Scare Us (2021) The Pick and Mix of Anthology Horror (Review)

The anthology is an interesting sub-genre. Classics like Twilight Zone: The Movie, Trick ‘r Treat and more recent offerings such as Bad Candy, Ghost Stories and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark have demonstrated both the potential benefits and the pitfalls of telling multiple stories within a single overarching narrative. The format lends itself well to horror, as different stories can explore different sub-genres such as haunting, slasher, folk and monster. From a critical perspective, the anthology can encourage an assessment by percentage, seeing how the overall film is affected by its individual components.

Scare Us is varied both in its sub-genres and in terms of its visual approach. Arguably, the film can be described as five stories, each with a different writer/director and some shared cast members. Multiple roles extend to the production, as a cast member co-directs one of the stories and another co-director is also the ‘Head Director’, while some of the writer-directors are also editors. These multiple roles make no great difference to the film overall, as each piece is well contained. The multi-tasking also highlights the low-budget nature of the film, which was filmed over 16 days in Arizona and is confined to a few locations. Despite this, the film never feels cheap or ramshackle, as the production design, cinematography and editing are strong throughout.

The cinematography by Aiden Chapparone, Rich Robles and Jacen Sievers is appealing from the start. We open in a cinema after closing, where a grisly murder scene is effectively framed and lit so that the victims stand out in the frame, with key visual components such as a slashed throat and a bloody knife given clear prominence. From here, we move to the town of Sugarton as a whole, with aerial shots capturing a stark and chilly beauty in the landscape as well as the somewhat rundown but also lived-in surroundings. Smooth camera motion follows Claire (Charlotte Lilt) as she cycles through the town and past the site of the murder, and into the bookstore where the wraparound story subsequently takes place. This space is
lovingly detailed by production designers Megan Cottrell and Lindsey Louise Steed, with the well-stocked shelves providing an enclosing and even (initially) cosy environment.

The film may reward repeat viewing for spotting the book titles on the shelves to see if these relate to the stories told by the central five characters. Along with Claire, we meet the shop owner Peter Metus (Tom Sandoval), Naomi (Michelle Palermo), Diego (Michael C. Alvarez) and young Mikey (Ethan Drew), son of the town police chief and therefore privy to information about the recent murders. These five, despite their somewhat snippy relationships, come together as a writing group, and we see them recount their most recent projects with the remit of ‘Scare Us’. These individual stories make up the four tales of the
anthology.

The enclosed space of the bookstore is mirrored in the individual stories, which largely take place in single locations. Night Haul, directed by Ryan Henry Johnston and Charlotte Lilt, takes place in a storage facility where Cameron (Palermo) goes from having a messy breakup to a more malevolent encounter. Untethered, directed by Ryan Kjolberg, is contained within a house that Daniel (Drew) finds to be invaded by the case of his police detective father. Dead Ringer, directed by Carl Jensen IV, begins with Will (Alvarez) on a journey and takes place outside, but is mostly set at a gas station where, interestingly, a car will not start. And The Resting, directed by Tom J. McCoy, also uses a single house for its story, as well as
tapping into issues of family inescapability.

Each of the stories, including the wraparound in the bookstore, explore themes of inertia and immobility. Whether this is trapped in a building or unable to escape a crime, being tied to a legacy or feeling like one is in quicksand, the protagonists of these stories, played by ‘their writers’, each dealing with an inability to move. Some of the individual stories are stronger than others: Night Haul is a bit one-note and suffers from excessive running and whimpering; Dead Ringer seems a bit confused although has some icky body horror. The Resting starts ominously and becomes increasingly creepy and even frantic towards its conclusion. Untethered, despite having the most perplexing name, is the most visually creative and unnerving. Kjolberg inflects the seemingly safe space of a family home with invasive images and impressions both uncanny and unearthly, as well as gore that is brief but all the more gruesome as a result.

While the individual sections vary from fair to strong, the wraparound story is a major disappointment. From the beginning, it looks as though this story will go a certain way, and when it does go that way it does little with that premise. Despite echoes of horror touchstones such as Halloween, Psycho, The Shining and Hereditary, the finale is flat and unsatisfying, leaving the viewer with a rather annoying sense of ‘Is that it?’ It is especially unfortunate that this conclusion makes the final act of the film the weakest, after some strong material beforehand. As a result, using that percentage assessment, the film as a whole can be described as 70% effective, 30% disappointing. Nonetheless, Scare Us does demonstrate the
continued potential for anthology horror, as well as the future potential for the talent on display.

Vincent on Scare Us (2021)