Turn off the Lights

Chilling Visions Review: Horror Done OK

I'm a big sucker for Horror anthologies and usually around Halloween, I make it a point to watch at least a few of them to get me into the spirit of things. This time around, I had the pleasure to check out Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear, a horror anthology that has both its hits and misses, but manages to be well done enough to sport at least a single viewing. Each of the films were done by different directors, but manage to form a cohesive whole about an evil corporation called Watershed. In Smell, a man that's recently divorced, tries to get his wife back, by testing out a new pheromone cologne from Watershed, that is to woo her back into his life. In Sight, An optometrist collects the tears of his patients, which mysteriously contains their memories, to which he sells back to the evil company. Touch deals with a young blind boy, who must find his way out of the woods, after being in a terrible car accident with his parents. Taste takes us directly to the Watershed compound, where a hacker is brought into an interview for their latest project, in where he deals with the female CEO, with a voracious appetite. The final film, Listen, shows a group of filmmakers that piece together a recording, that manages to make people kill themselves after listening to it. While some of the films are better than others, Chilling Visions presents enough of a variety and cohesive vision, that makes it worth seeing. The film manages to get off to a weak start, with Smell, that manages to feel very much like a weak episode of Tales from the Crypt. There are some comedic moments that make it a bit funny, but the premise has been done before and much more effectively. It wasn't until the second piece, Sight, that I found myself to get way more invested. Directed by Miko Hughes (of Pet Cemetery fame) where the doctor who collects memories, is an attempt at an interesting concept, as well as the beginning of seeing how Watershed works as a company, throughout the entire series of shorts. It isn't until we get to Taste, when things get pretty insane and a hell of a lot of fun. The CEO of Watershed turns out to be a literal man eater and tries to devour the hacker. The presentation of the company is pretty nice and transitions into the final film very smoothly. The project that they're trying to hire the hacker for, turns out to be what the final film is. Listen turns out to be a found footage film, where we see the outcome of listening to the hellish recording. Typically, I have a huge distaste for found footage films, with certain exceptions, like Blair Witch and Chronicle. With Listen, the use of various filters, footage and all sorts of other tricks of editing and post production, help sell the notion of the recorded event of these filmmakers, as well tell this interesting story at the same time. While there are certainly plenty of other horror anthologies that are much more well executed, Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear at least present a cohesive whole that is entertaining on some levels. Its certainly worth a gander this Halloween season and its certainly much better than wasting your time with something like Gingerdead Man
Rating
6.0

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Meet the Author

About / Bio
Ruben Rosario is the head editor of the Movie Department at Entertainment Fuse. He co-hosts The Plot Hole, with Simon Brookfield and has a major love for cinema, comics and anime.

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