Our friends at Brain Damage films embarrass themselves once again with a poorly written and unscary anthology of horror stories, once again loosely tied together by a building of some sort. Considering how bad The Shunned House was I wasn't expecting much, but The Tenement improved a little on basically the same idea (be hard not to), and if nothing else, the acting was marginally better. Given the budget restraints and amateur direction you really do have to make some exceptions for a film like this, but with Fangoria stalwart Michael Gingold (in much more than his accredited role obviously) involved, you at least expect some originality in the stories and execution. Think we got that...

The first story concerns the mental collapse and bloody revenge of horror fan Ethan, who of course is presented as unpopular and "geeky" (way to appeal to your core demographic guys) in the standard gore-hound gone wild scenario. This one's so cliché it's like a textbook example of the killer nerd subgenre. You'd almost expect the writers of Fade To Black to sue over this one, had they not ripped off the idea themselves. This one's easily the low point of the anthology, which assures it a cover appearance and all the publicity for the film. Ever wonder why independent films almost always flop?

Next up we have a Lovecraftian style story, which is more-or-less a direct port of "The Music of Erich Zahn" with the old miser turned into a nubile young girl. I suppose comparing this to Lovecraft is a bit of an insult, but it's an obvious "homage" to that particular story. It's at least interesting, if not a little convoluted, and it ends on a more somber note than you might think. If nothing else can be said for Brain Damage, at least when they tackle Lovecraft, they take the easily filmable stories over the "indescribable horror from beyond the stars" ones.

A werewolf story takes the third slot, if you want to call it a werewolf story. This is by far the best written, acted, and shot of the anthology, which leads one to believe another party may have had a hand in it - I'll have to check on that. Anyway, Mike Lane portrays the effeminate closet case Jimmy Wayne Garrick (best serial killer name ever?) to great effect, and actually manages to rise above the budget and the unabashedly poor actors around him. On his way home from a support group he's bitten by a wolf (which is really just a husky dog shot from a low angle) and quickly assumes he's becoming a werewolf. Hilarity and more than a little gore soon follows. It's not exactly original, but this one is almost worth the, admittedly low, price of the film.

Finally we have a story concerning the Black Rose Killer (this is also the wraparound story, well, it sometimes is) and his adventure with a Bonnie and Clyde style thrill killer. It'd be much better if the killer looked the part (he's obviously too out of shape to be hunting, let alone chasing, anyone) but it still works on some level and at least it doesn't waste time with character development or a feasible story.

You could do a lot worse than The Tenement, that goes without saying, but in an age where almost anything you want is easily available, why would any sane person waste his or her time with something like this? (Red, 1/13/05)

Directed By: Glen Baisley.
Written By: Glen Baisley.

Starring: Mike Lane, Joe Lauria, Carol DiMarsico, Ed Shelinksy.