Director: Dustin Ferguson
Stars: Mel Novak, Noel Jason Scott, Ken May
Run Time: Around 45 minutes
Synopsis
We hear a story about a hit and run with a werewolf as credits roll. No visuals, just the audio. As the credits end, a group of friends get together in front of the campfire. They plan to tell scary stories, and they each think they have a winner.
The first guy tells a story about an online Internet order: “Wee One” starts in Western Africa in a souvenir shop. Someone buys a little native warrior doll that look exactly like the one from that 70s anthology that you’ve seen so many timesfn. The little guy is named “The Violator.” The girl takes a phone call, and when she returns, the doll is gone. Or it is? The story, however, is shorter than the doll.
“Cole Canyon Creeps” is the second tale. A woman stops and checks her map; she’s lost on the street. As the sun goes down, she can tell she’s being followed. Her phone is dead, and she’s desperate to find someplace that’s open so she can call for a ride. She spins around, and the bad guy gets her.
The third story is “The Prisoner” and is about an agoraphobic woman who has heard about an escaped mental patient– oh, and it’s Halloween night. There’s a ring of the doorbell just as she turns on “Night of the Living Dead.” By the time she gets to the door, no one is there. The same thing happens again, and she’s had enough of this. Except now she hears someone upstairs. Except it’s just a dream.
“The Bitter Half” is the next tale. Dr. Challis is talking to a patient named Jason who has an imaginary twin brother. Challis says the man is cured, and hands him a release form. Challis graduated from the “University of Doom” according to the diploma on the wall. Jason goes home and starts hearing his brother’s voice…
The next story is “The Gateway.” Starts out at the Halfway House Cafe. Some people want to go up on the hill and see if the Devil will show up as the legend says. It gets dark as they get to the old cemetery and they’ve brought their camera along. They see the devil, and the guy starts vomiting blood. Then he grabs the girl.
Back at the campfire, they all pull out weapons and kill the stalker in the woods.
Commentary
“Wee One” is obviously based on 1975’s “Trilogy of Terror,” and it had a lot of promise, but then it ended just as it was getting started; it was only about five minutes long.
“Cole Canyon Creeps” was literally a woman walking down the street until she dropped her phone.
“The Prisoner” was literally just a woman afraid to answer her door on Halloween.
“The Bitter Half” was fine, but also far too short.
“The Gateway” was pretty basic as well, although the (CGI?) creature looked pretty cool.
The wraparound story had no real context. Apparently, the guy at the end had killed their brothers and sisters, and this whole episode was a ploy to get him to reveal himself, which we’re told after it happens.
We were expecting something about twice as long. There’s no mention of the run time on the DVD box or on IMDB, so we went into this blind from that aspect. We were shocked at how short the stories were. Some were barely five minutes long and only had one person in them. We watch a lot of short films here, but some of these really needed a lot more to justify inclusion here.