Bluray Review - Southbound (2015)

The horror anthology film has gone through somewhat of a resurgence in recent years. The V/H/S and ABC’s of Death franchises, Trick ‘r’ Treat all breathing new life in to the genre. So how does this fare when put up against those films? Pretty damn well actually.

Sharing 1 set of directors from the aforementioned V/H/S movies, Radio Silence (they direct the wraparound story), first we have Siren by Roxanne Benjamin, featuring the best cast of all the stories, it’s the tale of three girls in a garage rock band who are on their way to a gig when their van breaks down, accepting a lift from a seemingly nice couple, their night however, soon turns into nightmare when they get back to the couples isolated home.

David Bruckner‘s The Accident is easily the goriest of the four story’s, a man on his way home to his wife hit’s a young girl in the middle of nowhere but when he phone’s 911 someone takes the chance to play a twisted game with him that takes advantage of his obvious panic.

The final segment is another really strange one, Patrick Horvath‘s Jailbreak is the story of a guy looking to save his sister from a town full of vampire type creatures, the only problem being his sister doesn’t want to be saved and isn’t happy to see him. The film then goes full circle and shines some clarity on the first story.

This is a fun film reminiscent of Carpenter meets The Twilight Zone. I enjoy interwoven multiple narratives in any film so I was on board from the get go. Could have done with less of the fantasy/surrealist Lovecraftian stuff and more straight horror/thriller confined to this reality but I guess that’s the film. A collection of short horror stories all rolled into a surprisingly good film.

If the hills have eyes then the Devil is in the desert.