Director(s) – Brad Bruce (Michael, Ol’ Sparky), Benji Carver (Jumpers, Skid Row Love), S.J. Doss (Got Gremlins?, Pretty Boy), Jason Figgis (Faces of Fear, Blood Tales), Lomai (Proven, Clown Cop), Luke Mepham (Night Smiles, The Disease), Jim Stramel (The Thrillbillys, Degenerated Ink), Gordon Bressack (Virus of the Dead, Keeper), and Tony Newton (Welcome to Hell, Halloween Hell Night)
Starring – Jerry Rector (Double Impact, Ghost World), Joseph Cranford (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Better Call Saul), and James Crichton (Victory Parade)
Release Date – 2017
Rating – 1/5
A few night ago I set out to have a Wild Eye marathon where I binged a few of the newer Wild Eye releases. After Creature from Crannibal Creek, 2020: Fallen Earth, and Deal with the Devil, I decided the fourth and final movie in my marathon would be the 2017 horror anthology Dark Tales. The artwork, which was similiar to Deal with the Devil, did not paint a very entertaining picture but after watching three fun and entertaining Wild Eye releases prior to this one I was excited to spin another one.
**Spoiler Alert** The film begins with the police investigating the suicide of a man who has watched a series of short films. The same short films we are about to watch. **Spoiler Alert**
When I tossed this one in I was immediately greeted with a text introduction before the film moved on to the shorts. The “wraparound” for an anthology is my favorite and the fact that this was just a paragraph before the film was already a huge disappointment. Then we moved on to the actual film and the disappointment continued.
The acting in this one is very inconsistent but almost every segment feels rushed. The cast feels impatient in most of the shorts and rushes through their dialogue. With that being said, the segment Keeper was smooth and the cast did fantastic together.
The stories for this anthology feel unfinished or incomplete for the most part. I tried to do some research on this one and all I could find was the imdb page and a few not so good reviews on YouTube. I don’t know the history behind this one or how it came to be but the text on the opening screen completely voiding the film of a wraparound and seeing these shorts makes me believe this was a rushed project just to get something released. Keeper is the only short that I actually enjoyed but it’s not a horror short.
Finally, the film has some blood and some minimal practical effects but they are nothing memorable or enjoyable. I was hoping that at least we would get some fun gore with this one but we did not. Overall, Dark Tales is an incomplete horror anthology that is barely watchable. I love Wild Eye and can recommend dozens of movies from their catalog but this is not one of them. Skip it.
