Last American Horror Show (2018) Review

  • Director: Michael S. Rodriguez
  • Writer: Michael S. Rodriguez
  • Stars: Felissa Rose, Lynn Lowry, Arch Hall Jr.
  • Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes
  • Link: https://amzn.to/32LPHWE

Synopsis

This is an anthology collection of three stories. Angelina is waiting for her date, Brian, to come over. She says she needs some normalcy in her life. Her sister, Mandy, is off-screen, and she says she could scare Brian if needed; they decide on a safe word: blueberry pie. She wants to watch horror films, but he’s a Christian and can’t do that. He agrees to watch her horror films if she’ll give him a simple kiss on the cheek afterwards. She puts in the first film:

Homewrecked

Am addict promises his drug dealer that he’ll gladly pay him Monday. The dealer says he’ll carve out the guy’s eyes if he doesn’t get paid. The addict and his friends stake out a house for a home invasion, but the couple inside is having a dinner party with her father; she’s announcing her pregnancy. What’s more boring than listening to an old man telling old war stories at a party? Listening to an old guy telling the same stories in a movie about a party.

The addict’s girl gets into the house and lets the others in. They torture the homeowners. The husband kills one guy in the garage and then comes inside…

Night of the Sea Monkey

A family gets together for breakfast. The little boy wants to raise some sea monkeys. They’re only $1.25, so Dad says he has to wash the car for the next two Saturdays, and hands him $2.50. Six weeks later, they arrive. He fills a bowl with water, drops in the eggs, and he waits.

Two weeks later, nothing has happened. Mom dumps them down the drain. That evening, Dad gives him some advice about pets, and he tells a story about Timmy, a bull terrier he had when he was little. His mother wouldn’t let him keep the dog, so he killed it.

Grandma comes to visit. She talks entirely too much, and all of it inappropriate. As Mom begins to do the dishes, something in the water bites her and grabs her. Grandma has a talk with grandpa, who isn’t really there. It gets the brother and the sister. They tell Dad, who doesn’t believe any of it. Then it eats Dad. Who knew Sea monkeys were so much fun?

Lamb Feed

A guy drives down a deserted road and gets a flat tire; someone put down tires spikes. He doesn’t seem to know how to change a tire, so he starts walking. He walks to a nearby house, but no one is home. The man finally comes across a tall, bald, biker-looking guy named Wicker. The two go inside a club, and he’s not impressed by the “country folk” inside. We get flashes of a strange vision for some reason. Another man tells the story about he once killed his own dog. The man talks about eating people’s gall bladders. The guy gets drugged almost immediately, and he starts having visions himself.

He soon finds himself held down on a table until “The Butcher” is released from the back room. The woman who rented him the car is there, and she’s not happy. A cop comes in, gun drawn, but he’s only kidding; he’s in on the cannibalism thing too. The dismemberment begins…

Love Starved

Finally, back in the wraparound story, Brian and Angelina are done with the movies, and Brian wants his kiss. He gets carried away, and she says the safe word to signal that she’s had enough. Mandy, who turns out to be her cannibalistic connected-siamese twin, kills and eats Brian.

Commentary

The incidental music is just a little too loud during some quiet parts, I couldn’t make out a lot of what was said in the quiet stories, such as the one about the bull terrier and the Vietnam flashback. The sound and lighting are both pretty good otherwise, and these can kill a low-budget film quickly. I do wonder if the writers had a thing for both dog killing and weird old Vietnam vets.

Homewrecked had no twist or horror element to it; it was a home invasion gone bad. Night of the Sea Monkey was supposed to be funny, but tried way too hard. Lamb Feed had a lot of gore, but not much of a story, but I’d have to say Lamb Feed was the best of the three.

I wasn’t especially blown away by any of the stories here, but Kevin did remind me that we’ve seen a lot worse. None of the stories are bad, and it’s better produced than most. If you’re looking for a low-budget indie horror that doesn’t suck too badly, check this one out!