Sam Munster

Tag: Anthology

Horror on Sea – Virus Detected: A Technology Anthology

January 20th, 2025

UK, 1 hour 30 mins, Directed by Charlie Bond, Paul Cousins, James Hamer-Morton, Geoff Harmer, Chris Josty, James Morrissey, James Plumb, Samuel Rush

When an electrical storm hits during a late-night talk show, a radio DJ receives persistent phone calls from a mysterious caller warning her and telling her stories of electrical appliances having been affected by the storm. Are they true, or just calls for attention?

Virus Detected – A Technology Anthology is an absolute hoot. It’s funny, well written and tied together by a radio DJ taking listener calls during a worldwide electrical storm. All sorts of gadgets start going wrong, from a toaster, to VR headsets. Each short has a different director and the production value is high across the whole film. The performances are great, too!

The Toy was my favourite segment – I think you can imagine what that is about! It was very funny and campy and the line “it’s essentially an Alexa, in the shape of a dick” had me giggling.

Virus detected felt really fresh and fun and I really hope we get more anthologies that are this good. Also, cue a very excited me when I recognised the voice of Dhean Morris (AKA Dheanasaur on Tiktok and Instagram) who was really bloody great (and just one of many Welsh people involved in this film – bendigedig!)

I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on everyone involved in the production, to see what they do next!
Horror on Sea – Very Frightening Tales

January 10th, 2025

I love going to film festivals and am planning to attend as many as I can, this year. But I can’t physically get to them all, so was really pleased to be able to remote review for Horror on Sea, an annual horror film festival held in Southend-on-Sea. Hopefully I’ll make it some day, but attending from the comfort of home is a privilege too! I’ll be sharing my thoughts on some of the movies showing at the festival (which runs Friday 10th January – Sunday 12th January, and Friday 17th January – Sunday 19th January) here, along with trailers and artwork, where I can!

USA , 57m, 2024, Directed by Dale Fabrigar

Seven tales of terror that include a ballerina, a retiring hit-man, a mysterious package, a deadly nightmare, an insightful fortune teller and an actor who would kill to get a part.

Horror on Sea opened with Very Frightening Tales, directed by Dale Fabrigar. At just 57 minutes, this anthology movie whizzes through 7 separate tales with a very small cast, some of whom play multiple roles.

The film opens strong, with a very fun and silly intro (“Show Open”), which I’d hoped would set the tone for the rest of the movie. I love anthologies and appreciate the mix of stories and visuals, but was disappointed each tale didn’t have the same campy vibe as the opening. That said, though, there were some effective stories, a stand-out being “Fortune”.

Two women visit a fortune teller, played by Sally Struthers (one of two more recognisable faces), who warns them if one of them doesn’t admit to a terrible secret, they will die that night. The story was well-paced and had some great creature and prop design – definitely my favourite of the tales. The others either had an interesting story that I feel wasn’t explored fully in the short run time, or went on for a little long for the amount of plot. There were definitely some really interesting ideas (especially with “The Delivery” and “Brave”) that I think could have been more effective with a longer run time. But that’s the nature of shorts, sometimes, I guess.

Overall, it was a fun watch that I’d recommend to fans of indie anthologies.

Very Frightening Tales is available to watch for free on Amazon Prime, or you can rent for 99p.
The Haunted Season – To Fire You Come at Last

December 9th, 2024

The Haunted Season is a new annual series on Shudder from Severin Films and Kier-La Janisse. I absolutely love the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas time, so I’m really excited to be treated to a new ghost story every December.

To Fire You Come at Last is the first short film, a beautiful black and white story set in a rural 17th century village. Squire Marlow’s son has died and he hires 3 men from the local village to carry his coffin to the graveyard. It’s dark, it’s atmospheric and it’s wonderfully creepy. There’s just something about period ghost stories that is incredibly cosy and so perfectly suited to Christmas and the winter months.

I missed To Fire You Come at Last at FrightFest 2023, so I’m really pleased it’s found a home on Shudder and is also part of an ongoing series. Folk horror has a rich history in British film (and culture!), which Kier-La has lovingly explored in Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (which is incredible, if you haven’t seen it!) I really enjoyed this tale and now I want to lose myself in folk horror and ghost stories, for the foreseeable.

It’s wonderful to see James Swanton in another classic British ghost story and this time, not hidden under creature makeup. A truly standout performance that both made me chuckle and unsettled me.

To Fire You Come at Last is on Shudder now – a perfect cosy watch for Christmas Eve.

Tag: Anthology

Horror on Sea – Virus Detected: A Technology Anthology

Horror on Sea – Very Frightening Tales

The Haunted Season – To Fire You Come at Last