#HorrorMovie Review - Nightmare Cinema (2019)

Anthology movies are strange for me, but I do enjoy them, most of the time; The Twilight Zone movie was awesome. With some anthologies I’ve seen in the past, the stories don’t seem to fit together or the transition scenes between them are cumbersome, making it seem like a fucked up film festival. Had it not been for The Projectionist, I wouldn’t have understood why these five stories had been put together.

The Thing In The Woods is cheesy, hitting on every stereotype from slasher/stalker flicks created in the 80s. I love the way the girl lists the names of all the people’s blood on her, it was comical. I give Alejandro Brugués kudos for his genius, though, the film gave me everything I’ve been craving lately, and I couldn’t have asked for more. Then it changes…yeah, expect the unexpected with this one, and be amazed.

Mirare, directed by Joe Dante, is the next story. In this nefarious tale, a woman goes to have plastic surgery to have a scar removed from her face. Turns out her fiancé is more superficial than she’d thought or knew. This felt like a Twilight Zone episode that they tried to take for a spin; Eye of the Beholder.  The transition between this story and the next film is the first glimpse of The Projectionist (Mickey Rourke), who tells the scared woman what he does.

Mashit is a possession tale, but it’s also about a naughty Nun and pervy Priest. Ryūhei Kitamura crosses lines that weren’t surprising to me, but not really touched on in other films that I’ve seen. This is one of the better in this anthology, except for the overly dramatic music. The cheesy moments were a little over the top, so I guess we can’t have it all.

David Slade adds This Way to Egress to the grouping of bizarre short films in this anthology. I didn’t understand why the receptionist is covered in filth that is spreading to the rest of the hospital. At least, the use of black-and-white covered it up, whatever it is. The decaying world is better than the strange story itself.

Dead directed by Mick Garris is the final short film in this anthology. Rylie is the only who survives in his family after a carjacking gone. Now that he’s recovering, he can see ghosts? OK, I can believe that. He almost died, too. His mom is trying to get him to come to the other side. I like this one, it’s intense and twisty.

Nightmare Cinema, as far as anthologies go, wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I don’t mind giving it 3.5 out of 5 Stars.