Review of The Theatre Bizarre (2011) by Early B — 09 Oct 2012

A young woman finds herself drawn inexplicably to a run down theatre, becoming witness to a series of morbid tales, hosted by a human sized ventriloquial figure. Yes, we're in the terror-tory (Ha! Pun!) of portmanteaus - a genre of horror that the term 'mixed bag' was genetically grown for. Whereas in the distant past, other films of this type (The House that Dripped Blood, Asylum) have tended to be headed up by one team behind the curtain, Theatre Bizarre goes the way V/H/S, with different directors and writers for each segment.

Unfortunately, unlike V/H/S, it's just not very successful. Some stories simply substitute gore and tits for story, whilst others seem to tag on a surprise ending at odds with the rest of the tale - a case of 'he was walking down the street, eating an ice cream and then his knees fell off'. One story in particular, in which a mother tries to make light of her young daughter's fascination with death after witnessing a bike accident, stands out the most because of its maturity amongst all the blood and boobs. It's the bright spark in an otherwise depressing number of z-grade stories that not even the appearance of uber-legend, Tom Savini, can save.