“On Halloween, nothing’s as it seems.”

Anthology horror is more popular right now than a loose cheerleader at a haunted sleepaway camp. Between the nearly annual installments from the V/H/S and ABCs of Death series, the format has also proven to be very successful on television, where programming like American Horror Story, Fargo, and True Detective is beginning to dominate. As powerful as these bite-sized pieces of horror can be, with each passing anthology there’s admittedly less ground to cover (and less “big” directors to tap) and it’s easier for the collections to blend into the background. Tales of Halloween succeeds on a lot of levels, and a few of these stories are even great additions to your seasonal viewing, but as a whole the film struggles to feel like something essential.

Tales of Halloween presents the idea that all of these stories are occurring during the same Halloween night with there being some connective tissue and overlap between the stories, but honestly, they all still feel pretty isolated. There are devices like a radio station that acts as a flimsy narrator as it pops in and out of these segments trying to segue them together, and the same horror marathon playing on the TV of several characters, but it’s pretty fruitless.

There are ten stories culled together here with the quality being all over the place, but the majority of them are on the more competent side of things. David Parker’s “Sweet Tooth” and Axelle Carolyn’s “Grim Grinning Ghost” both tackle the topic of urban legends and Halloween boogeymen to success. “Sweet Tooth” looks at a ghoul of the same name, who used to be a poor child whose miserable parents never let him eat any of his Halloween candy. In time the boy learns what his parents have been doing with his candy, with the results being fairly horrifying and almost as sickening as what the child does to get back at them. Accordingly the legend of this candy-craving monster is born, and the Sweet Tooth lore is actually a pretty inventive modern boogeyman to inject into the holiday amongst the rest of the familiar haunts (pun very much intended) that the film gets into. A ghost that rips out your intestines to get to your candy is a great idea, and Parker has plenty of chilling visuals to make this story work beyond the messed up concept.

Carolyn’s segment presents a Bloody Mary-type figure in the form of Mary Bailey, a disfigured girl who was bullied her entire life. “Grim Grinning Ghost” deals more in atmosphere and appropriately feels more like a ghost story. There are some haunting images as the heroine wanders the streets alone, almost looking like Eva Green from out of Penny Dreadful. At other times shots feel like they’re right out of It Follows as Mary Bailey’s figure dips into frame, and the image of the enlarged shadows of Mary Bailey’s hands closing in on her as she comes home is beautiful. It’s certainly a case of style over substance though, and in spite of the razor-thin story, Carolyn does much with it. This honestly feels like one of the stories that could have benefitted from being longer. “Grim Grinning Ghost” seems to just be starting by the time it ends, and its short run time only highlights the concept’s thinness.

Neil Marshall was one of the two directors here that I was particularly excited about. The Descent is a straight up masterpiece, and the work he did on the third season of Hannibal is breathtaking stuff. Unsurprisingly, right from the start of “Bad Seed” Marshall makes an impression by getting some mileage out of the disgusting visual and sound design of carving pumpkins. We see them continually getting gutted, their death rattle a sickening squish as the blade goes in and out, almost as if these pumpkins were human bodies. Marshall knows how to establish atmosphere, and this, paired with the Carpenter-esque score is the perfect introduction to this world.

Marshall swings for the fences here by telling a story about killer jack o’lanterns without trying to make any sense out of it. He’s certainly capable of sophisticated horror, so to see him tackling something with such a campy edge to it–in spite of it still being so horrifying–is a great mix. There’s plenty of bonkers stuff going on here like watching police officers manhandle the serrated flaps of flesh from where the jack o’lanterns ate the heads of people, or the visual of a police officer pointing her gun at a bunch of inanimate jack o’lanterns, concerned that one might come to life on her. I’d also like to think the Clover Company who’s behind all of this might be a sly reference to the Silver Shamrock and their similar motives in Halloween III, and if that’s the case, some tremendous respect is due here.

These shorts certainly get the job done, but there are also a few segments that go above and beyond and could truly stand as inspired pieces of short-form horror on their own. Adam Gierasch’s “Trick” is incredibly simple as a bunch of stoners watching horror movies get victimized by a cabal of children. There’s something powerful in the complete randomness of the violence here, strengthened by the young perpetrators of it. In that sense “Trick” seems to be trying to say something about the nature of such violence and the corruption of youth, especially since we’re shown images from the horror film they were watching in juxtaposition with their real-life carnage. Gierasch is sure to shoot the hell out of the short (he might even over-shoot the thing), but it adds a sweeping chaos that adds to the sheer horror of what these children are doing. It feels deeply reminiscent of the French horror film, Ils (Them), which is never not a good thing, and it’s appreciated to see the director going for broke, never really holding back on the brutality of it all.

Mike Mendez’s “Friday the 31^st” goes in completely the opposite direction with its storytelling, but is just as compelling. You’re immediately thrown into the climax of some slasher film where our resident machete-wielding maniac lumbers after a Final Girl. Things proceed as you’d imagine as you essentially see the end of a horror film that you didn’t see the beginning of, but then all of a sudden a very magical thing happens. Instead of the piece ending, the Leatherface-like killer then gets invaded by aliens who are looking to get their trick or treat on. Of course this quickly balloons into a full-blown extra-terrestrial invasion. “Friday the 31^st” is a modern, inventive idea that looks great to boot, and it’s got a real sense of playfulness (in the right way) that the bulk of the other contributions are lacking.

The segment I was most taken with though was Lucky McKee’s “Ding Dong.” McKee was the other director (besides Marshall) that I was looking forward to in the film, and his effective short explores a couple mourning over the loss of their child. There’s some nice work going on where the wife’s abusive actions towards her husband are depicted by him seeing her as a demon. It’s terrifying stuff and a great way of representing trauma and loss in a visual way. McKee’s segment turns into a bizarre performance piece that this couple performs for their trick or treaters as the increasing amount of children that they see chips away at their psyches. “Ding Dong” perhaps gets a touch too comedic for its own good, and the same can be said for its focus on the wife’s cleavage, but it still largely works as a disturbing short and a commentary on grief. In spite of its flaws, this is the short that left the strongest lasting impression on me and the one that affected me the most in the end. It’s exactly the sort of thing that a short should be.

While these are Tales of Halloween’s many triumphs, there are also a number of rotting pumpkins amongst the litter, too. Saw franchise veteran, Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV) turns out a truly confusing piece in “The Night Billy Raised Hell.” The short looks at young Billy being told that he’s now too old for trick or treating and is officially the age to start pranking people, with their curmudgeon of a neighbor seeming like the best target. However, this concept gets derailed pretty quickly. Billy gets abducted by his neighbor (Barry Bostwick, hamming it up like crazy), who it turns out is a devil, who takes it upon himself to show Billy how to literally raise Hell. Bousman’s segment is obviously going for laughs, not only due to the clear sense of humor it’s having towards all of this, but there’s also beyond goofy, cartoonish sound effects that are peppered throughout the thing. The sound effects are a total misfire, and while the humor works in some cases, one can’t help but feel the piece would be stronger if it took it’s rather serious subject matter, well, seriously. There’s a rather confusing Adrienne Curry cameo and a discussion about Twitter followers that’s kind of weirdly emblematic of the whole thing. Bousman also can’t help but throw in a nice little twist at the end, too, in keeping in tradition with his style.

“This Means War” by John Skipp & Andrew Kasch has a similarly cute angle to it, and right from the start it’s clearly not interested in being the scariest entry here. The short looks at the concept of two neighbors dueling over who has the better Halloween decorations (and the onslaught that ensues), and it’s a perfectly cute, fun idea that’s a visual mélange perfectly suited for a short film. It’s a lot of fun but ultimately lacks impact in the end, especially when in comparison to some of the stronger offerings on display here.

Paul Solet’s “The Weak and the Wicked” and Ryan Schifrin’s “The Ransom of Rusty Rex” tackle similar ground—bullying and violence is actually a rather large theme through the film as a whole—the former examines a bunch of street toughs torturing people on Halloween until some sort of monster hunter comes to intervene and provide them with a fight their own size. The biggest strength of Solet’s vision is the very fable-like spaghetti western feeling that it conjures, right down to its amazing Morricone-y score. In spite of its interesting premise, it doesn’t do much with it all and fumbles the decent set-up with a very messy aftermath. That being said, I immediately raised this up half a grade because of how fantastic and Attack on Titan-esque the monster ended up looking.

Schifrin’s take on intimidation looks at some bank robbers-turned-kidnappers who are looking to make a big score vis-à-vis a juicy ransom. “The Ransom of Rusty Rex” focuses on Rusty’s tenure as hostage, but very early on it’s obvious that these criminals have gotten in over their heads; their hostage is clearly a werewolf or some sort of monster. The problem with shorts is that they largely do play into your expectations, even if they do pull it off reasonably well. A welcome turn is taken when the hostagers try to repeatedly off their ransom, finding the task impossible, with this beast actually being its own curse. Everything here just feels very average, right down to the look of the demon, which is fine, but is inevitably going to render the segment forgotten. Sure, it’s a nice subversion that obtaining this beast actually makes you his hostage when these guys are trying to use him for exactly that, but irony is not enough to save this one.

Tales of Halloween is certainly not the sum of its parts, but the stronger segments within it still make it feel worth checking out in some capacity. More than anything it’s put David Parker, Adam Gierasch, and Mike Mendez on my radar and I look forward to seeing what horror endeavors they take on next. This isn’t the sort of movie that you should over-analyze and brood over, but rather the perfect thing for a Halloween party with a rowdy audience and the macabre spirit being heavy. You’ll love the good bits, you’ll laugh at the bad ones, and you’ll have a great time in the process. Take that perspective into mind and you should have an okay time with this. One or two of the shorts will surely resonate with you.

“Sweet Tooth” 3/5
“The Night Billy Raised Hell” 1.5/5
“Trick” 4/5
“The Weak and the Wicked” 2.5/5
“Grim Grinning Ghost” 3/5
“Ding Dong” 4.5/5
“This Means War” 1.5/5
“Friday the 31st” 4/5
“The Ransom of Rusty Rex” 2.5/5
“Bad Seed” 3/5

‘Tales of Halloween’ begins playing in select theaters and on VOD October 16th.