XX [Blu-ray]

Really enjoyable anthology exhibiting a variety of styles. Each filmmaker's voice is unique and very present, and it makes for a wonderful, brisk viewing. The Box and Only Living Son bookend with more thematically deep stories to wrap around the straighter horror and dark comedy of the middle segments. You won't be disappointed. Don't listen to the naysaying reviews, as mostly they are looking for much less interesting, middle-of-the-road films.

Some suspension of disbelief is required as to how some situations are allowed to progress but IMO its an overall solid collection. Love the stop motion connecting the stories.

1 - The Box: Story is actually interesting BUT too bad author is lazy and can't figure out how to end the story. Mainly WHAT'S IN THE FREAKING BOX??? What spoiled their appetites? Dog turds? Justin Bieber CDs? Probably a DVD of this movie would be my guess.2 - The Birthday Party: The point of the story? Oh, that's right. There isn't one.3 - Don't Fall: OK, girl turns into monster, everyone dies. If only, we could be so lucky.4 - Her Only Living Son: I don't know if she had another one, but if so, at least he didn't have to watch this. Typical dad makes deal with the devil, son grows up to be the son of the devil story. Changes mind at the end, I guess so they both die.If you're looking for a satisfying horror anthology, look elsewhere.

Product meets standard.

I mainly watched this movie to see early work of Kyle Allen as he is becoming more popular in recent movies. He looks so much like Heath Ledger. He can be found in the last short film of the four short films in this movie.The first short film is difficult to understand about what being nosy and looking into a box resulted in what appears to be an infection. It shows how an infection can affect a family.The second short film is about a birthday party that a mother had for her daughter and will do anything not to cancel. Not sure if it was because she loved her daughter so much or if she was just a show-off to her wealthy friends that she will do anything to make sure the party happens.The third film was about four people who bribed their way into an area of a national park that normally doesn't allow visitors. While there, they enjoyed the great scenery, but they also encountered graphics on rock walls that later seem to have spiritual powers.The last short film seem to have a religious connotation about a boy who was born from the mother having a relationship possibly with the devil or a wolf or some other evil creature. When the boy becomes 18, he seem to have a violent streak as if his hormones of some sort is becoming uncontrollable. With the mother determined to keep her son to be good the way she tried to raise him all these years, the evil father decided it was not worth keeping them alive.I have to say all these short films seem so weird as they had no closure or explanation about what was happening in the stories. However, they also create an intrigue that makes you wonder what they were trying to say, and you start to create your own explanation as to what had happened. Definitely not a comfortable feeling to not get closure in a film. Perhaps if these films were longer, they would be better explained.

I rented it because I definitely support indie films, especially horror anthologies. Plus, the ideology behind this one, which was to have all woman directors, sold me. Unfortunately, it fell flat, very flat.:::::SPOILERS BELOW:::::::1) The in between scenes were cool, it was pointless, art for art's sake kinda way.>2) The Box -- This story actually had some decent directing and tone. The general sense of dread was good. But overall the story was pointless, with no direction. Basically it was "there's something spooky and mysterious and it made everyone die because it was so spooky and mysterious". You can have horror just for the emotions the genre evokes, but you need to be a damn good filmmaker for it to have any sort of impact. This one wasn't good enough to stand on its cool idea alone. 5/10>3) The Birthday -- It was more of a dark comedy/music video that looked like it was directed by some emo band. 4/10>4) Don't Fall -- Kids go into the wilderness and awaken some ancient evil and they all die. It was my favorite. Predicable, cliche, but refreshing compared to the other two. Unfortunately, that isn't saying much. 6/10>5) Her Last Living Son -- Yet another story that's been told to death. At least this one had a twist, sort of. But it ended so flat that the details leading up to the end were trivial, and any unique storytelling was lost. 5/10

Annie Clark is a Genius!

This strikes me, honestly, as a series of shorts written to hit the nightmare nerve for moms. New moms, experienced moms, doesn't matter. These are the bad dreams that jerk us out of deep dreams on occasion.SPOILERS: (I will try to make them tease style not spoil style but no promises)Story one: an illness with no explanation. How many of us moms dream of and dread the inability to fix any and all problems our kids have?Story two: how many of us moms have the utter fear of being left on our own? Be it for a high stress party, or for the rest of our parenthood?....what would we do to deny those issues?....Story three: vacations are fantastic. But out of routine and possibly out of our control....Story four: our kids grow up. And sometimes we have no control of the results, no matter how awesome we are as a mom.In the end, with the possible exception of the third story, I definitely feel that these stories are designed to dig into the emotional reaponse first and foremost of mothers, secondly as wives.Regardless, they are all well acted, the stories are interesting, (if confusing at times) and this is a good indie compilation worth the time of horror buffs.