The Theatre Bizarre

Plot synopsis:
The film contain six stories, each inspired by Paris’ legendary Grand Guignol theatre.
The six stories are presented within a connecting framework, "Theatre Guignol": Enola Penny is intrigued by an abandoned theatre in her neighborhood. One night the theatre door mysteriously opens and she enters. A puppet host (or Guignol) introduces six short films. "Mother of Toads", "I Love You", "Wet Dreams", "The Accident", "Vision Stains" and "Sweets". As each is shown, the host becomes more human and Enola becomes more puppet-like.
"I Love You", "Wet Dreams" and "Sweets" match the Grand Guignol genre: physical or psychological conte cruel horror with natural explanations, cynical, amoral, ironic, sexy or gory in combinations.
"Mother of Toads" is loosely based on a supernatural horror story by Clark Ashton Smith. Set in France, the story concerns an American anthropologist and his girlfriend who fall victim to a witch known as The Mother of Toads after the witch sells them a pair of Elder Sign earrings and shows the anthropologist a copy of The Necronomicon.
"I Love You", set in Berlin, concerns a man who awakes on his bathroom floor with bloodstains around him and deep cuts in his right hand. He is an obsessive man who follows and calls his partner constantly. His partner, a French woman, announces she is leaving him and that she has been unfaithful to him on many occasions and even had an abortion without him knowing. The obsessive nature of the man's love leads to the doom of three people.
In "Vision Stains" a writer/serial killer injects fluid extracted from her victims' eyes into her own to experience their lives for her journals. Most reviews note "The Accident" seems out of place: a mother and daughter thoughtfully discuss the nature of death after witnessing an accident.

Tags: romantic, murder, flashback

Review:
Some of them like the "Vision Stains" are really hard to watch.I absolutely do love "The Accident".
Mother of Toads is a great B-movie throwback, I Love You is like a violent version of The Room, Wet Dreams has Tom Savini, therefore it is automatically gold, The Accident is harrowing and haunting, Vision Stains is interesting and engaging and Sweets is disgusting fun.
I admit that while I heard quite a few good things about this movie I held off on it because I typically do not like anthologies but this one was pretty good and original.
7/10Wet Dreams Has Tom Savini directing so the effects are top notch and probably the best of any of the films.
Still though some of the stories are weak IMO and it is definitely not for everyone, even some horror fans will not like it.
Unfortunately none of the six tales qualifies as truly outstanding, but at least the segments "I love you", "Vision Stains" and "The Accident" rate as well above average.
"Vision Stains" is about a woman who kills homeless/troubled women and injects their eyeball-fluids in her own veins to live their memories Until she witness things she didn't want to witness.
"The Accident" is somewhat of an alien segment, as it's more of a melodrama instead of a horror story, but it features a wonderfully grim atmosphere and a couple of harrowing moments.
The first segment "Mother of Toads" is very H.P Lovecraft like, with creepy monsters and nasty make-up effects, but writer/director Richard Stanley totally forgot to tell a story.
"Theater Bizarre" is a horror anthology that much reminds me of last years "Little Deaths" in that it takes some rather strange and extreme ideas for some of the stories of which there are many.
So lets start at the extremely disappointing beginning..."Mother of toads" is a totally lame and rather typical horror story about a couple on holidays meeting a strange witch inviting them to look at her Necronomicon.
Basically as forgettable as the first story and nosedives with dumb lines like "My vagina and your penis never were friends"."Wet dreams" is about a guy having nightmares about castration and a psycho therapist telling him to open his eyes to wake up from his dreams.
This is no real horror story but a rather slow meditation on life and death through the eyes of a mother and her little daughter who witness a motorcycle accident.
Unfortunately the promising short leads absolutely nowhere in the end."Vision stains" is some really twisted stuff by "Subconscious cruelty" director Karim Hussain.
This one has a point to end on but honestly I found it a little uneven too.Last but not least "Sweets" continues the disturbing imagery with some pretty nasty food fetishes and a bizarre break up scene of a couple.
It all culminates in one of the goriest scenes of this anthology.The surrounding Theatre-Plot with Udo Kier has some great visuals by "Wizard of Gore" Remake Director Jeremy Kasten but the lack of a story and Kiers accent which is nearly as annoying as that of the male lead in "I love you" ruin it.After all this is your typical anthology.
If you want some bizarre stories like in "Little Deaths" enjoy the second half but don't expect too much.
20 years later the best little horror anthology was brought to us that was filmed four blocks from where I am typing this review.
A couple of the stories were forgettable but if you hone in on " I love you " " Vision Stains " and " Sweets " well lets just say you will be darkly moved.
An anthology of weird an bizarre tales directed by famous names from the genre like for example Tom Savini and Karim Hussain.
There's even some gore involved in that segment.all the stories aren't what you think normal, they all have a twist at the end.
I feel this wrap around story should have had more of a point to it, but in the end, it only serves as a conduit to get us to the actual segments of the film.The Mother Of Toads [5/10] - This segment takes its influences from HP Lovecraft, and has some really cool and unsettling imagery in them.
Because of the short nature of anthology movies, we were never really given enough time with the characters to really care about them and it also feels as though they had to just wrap it up before being able to do anything.
It does not go anywhere until the last 2 or so minutes, but it does deliver one heck of a finale.Wet Dreams [5/10] - Being directed by Savini, you know it is going to have good effects, which it does.
Not bad, but not good either.The Accident [9/10] - It feels out of place next to all these segments of horror and gore.
While this never comes, you find the director knows how to set an atmosphere, and you will get a feeling from this segment you will not find in any horror movie.Vision Stains [9/10] - The best of the entire movie.
I just saw The Theater Bizarre on DVD and I have to say that it's a shame that great films like this are only seen in the festival circus and don't get wide distribution.
This anthology opens at a movie theater with a carnival like atmosphere as an introduction.Story #1 is "Mother of Toads" begins with a Gypsy woman selling an ancient pair of earrings to a tourist couple.
A 7/10.Story #2 "I Love You" A man wakes up on the bathroom floor in a bloody t shirt, not remembering what happened previously, when his wife shows up and explains to him that he is a control freak and she needs room to breathe and thus she is leaving him.
7/10.Story #4 "The Accident" is the briefest of the lot, a little girl and her mother discuss the death of her father and the meaning of life when they come upon an accident involving a motorcycle and a deer.
Horror fans do yourself a favor and pass on this I really feel I have to get the message out there because anthology's are my ultimate favorite and this just plain sucked for lack of better words, wasn't even worth watching for free on the net, there are better films to watch out there so pass on this one.
The actors in the film were very talented which in turn made people in the theater to oooh and awww during every segment, including an individual that actually got sick during one of the movies.
It peaked my interest and at the end it left me with wanting more of The Theatre Bizarre and its great story line!
It was without having any prior knowledge about what this was about, aside from it being an anthology of horror stories, that I sat down to watch this movie.Some of the segments, chapters, call them what you will, were actually nicely enough put together and shot in a great way, however they were lacking shock and scare aspects.
Udo Kier was perhaps the person that left the most memorable impression in the movie though.I am a fan of horror, but "The Theatre Bizarre", just didn't cut it for me.
Overall Theatre Bizarre is probably one of the better horror anthologies I've seen in a long time.
Airy pretensions and a somber mood don't mean much here.Vision Stains has an interesting premise and some good moments but isn't exactly great.Sweets is a nasty, gross, icky flip off of a segment.
What an apt title for this rather interesting (not always for the right reasons) anthology horror movie.
Inside she is greeted by a man who introduces her to a show of short movies: "Wet Dreams", was pretty good.
I can see references to Fulci style of horror and cinematography, also the last segment resembles some Italian art film of Fellini and more contemporary Sorrentino but with gore included.The acting varies from bad to mediocre to acceptable.
Anthologies and horror movies that centered around short stories quickly became my favourite type of movie.
Although some of the subject matter seems to be quite twisted and doesn't take itself to seriously, I guarantee there is at least 1 story in this movie that will stick with you long after the credits have stopped rolling.A little bit darker than your average tales of horror in the sense it's not good vs.
Mostly, if not all, of these tales have an extremely bleak ending or dark sense of justice.This is another one of those movies best enjoyed with friends just for the sheer visuals portrayed in a few of the stories.
"Wet Dreams" will definitely have you and your friends laughing out loud and "The mother of toads" is another one that causes either pure revulsion or gales of laughter.All in all a great escape into some horror that doesn't cause you to think too hard or follow a convoluted plot.Stay scared my friends..
Let me make clear that I'm not giving my review of the whole movie, my review is strictly for the segment: The accident,which caught my eye when I saw it, the segment is very different from the others in perspective it does not fit into the hole movie which focuses on horror and gore.What separates it from the other shorts is its gentle nature in the narrative of properly speaking of what is death,how a child has her first experience with death,to be more precise how a mother explains to her what is death,this narrative jumps from the day of the accident to a conversation from mother to daughter that same night,we see images of motorcycle accident which are witness by both and we cut to a warm moment between mother and daughter, daughter in her bed and her mother beside her explaining the meaning of life and death for the first time to her child,the girl asking her questions about why people die and how the mother dose not have the answer to it and trying to convince her that death is not always a bad thing.The accident is incredible mixture of storytelling and music, the song is a combination of orchestra with electronic sounds with vocal samples, giving us a calm vibe and a little disturbing at the same time fitting perfectly with the story.It's not morbid to talk about death.
It's an horror anthology that joins six independent little stories about different topics.
In fact this anthology's start is very bad, "Mother of Toads", the first story is totally disappointing with a lame script and some rude special effects.
"I love you" is too slow paced and boring and "Wet dreams" is a bit sexist in my opinion It just starts getting better with the fourth story, "The accident".
It's a very short but also very deep story about a little girl that witnesses a motorcycle accident with a deadly victim and then starts a conversation with her mother about what is death and why people die It's a very simple and realistic story with no conclusion at the end but that put me thinking about this topic as wellIt's not an horror tale at all, but for me it was one of the best of this anthology!
The next story "Vision Stains", from "Subconscious cruelty" director Karim Hussain is also good.
The last one, "Sweets", is a real gore fest and for sure the bloodiest story of the anthology.
First of all i am gonna say that this movie was so depressing and sick i almost couldn't finish it..okay they wanted to make a horror anthology..i get it..so why are they making these random awful stories that even myself could have made them much more interesting and scarier..there is one story that has nothing to do with the rest of them,it's a story with a little girl.The awful nightmarish last story was not only dreadful but bloody disgusting too..i though 'oh well i found what to watch when i wanna start a diet'..Honestly one of the worst movies ever!!!If you wanna see horror stories that are worth it check out Campfire Tales..now that was interesting!!!.
I will start off by saying that I am a huge horror anthology fan, so I went into this film very excited.
There are all up 7 short films- (including the wrap-around story Theatre Guignol) and I will rate them one-by-one.Mother Of Toads- Visually impressive, and moderately tense short, but lacks depth, and does drag on a bit towards the end-(any time you are watching a short film and get bored, you are doing something wrong).
Not a good start.I Love You- COnsidering the fact the story is so derivative and played- out, the clever script and the solid acting saves this short from being a disaster.
A creepy mechanical puppet man (the always delightful Udo Kier at his most divinely strange and unnerving) relates six weird tales of horror to a scared young woman (a solid performance by Virginia Newcomb) at an old abandoned Grand Guignol theater.
Fifth and most original outing, "Vision Stains" - Director Karim Hussain makes the most out of the fascinatingly novel and original premise of a young woman who lives off the memories of other folks by taking fluid from their eyeballs at the moment of death.
It's an anthology with six stories in it, none of which are all that good, most of which are just excuses to hit us with gore or sex.
It's pretty much an FX Demo film, I guess.But since I have to do ten lines, I guess I need to talk about this stuff.The first story about the witch was kind of silly.The story about the guy who dreams about being tortured by his wife has a lot of gross special effects and no real point other than to make men cringe.The story about the little girl and her mommy explaining death.
THE END.The movie presents short stories that has elements of horror, the torture, the blood are not missing also many of them have sexual references witch makes somehow different from any other movies with short film in it.
It's a horror anthology, you see, comprised of six shorts and one wraparound segment.
Visually creative though they may be, the wraparound segments make no adequate connection between the individual stories and exist primarily to be gawked at."The Mother of Toads," directed by Richard Stanley.
What are we to make of the fact that, at two points in the segment, Axel awakens on the floor of his bathroom with a gaping wound on his hand and blood everywhere?"Wet Dreams," directed by Tom Savini.
Mixed-bag of horror anthology parts "Twilight Zone" meets "The Hitch Hiker" : young Newcomb finds an abandoned theater housing human marionette Kier (ever creepier) as the host of a series of terror tales including : "The Mother Of Toads" about a cursed monstrosity recalling vintage Corman; "I Love You" features fine performances from its tormented couple Hennicke and the ethereal Anbeh questioning fidelity at a painful cost; "Wet Dreams" with a philandering dreamer in a nightmare; "The Accident" (the best of the bunch) that truly echoes Rod Serling's aforementioned dream state retelling of a life-and-death situation; "Vision Stains" offers a serial killer of women who injects their memories directly into her eyes (yeah, not for the squeamish); and the final tale "Sweets" about a souring relationship with O.Henry meets the Marquis de Sade twists.
It's pretty hard for a movie anthology with six different segments to strike out six times in a row, but this mess managed to fail on every occasion.
the first two min stories within the movie are kind of boring since you don't get to watch it enough to feel for the characters ( i love you) was pretty sexual though.
the next few stories are great starting with wet dreams which was directed by Tom savini special effects legend haha the accident and vision stains are the best in my opinion though.
And to tie them all together they used creepy marionettes as openers, udo kier the puppet master is fantastic all in all a great movie for the anthology subgenre since they tend to blow, I think it's because they didn't have a trashy main story line to try to tie them together they chose to have different actors and directors for each sub story making everything flow better so all in all a 8/10.
Aptly named anthology The Theatre Bizarre delivers a mixed bag of horrifying goodies.A young woman is walks into a seemingly abandoned Theater, where she's soon welcomed by a marionette version of cult legend Udo Kier and numerous other grisly dummies who present a number of nightmarish stories.
Overall I do like an anthology and The Theatre Bizarre isn't the worst, but it certainly isn't the best.
On the whole this is an uneven anthology, but don't miss "I Love You" if you like horror for and about adults - a rare thing indeed.
Other stories like Sweets and Wet Dreams had a lot of gross yet visual appeal.
Five of the six shorts were good in this horror anthology..
The Mother and Daughter actors in 'The Accident' were wonderful.Screenplay: 9/10 Well-made horror anthology..
The short stories were progressively gory and depressing as the movie went on.
A six part anthology horror film has an effective wrap around segment Directed by Jeremy Kasten.
It tells of a young woman (Virginia Newcomb) who is drawn to a rundown Theatre where a marionette-like man (Udo Keir) introduces the stories.
The first is "The Mother of Toads" based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, this bizarre tale tells of a couple in the outskirts of France who meet an old witch (Catriona Maccoll) who entices Martin (Woodward) with a real copy of the Necronomicon.
"Vision Stains" Directed by Karim Hussain tells of a woman (Kaniehtiio) obsessed with other people's memories.
This is a new form of anthology movie which has different Directors doing each segment.