Trapped Ashes (2006/Lionsgate/Horror Anthology)
Picture:
C- Sound: C+ Extras: B- Feature: C-
There is
a dangerous line to tread when a filmmaker is particularly passionate about the
subject of his or her film. It becomes
very easy to get too close to the project and forget to ask the all-important
question, “Is this a good idea?” And this seems to be precisely what happened
to writer/producer Dennis Bartok on Trapped
Ashes. He set out to make a homage
to the old anthology horror films, which condensed several horror stories into
one movie-going experience. Trapped Ashes certainly follows in that
tradition, but there should have been a moment while Bartok was writing his
script about vampire breasts and Stanley Kubrick’s relationship with a succubus,
when he sat back and asked, “What the hell am I doing?”
That
being said, this film is not entirely without merit. Each of the four mini horror tales, along with
the frame story, are directed by a different legend of the genre including Sean
Cunningham who created the Friday the 13th
franchise, and Joe Dante who brought you Gremlins.
And each segment is so well directed,
exhibiting each filmmaker’s own distinct style, that it is really a shame that
their source material is so poor. Every
segment, excepting only the frame story, degenerates at some point into
soft-core horror porn. While this is not
at all usual for the horror genre, a regular feature length slasher flick will
usually have about the same amount of sex and nudity as each one of the
segments. Now I’m not complaining out of
some offended sensibility or bruised morality. Sex and nudity is a time-honored tradition of
the horror film and an inextricable part of the psychology that dominates the
genre. I protest only because in this film, it takes up too much screen time
that should be spent trying to scare the viewer. There is no atmosphere to any of the stories
because all of the scenes that should be spent creating that atmosphere are
spent watching people have dream sex with ghost corpses over and over again.
The
picture quality is slightly sub-par with some visible video noise and a sort of
muddled look to the color. As befitting
a film that is so self-referentially cinematic, the frame is a 16:9 aspect
ratio. The sound is available in either 5.1 or 2.0 Dolby Digital and is
slightly better quality than the picture. The mixing and foley work lack imagination
though.
The
extras are surprisingly abundant with alternate cuts of two of the stories,
separate making-of featurettes for each segment including the frame story,
deleted scenes, and one of the more entertaining commentary tracks I’ve heard
which includes the writer/producer, about half the cast, and some of the more
prominent crew members.
This disc
may be worth checking out if you’re looking for some cool grotesqueries, as
some of the highlights of the film are the numerous and high-quality practical
effects. But if you’re looking to get
scared, look elsewhere. And if you’re looking for ghost corpse horror porn,
well, more power to you.
- Matthew Carrick
