3:00 AM
The first film, 3:00 AM, opens with some nice
shots of the countryside while we hear a phone conversation between two women,
one of whom has been receiving crank calls. Late that night she hears a
thumping and gets up to investigate. The film creates a suspenseful atmosphere,
with interesting shots and with sound, and a good chunk of it is without any
dialogue. The woman is frightened, but we begin to think it might be in her
head. (This one does have the traditional false scare of the cat jumping out.) 3:00
AM was written and directed by Lee Matthews, and stars Charlotte Armstrong.
Edward
On a windy night, two guys are inside talking, and soon
it becomes clear that one is a psychologist and the other a patient. The
patient has stopped taking his medication and has trouble sleeping. He says he
doesn’t want to sleep because of his dreams. “When I wake up, I’m not where
I’m supposed to be.” In addition to sleepwalking, he has issues with his
mother, and he believes there is something deeply wrong with him. He mentions
Alice, a girl from his school who was murdered, a murder he might be
responsible for. This one is totally creepy, and gets weirder as it goes, and
is able to create a whole lot of suspense with mostly just two guys talking. Edward
stars Artem Mishin and Nick Frangione, and was written and directed by Joseph
Graham.
The Quiet
The Quiet begins with a child whispering, “I’m
going to love you forever and ever, as much as I possibly can,” with a shot
of a doll. Dolls are inherently creepy, so right away we’re sort of put on
edge. A girl is riding on a bus with other kids. She is nearly deaf, and takes
out her hearing aid so as to not hear the other girls, who are teasing her.
Soon she is out, walking along a country road by herself, where she keeps
seeing the same blue van. And she loses her hearing aid. Like the woman in the
first film, she is frightened when there is possibly no reason to be. But
childhood is like that. And the film does a great job of showing us the world
through her eyes, and through her ears. There is a really nice look to this
film, and a good performance by the girl. The Quiet stars Jenni-Lea
Finch, and was directed by Lee Matthews.
Merry Little Christmas
Merry Little Christmas is the most graphic of all
the films in this anthology, and it too builds a delightfully creepy and
unsettling atmosphere. On a Saturday night, Miguel leaves his girlfriend to
visit his cousin Cristina and his aunt Lola, and immediately we sense something
is wrong in that home. Miguel is worried about Cristina, but the film doesn’t
provide us with all the information right away. Then in flashback there is a
really horrifying scene of domestic abuse, observed by a young Cristina. And
from there, things get more frightening. Merry Little Christmas stars
Macarena Gómez, Blanca Rivera and Jan Cornet, and was written and directed by
Manuel Marin.
The Deviant One
The Deviant One is the only film of the group to
be presented in black and white. It shows a man strangling another man, then
taking him to bed. There is no dialogue, but plenty of biblical quotations on
title cards throughout. This one is the least effective for me, but the shot in
the bathtub is cool. The Deviant One stars Brian Dorton and Brad
Anderson, and was directed by Brad Dorton and Douglas Conner.
Special Features
The DVD includes an extended version of The Deviant
One, this one with dialogue. But the dialogue certainly does not improve
things. Here is part of the conversation at the beginning:
“Do you live around here?”
“I do, yes, actually.”
“You want to come in for a drink?”
“Sure.”
And then when they go inside, the first guy asks, “Water
okay?” The version is without the biblical passages. Oddly, the bathtub
scene isn’t in it, but a slightly extended version of that scene is included at
the end.
The special features also include an image gallery and
the trailer.
The Horror Network is scheduled to be released on
DVD on October 27, 2015 through Wild Eye Releasing.
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