Review of XX (2017) by Abb J — 01 Nov 2017

XX: Four women (including Grammy winning alternative musician St. Vincent) direct this 2017 anthology of short horror stories. "The Box" is the tale of a young boy who mysteriously stops eating after peering inside a stranger's gift box on the subway.

"The Birthday Party" is the story of a neurotic woman's attempt to keep her husband's sudden death from ruining her young daughter's birthday party. "Don't Fall" is the story of campers terrorized by a creature in the desert wilderness, while "Her Only Living Son" is about a woman trying to protect her teenage son, who is the spawn of Satan.

As is often the case with these anthologies, one (Don't Fall) was pretty good, one (The Birthday Party) was painfully terrible and the rest VERY mediocre. All four suffer from an unsatisfying lack of character development and gaping plot holes.

You know you are in trouble when the best part of the anthology is not any one film, but rather, the cool, creepy stop-animation moving doll house that ties the films together. C-.