The Theatre Bizarre

[Paff]

Surprisingly, I did a search and didn't see any discussion on this movie. I know very little about it, other than that it's a horror anthology from 2011, starring Udo Kier, Catriona MacCall, Tom Savini, and many others. It apparently played Fant-asia in Montreal, and is making the midnight movie circuit right now. It plays in my town this weekend. Still not sure if I'll be seeing it, as I'm fighting massive headaches right now...

[KGBRadioMoskow]

The buzz has been enough that I have it on my DVD blind buy list - although I'll readily admit to being bit several times in that regard.

[MaxRenn]

I think that Richard Stanley directed a segment of this so I am looking forward to it.

[Paff]

I did attend the midnight screening of this last night. It's not bad, and the stories seem to improve as the movie goes on (although the final one is just plain WEIRD).

Sorry MaxRenn, Richard Stanley's effort is first out of the gate, and easily the worst of the movie. In fact, I was suddenly regretting my decision to stay up late and drive into the city with that short, but I was glad the rest of the stories markedly improve on it.

My biggest complaint about The Theatre Bizarre is the lack of cohesion. All of the stories are very different in quality, tone, and style, and the wraparound segment doesn't help this at all. Compare to some of the great anthologies like Dead of Night, where the wraparound is a great story in itself, and manages to incorporate all the individual stories even though those too are very different in style. Or Creepshow, in which all the stories hark back to the EC Comics style. Really, it's like going to see a collection of short films at a film festival. Various entries are just compiled into one program.

I was torn between Tom Savini's and Karim Hussain's as to which was my favorite.

My advice would be to certainly go if you can see it theatrically. But as for a blind buy....well, see if you can rent it first.

[Ash28M]

I agree with Paff that it lacked cohesion. It was almost like they created a wrap around story as an excuse to show 6 short films and call it an anthology. Saying that I though it was very good. I actually enjoyed pretty much all the segments including Richard Stanley's "The Mother Of Toads" which definitely wasn't the worst. I would say that honor belonged to the final episode "Sweets". Even that one wasn't that bad I just wan't as into it as the others. As for my favorite of the six i guess I would say "I Love You" by Buddy Giovinazzo who also directed "Combat Shock" .

[Hatchetwarrior]

I'm starting to wonder if we all saw the same film, because I couldn't stand this fucking thing. I was more bored and underwhelmed than anything else. Sure the final segment was "Interesting," let's say, but at almost two hours in length it is very bloated, and by the end of second segment the film is only 35 to 40 minutes in. I can't say this is the worst horror film I've seen this year (The Oregonian, 11-11-11 and D'Onofrio's Don't Go In The Woods where absolute chores to sit through) this is one I'm most likely to forget before the summer is over.

[Katatonia]

I rented it a few weeks ago, and found it pretty unoriginal and at times just downright boring. The wrap-around story was a waste that seemed tagged on, and the individual anthology stories weren't much better storywise.

It was a very forgetful film...

[Buechlers_beard]

ash28M - I agree with Paff that it lacked cohesion. It was almost like they created a wrap around story as an excuse to show 6 short films and call it an anthology.

Katatonia - I rented it a few weeks ago, and found it pretty unoriginal and at times just downright boring.

I agree with both of you. Wait for a TV broadcast. Not worth the buy.

Half the problem was that as each segment was directed by a different person it varies greatly in tone and style.

If you loved Creepshow... don't buy this!

[ReelFear]

I felt there were some very interesting moments throughout the movie but not enough to sustain its entire running time. I would certainly recommend finding a way to at least see the movie without having to pay big bucks, but for $5 its worth adding to your horror dvd collection. I guess my favorite segment would be Douglas Buck's THE ACCIDENT, which ironically is the least "horror" of them all.