I’m a big fan of anthology films and tv shows. I grew up watching Tales from the Darkside, Monsters, Tales from the Crypt, and the Twilight Zone reruns. I liked how the stories were short, got to the point quickly, and then moved onto another entertaining story. Horror films of the ’80s were infamous for padding out their run-times to attain full feature status, especially straight-to-video releases, even though we were often left with something that slowly and painfully dragged us through the story line and could have easily had the story told in less than half the time.
Nightmare Cinema is an anthology horror film that gives us 5 stories written and directed by some famous figures in the industry like Joe Dante and Mick Garris. The film stars Mickey Rourke as The Projectionist, who controls the destiny of each character (and story) from the Rialto Theatre. I found the first story, directed by Alejandro Brugués, to be my favorite of the lot. It puts a twist on the slasher genre and stars the beautiful Sarah Elizabeth Withers.
The other stories center on plastic surgery at a strange clinic, sex-crazed demons and religious figures, skewed reality, and seeing the dead. All in all, the movie was pretty decent. It moved along well and gave off a ton of creepy vibes, but didn’t quite have anything that stood out like Creepshow. If you have Shudder, then you can stream it on there. It’s worth a watch if you like anthology horror films.
-Nick