TOM HOLLAND’S TWISTED TALES (2014)

Tom Holland's Twisted Tales (2014)
Directed by: Tom Holland
Written by: Tom Holland
Starring: AJ Bowen, Amber Benson, Angela Bettis, Danielle Harris, James Duval, William Forsythe

TOM HOLLAND’S TWISTED TALES (2014)
Written and directed by Tom Holland

Tom Holland, director of Fright Night and Child’s Play, brings a collection of 9 short horror-inspired stories in his anthology movie Tom Holland’s TWISTED TALES.

Tom Holland himself introduces each segment of his movie with the first being Fred & his GPS, a tale about a man named Fred (AJ Bowen) in serious trouble who spills his inner thoughts and feelings to his smart GPS system in the car, except the system seems to know more about his life than he anticipated.

To Hell With You stars Danielle Harris as a young woman humiliated and dumped by her boyfriend. Demonic force William Forsythe offers the woman revenge and convinced that it’s all just a joke, she agrees with devastating consequences.

Boom sees a disgruntled bomb disposal expert create the ultimate boobytrap when he suspects his wife of having an affair with his best friend.

Step into another world with Mongo’s Magick Mirror. Is it an illusion or is it real? That’s something that magician Dunstan Dynamite wants to find out.

Looking for the next big high, a group of friends try out the new drug Bite which supposedly gives the user hallucinations and visions of the future. But when you’re high as a kite, it’s hard to decipher what’s real and what isn’t.

Starring Angela Bettis, two couples in the hills of L.A. fight for survival when news erupts of a nuclear attack spreading from Hawaii in Shockwave.

A thief fights for his life after he steals a tablet from a dead man in Cached.

A teenage girl dabbles with the occult and attempts to summon the devil so she may speak to her deceased sister in Pizza Guy, a tale split into two volumes.

Finally, it’s a bloodsucking fun at the nightclub in Vampire’s Dance.

As a horror fan, I was expecting something a bit more sinister with this anthology film. Film fans who like their horror bloody and intense will struggle to find much of interest here. The film takes on tongue-in-cheek style comedy with horror themes as its focus but it’s pretty tame stuff except for the throat slicing in Cached.

The performances from the cast involved with Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales include a mixture of horror favourites but unfortunately not even scream queen Danielle Harris can save the movie which at many points seems quite amateurish, as if it was a student’s effort. Some of the performances are terribly over the top too, probably on purpose (at least I hope), with Marc Senter’s Pizza Guy the most cringeworthy character of the bunch.

With cheap CGI, poor scripts and weak plots, these twisted tales are quite a struggle to get through. There are some better efforts among the mix, such as Boom and Cached but there are others that drag limply such as the last segment, Vampire’s Dance, that took on a surreal edge but made no sense whatsoever.

I’m surprised that Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales has been given a 15 rating, as there’s nothing here besides the aforementioned throat slicing that would warrant such a rating. Horror fans will be very disappointed with this effort, particularly considering Holland’s responsible for two horror cult favourites. I’m a great fan of B-movies, even the cheesy ones, but there’s nothing really inspiring or worth championing here.

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