Deadtime Stories (2009)

hyped garbage

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

***I'm not sure what's up with the listing on IMDb but this review is for the second film in the two part series. Why IMDb has this listed as the first is beyond me (and you'll notice this "first" listed has a release date two years after the second film).Deadtime Stories Vol. 2 (2011) ** (out of 4) George A. Romero lends his name and image to this anthology horror film, which tells three different stories by three different directors. In "The Gorge," (Dir: Matt Walsh) three friends go exploring in a cave when they get trapped there. When two of them come out they are suffering from something strange. "On Sabbath Hill" (Dir: Jeff Monahan) has a married college professor thinking he's gotten lucky when the student he knocked up kills herself but this is just the start of his problem. "Dust" (Dir: Michael Fischa) has a laboratory creating a dust that can heal sick people and a security guard there uses it on his dying wife. It returns her to life and their sex life comes back but there's one major side effect. DEADTIME STORIES VOL. 2 is actually an improvement over the earlier film as all three stories here are quite interesting even if none of them are completely successful. The first film starts off a little uneven but it finally picks up thanks in large part to the very gory death scenes. It's pretty easy to figure out what's going on but even when you pick up on the twist the ending is still quite good. The second story is also quite predictable but it was still entertaining in ways. Once again we get some rather gory scenes that help keep things moving along and there are even a couple good twists along the way. Finally, the third film is pretty fun, although I think it might have worked better had it not taken itself so seriously. As it moves along you realize what's happening but this doesn't take away too much. Overall, all three stories are decent but none of them are going to rank up there with the best anthology films. The performances are about average for this type of film but the lack of any real scares is the major downfall. The saddest thing is seeing Romero obviously just picking up a paycheck with his really bad introductions and comments after the films. The one-liners are just really embarrassing and it's too bad Romero is doing this and unable to get funding for directing pictures.

Deadtime Stories 2 has a few highlight moments, but the presentation has a 'made in my high school film class' feel to it. I'd recommend this to someone who has run out of horror movies to watch, but otherwise it's a pass.In the first story, I really liked the idea they presented. It's genuine and creepy, and is something that if done properly is quite terrifying. However, the presentation was way to simple, visually it looks like a spoof film or some amateur attempt. The scene with the bat is just laughable, and not in a good way. One thing that really stands out in these short movies is how much time and money they spent just on the gore effects. The effects are not very realistic, but unsettling nonetheless. The second story was by far the most terrifying. I don't understand the strong motives for the girl to kill herself, seemed like an unrealistic jump, but it made for some spooky/scary reveals in the classroom. I had a good time watching this one.The third story was a failure. Bad story (mars dust that cures cancer? what?) which inevitable turns into a zombie movie at the end. Not great and I'm not a big fan of throwing sex/nudity in there just to spice up an otherwise useless movie.Overall I rated 4/10. Worth the first 2 stories if you've seen everything else already.

IMDb have both movies very mixed up, with episodes from number 2 and cast listed in vol 1 and vice versa. Anyway these three little offerings are slightly better than the first vol, although again the pace is slow on all three. Out of them all I thought the first one was best. This anthology has upped the gore a bit, so you're going see chewed up bodies and loose eyeballs. The gore is also quite effective. Performances all round are a bit wooden and the second story for me is the most boring with an ineffectual plot concerning a dull professor and his lover student, she gets pregnant and commits suicide, because said Professor's university syllabus and lesson plans are more important than his pregnant lover he's a stickler that all students attend his classes no matter what...so yeah predictable.The first story is possibly the best, about a trio that get stuck in a cave after a rock wall, splendid gore and interesting story. The final offering has shades of Romero Zombie movie about dust from Mars that not only heals for a short time but also turns the cured into raving nymphomaniacs as well as other things!!! ;)