Review of The Theatre Bizarre (2011) by Pamela D — 28 Sep 2012

THE THEATRE BIZARRE (2011).

WRITTEN BY: Zach Chassler, Richard Stanley, Scarlett Amaris, Emiliano Ranzani, Buddy Giovinazzo, John Esposito, Douglas Buck, Karim Hussain, David Gregory.

DIRECTED BY: Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Karim Hussain, Jeremy Kasten, Tom Savini, Richard Stanley.

FEATURING: Udo Kier, André Hennicke, Peg Poett, Virginia Newcomb, Enola Penny, Amanda Marquardt, Jeremy Gladen, Liberty Larson, Christopher Sachs, Nicole Fabbri.

GENRE: HORROR.

TAGS: anthology, gruesome, graphic violence, sex and nudity.

RATING: 7 PINTS OF BLOOD.

PLOT: In a dilapidated old theater, a macabre human puppet hosts six Grand Guignol-style tales of terror in this arty, atypical thriller.

COMMENTS: First rate makeup, eerie sets, props, and racy, gory stories, with unusual, unpredictable endings make The Theatre Bizarre a real standout in the genre of horror anthologies. When an emboldened patron of the dramatic arts (Virginia Newcomb) spots a door ajar to a decrepit told theater down a questionable back street, her curiosity gets the better of her. She enters, takes a seat, and is treated to a series of six sinister stories of sexual obsession and madness, hosted by an uncanny, animated human puppet (Udo Kier). Attempting to cultivate his patron's fear response, the puppet presents each demented segment like a circus ringmaster exhibiting a freak show of abominations, each tale more horribly harrowing and outrageous than the last.

When they meet The Mother of Toads, an unwary student of anthropology touring the French countryside with his fiancee is lured to the lair of changeling witch with an offer of perusing rare books. Suffering from an unusual condition, she has an ulterior motive and a strange design in store for both of them. The socially inquisitive pair are in for the cultural shock of a lifetime.

The psychological tension of unrequited love goes through the roof in I Love You, and reality bends and warps,when a smothering, obsessive, but inadequate lover plunges beyond the bounds of reason upon being confronted by the prospect of a break-up with the object of his affection.

In Wet Dreams, George Romero's zombie movie makeup artist Tom Savinia (who also directs) plays a Freudian psychologist and marriage counselor who turns the tables on a philandering client when he helps a couple step to the other side of the mirror to realize their darkest fantasies.

The Accident relates the story of a little girl learning the harsh, existential realities of death after witnessing the aftermath of fatal traffic accident. This serious effort is neither macabre nor racy, and stands out from the other stories in The Theatre Bizarre for its dreamlike filming style and quiet contemplative atmosphere.

Vision Stains introduces a psychotic experience junkie who kills other women, drains the vitreous fluid from their eyes and injects it into her own to steal their memories. But when she chooses an "exceptional" victim, she takes a ride straight to hell.

Their addiction to elaborate confections cements an uneasy alliance between an oddball beatnik couple in Sweets. The glutenous duo's precarious hold on their shaky union is challenged to the extreme when they join an exclusive club for twisted food perverts whose appetites are esoteric in the extreme.

As a whole The Theatre Bizarre is a bit uneven. It's segments are divers and feature unique directorial and writing styles, but each terror tale is memorable, colorful and over-the-top without being campy or silly. The Theatre Bizarre is a portmanteau-style anthology in the tradition of Creepshow, Or Tales From The Crypt, but with adult themes and lots of nudity, it's definitely not a children's movie. Lurid, salacious, chilling, and bloody as hell, The Theatre Bizarre is the most memorable horror anthology I have seen to date.

All of the directors have done prior work in horror cinema: Richard Stanley (Dust Devil, Hardware), Buddy Giovinazzo (Combat Shock, Life is Hot in Cracktown), Tom Savini (Night of the Living Dead 1990), Douglas Buck (Cutting Moments), David Gregory (Plague Town), and Karim Hussain (Subconscious Cruelty), and Jeremy Kasten (Wizard of Gore).