Scary Or Die DVD: Review By The Cryptkeeper: Resurrected

I am a huge fan of horror films, and I will watch pretty much any horror movie that comes around. I especially enjoy movies like these, the straight to DVD, low budget horror films. Usually, they will be good for a laugh, and nothing more. But sometimes, every once in a while, I'll come across a hidden gem. I would not go as far as to say that Scary or Die is one of those hidden gems, however it is more enjoyable than most of the low budget horror films I watch.

What made this film so fun to watch was the colorful directing, and highly original stories. Yes, this film is an "anthology horror" movie. Which means that there are several short stories, combined into one feature length film. All of the stories are definitely original, for the most part, pretty entertaining and well-filmed. Here, I'll do a breakdown of each story...

"The Crossing" - 0.5 stars

Yes, I did say that these stories are good above. What I did not mention was that this story is downright awful. Everything about it, is just plain wrong. The filmmaking, acting, directing, and most of all the story. This one is about some hillbilly trailer trash sc*m bags who are in a truck, just driving on the road in the desert, and you do not know where they are going until the end of the story. I cannot really say without involving spoilers... But I did not like anything about this story, and was a bad way to begin the film. I thought I was in store for an awful, and sh*tty movie. But thank God the movie got better...

"Taejung's Lament" - 3.5 stars

This one has some really good cinematography. The acting was 10x better, and had an overall better plot, and feel to the film. It is about this man who had lost his wife, and is now just very depressed. We are never told how long ago this happened; if it was very recent or if it had been a while, and he is still not over it. But it does not matter. Now the widowed husband kind of mopes around, with no real destination. One night he sees a group of three girls. One of them is almost giving him "the look" as he is staring at her. But then their eye contact is interrupted by this crazy guy who captures her right there on the spot! The widowed husband sets off to find her, and does. He rescues her, and then the woman wants to meet up with him again. And again, I feel that is already a slight spoiler, so I won't say what happens next, but I actually guessed what the twist was! However, my buddy I was watching it with did not have a clue.

"Re-Membered" - 3 stars

This one is okay, but not very memorable, and not all that explanatory. The ending does not really explain what happened. However the director does create a fairly enough creepy atmosphere, and could have been better , had been given more thought in the script writing process. It is about a hitman (I think he is a hitman at least, but he seems more demented than the average hitman, who only uses a gun). This "hitman" finishes a job, cuts up the body, and shoves it into a duffle bag, and into the trunk of his car. The hitman keeps hearing weird noises coming from the trunk! So is the body alive or dead? Well, see the movie to find out.

"Clowned" - 4 stars

This one... Is the one you wait the whole movie for. It is easily the best one, if you can stick with it, forgive the mistakes, and take the somewhat silly story line seriously. It is about this little boy's big brother who gets bit by the clown he had for his party. Yes, bit by the clown. But we find out he is no ordinary clown, but a clown whose bite turns you into a clown. An evil bloodthirsty clown that wants to feed on the innocent. Sound lame yet? Yeah, it does sound lame, but the movie does a good job of taking this plot seriously, and you actually really care about he characters. The bond between the big brother and the little brother is actually very touching, and believable. And also heartbreaking when the big brother begins turning into an evil clown. The big brother actually ends up abruptly leaving, with no warning and becoming a homeless bum, covering his face with a mask. The little brother misses his big brother, and it is really sad! But you have to be the right person and in the right frame of mind to enjoy this story for what it is.

"Lover Come Back" - 1.5 stars

This story, I am on the fence about. It is the story that ties all of the stories together, but it is also the shortest, and seems out of place with the previous installment being "Clowned" which is the longest of the short films. Lover Come Back is seriously about 5 minutes or so. It is a narration about this woman with an abusive husband... Well, let's just say it was better than "The Crossing."

Sadly, MovieWeb did not have a movie section for this film, so I had to write a DVD review, which I despise doing... But oh well, now I have to state crap about the DVD, too.

The picture quality was just fine. However the sound quality was junk. Could have just been my TV, but I am pretty sure it was the DVD having off audio. The replay value is actually very good, I know I would not mind watching this movie again, and possibly I even want to purchase this film and add it to my huge horror DVD collection!

I did not watch the special features, however it seems as though there are some good ones. Several "making of" featurettes, including interviews and one on how they did the makeup.

There! Done with reviewing the stupid features of the DVD. Anyhow, if you are a horrorhound, watch this movie! If you are the average movie-goer who only likes the big movies with special effects, skip this almost-gem.

P.S. - If you are really THAT interested in the twist endings of these Tales from the Crypt-like endings, then contact me, and I'll tell you them.