jedispyder
Like most horror movie anthologies, all segments are framed around a single common video. In this case, it's a guy who is literally watching the movie on his computer. So as each segment ends, we see him click to start the next segment. It's a simple yet unique way to go between each segment.The first segment is Woodford County. This was my least favorite of the bunch due to some technical difficulties in the film making. One big problem is with the sound. There are scenes at a lake where it sounds as if the camera is in a bucket and it keeps knocking back and forth around the bucket. The excess sound was not removed and it definitely should not have been there as the scene was for the killer swimming and hiding in the water, no way for a bucket to be there. The other problem I had was that the blank space between shots in the segment went on for too long. Normally a cut is only a few microseconds, yet here the cut was at least a full second so you had a blacked out screen for longer than usual.The one thing about this segment that I absolutely loved was all the various angles provided. Normally in indie horror movies you get one or two angles, usually back and forth between people talking. Here you a lot of quick cuts between angles so it looks as if there were at least 5 cameras filming a scene at any time. They also had some pretty innovative camera shots, possible thanks to a GoPro video camera? So whereas the sound and editing wasn't the best, the cinematography was amazing! The second segment was The Way of the Buffalo. This is centered around a killer stalking a girl at her home and 90% of the segment is shot in only one take. The only downside to that is that because there are not cuts, you get a lot of wasted time and bad angles as the killer runs around the house trying to find a way inside. It was a nice touch to keep the killer out of breath to similar how much adrenaline must have been pumping. The whole point of this type of cinematography is to put you through the eyes of the killer which it perfectly accomplishes. This segment reminds me of V/H/S/2 where a few segments of that anthology is shot in the same manner.One thing that made this segment definitely shine for me is the fact that in the killer's manifesto he modified Neil Young's lyrics "It's better to burn out than fade away." As a huge fan of that lyric, I was very pleased to hear it here.The third segment was Ladies Night. This was a twist on the common horror use of men preying on women, where it's now ladies preying on men. The lighting is very basic here with nothing extra added, keeping a lot of shots in partial shadows. The light sources include a car lamp, street lamp, and normal inside lighting which gives it a very natural feel. In the same manner, the background noise is comprised of music played from a boombox or the sound of cicadas on a normal summer's night.One thing I found very unique was one of the murders. The girl straddles the guy as she smothers him with a pillow all the while listening to his heart beat slowly fade away as he dies. Very unique! The last segment was Summon, which was my favorite. It features a couple going out in the middle of a field to summon a demon to grant their wishes. Erin R Ryan gives a haunting yet amazing performance as the summoned demon, a role unlike any that she has performed. She uses quick but smooth jerking motions and arcing her shoulders back to give off a menacing appearance. It was hauntingly beautiful! Too bad this short was "To Be Continued" as I'd love for it to be a longer segment.
