creepy when it keeps going, making me more invested in it and not think of it that way. The effects that they put in are not fully rendered, but it's still a bit impressive for what they show, and it looks freaky. It doesn't make much scares in it, but when they do, it was effective to me. The acting is fine, some parts are really good, some parts that I think could've been a bit improved. There are questions that I have, and I hope that they answer them in Radio Silence's next segment that is the last segment.

Siren: Roxanne Benjamin's directing and writing debut on the horror genre for the second segment is not that bad, but not quite as good as the first one. It's about 3 girls who are in a band, got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, and got a ride by people who allowed them to be in their house while the girls wait until morning to fix the situation. The three actresses are really good in it, and Davey Johnson and Siren co-writer Susan Burke do a great job of acting normal and having a sense of weirdness coming from them. There are some parts that I knew where it was going, and then there were some parts that I figured was the intent, but wasn't really spoon-fed to us as it was more or less up for interpretation which I like. There are some creepy moments, and the ending was a bit dumb, but I guess it has to be a way to get to the next segment. A sold segment and not that bad for a first timer here, but it's not perfect.

The Accident: The only segment that I've seen from David Bruckner's work, is Amateur Night from V/H/S, and I find that very scary, but I sure it'll be different for Southbound. The result of it is not the scariest one, but it is the most disturbing segment of the film so far. It's about a husband who accidentally ran a girl over who's all messed up. He calls 911 about it, goes to the hospital, and it's completely abandoned. Mather Zickel is fantastic in this, and definitely plays the worrying character very well. When he calls the police about it, the movie picks it up really fast, and I was getting close to be as much worried as the main guy is. The writing by David Bruckner is more tightly written than the previous segments so far, and it got more tense as the segment keeps going to the point that I have no idea whether the kid survives or not. It's very creepy, it kind of messes with me, surprisingly more so than the previous horror film that I've watched that is The Forest, and I felt more satisfied at the end as it felt complete to me. The Accident is the best segment so far, and I'm looking forward to the last two segments.

Jailbreak: One of the segments that I was most worried about, was this because it's directed and co-written by Patrick Horvath who was involved with The Pact 2 which I heard was not a good horror film. So as for this segment, I honestly thought it was better than I thought was going to be. The acting is really good, and there are some creep factor to it. The main problem that I have with it, is that it's not as physically, or mentally, dark as the other segments, and it felt like the segment is going through one of those "been there, done that" moments that I've seen in horror films. There are some questions that are effectively up for interpretation, and the effects look really good. Jailbreak is one of the weakest segments of the film, or probably the weakest one, but there are some good fun to it and I was sort of curious about where it was going, even with some predictable plot points.

The Way In: The Way In is the last segment by Radio Silence, and they end it off in a heck of an ending that makes sense for the first segment. It's about a family that came back home, and the father sees that a bunch of people coming to break in their house. The acting is much better here than in the first one, and it was a bit tense to watch. I knew what the twist was from the robbers, but I was still shocked when I found out about I really quickly, and there were some other twists that I really didn't see coming. There are some creepy moments, and there are some legitimate scares. The effects still look the same as the first one in that you can sort of tell that it looks animated, but it still looks really good. Even with some questions answered, there were some questions that weren't answered that was more or less, up for interpretation, which I'm ok with it. The Way In is a suitably end to the film, and it honestly improved the first segment a bit also, which never happens for me.

I thought about this more than I usually do with films, and I can say that Southbound is more consistent and scarier than most of the anthology films, which I can safely say that in a close second, it beats V/H/S/2 as one of the scariest anthology films that I've seen, and that's saying a lot.