An anthology movie of four horror shorts, based on the TV series and carrying the same tone from that show.

They all work just fine and come across in that style of the time that is kind of nostalgic for the era of episodic TV horror.

It's amped up a bit in the movie with the addition of great cast members making appearances throughout the stories. Plus the involvement of major creatives like Stephen King, George A. Romero, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Michael McDowell.

Here are the 4 different tales:

"LOT 249"
3.5 stars

A MUMMY story with a nerdy and quite diabolical Steve Buscemi who brings a mummy back to life. His apartment neighbor is Christian Slater who plays somewhat of a "nice guy" in this story. Slater's sister is played by Julianne Moore who is a bit more conniving. Pretty standard mummy movie really.

"CAT FROM HELL"
3.5 stars

William Hickey plays an miserly old dude in a wheelchair who thinks he is being tormented by a common house cat. So much so that he hires a hitman played by Buster Poindexter to "take out" the black cat. Some great practical effects towards the end of this one. Nice!

"LOVER'S VOW"
3.0 stars

James Remar is a struggling New York artist who witnesses a demon kill someone, but promises on his life never to tell a soul what he has seen. Robert Klein plays the artist's agent who is pleased when the artist's fame begins to increase. And Rae Dawn Chong portrays the mysteriously beautiful woman that comes into his life just at the right moment. It's fun but predictable with some solid performances.

"WRAPAROUND STORY"
3.0 stars

In the self-explaining story that glues all the shorts together, Debbie Harry plays a modern day witch who is about to try to "Hansel & Gretel" a little boy. However, the little boy is pretty resourceful as he tries to delay his destiny with an oven at 350 degrees by telling the witch stories from a book that was locked in his cell with him. Each of the tales he tells the witch are the short stories we see enacted above. And, he - of course - finishes with his own story hoping to have a happy ending rather than a toasty one.

Overall, there is enough enjoyment in this anthology for me to give it a full 3.5 stars. It's has a very "Halloween-y" vibe to it as a whole. Lots of fun to be had here.

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Hoop #69 (Bonus Kill #19) of CINEMONSTER's The Twelfth of Hooptober: Diary of a Madman

My Wild List and all my silly Reviews can be found here: Slappy McGee's Hoop-Tober 12.0 List.

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