bhunterism Uninspired stories, boring drawn out sequences. Just dull.The only 'horror' and creepiest aspects are the spooky doll's house with a face interludes between stories. These are nightmarish.

noelannevoyt This is one of the few horror movies I've found that has a lower imdb rating than critical score-the opposite is almost universally true. The critical score on Rotten Tomatoes is 72 precent. That's a huge difference. This anthology has gotten a lot of hate for the fact that it was directed by women from people who claim they "don't care that it was directed by women." For the record, I do care that it was directed by women. I'm not saying everyone who says they don't care is lying. Oh wait...Yes, that's exactly what I'm claiming. If this had been released with male leads by male directors it would have a 6 rating for the stop motion animation between segments alone.The anthology is told from a female perspective so if you're part of the he-man woman hater's club you can write this one off now. If you're willing to accept that woman have stories to telll and that female characters should have flaws that don't involve their looks, self-esteem, or period, I think you'll find this a fresh take on the horror anthology.As the parent of a child with an eating disorder, I found The Box terrifying. It starts out as if it could be pulled out of the pages of Romero's Creepshow, then it takes a turn for the less formulaic. Ultimately, there maybe two types of people in this world: people who love ambiguous endings and people who...The Cake, is the second entry in the anthology, and it's a story that many reviewers obviously didn't get. Whether that's because we don't value the time and effort put into rearing children or because it is a bit schizophrenic, I'll leave up to you to decide. For me, this anxiety-fueled entry was both funny and cringe-inducing. I loved it, and-if your capable of putting yourself into the shoes of a mother whose child's special day it is-you'll likely enjoy it too. Her Only Living Son is likely another source of contention in this anthology. It unapologetically follows the narrative of a mother who has spent her whole life trying to protect her son. It sees the mother of this bad seed trying to keep her son from being lost entirely to the dark side. I found it to be emotionally satisfying and a great nod to genre classics, Rosemary's Baby and The Omen.The Fall is the weakest entry for me. The narrative stalls in this one. I felt it was the most formulaic of the four, and it ended without making much of an impact. I'd love to tell you this is objectively the worst of the four, but it may just be that I was incapable of viewing the women in final segment apart from the role of mother taken on in the other stories. Though, arguably, the antagonist in this story coiuld be said to be a mother of sorts. Maybe the fact that I'm not sure about my point of view that I like so much here: I'm forced to reevaluate assumptions of female moviemakers, female driven stories, gender roles in film, and myself as a viewer.

aprecariousperception I leave watching this with a nagging feeling that had the homogeneous gender-crafted selling point been less overstated viewers might be a touch more generous on this anthology of shorts.Reading these scathing reviews I hemmed and hawed for a long time to bother with this collection at all. On a particular quiet evening of scrolling over it's title suggestion I finally simply clicked play with halfhearted gusto. Overall I am glad I did.True--there are flaws with the acting and some of the timely sound effects (Ex: Just about every one of them sequenced in the rather somewhat-comic 'The Birthday Party'); The dialogue appeared rushed in delivery at times (Ex: Crucial final monologue in 'Her Only Living Son') and the sequencing of plot seems dubious for the sake of understanding and relating important character development for the sake of the story (Ex: The ambiguous passive role of the mother in 'The Box') --But for each shortcoming in layout and amateur casting there were..... commendable moments of gory special effects ('The Box', 'Don't Fall'), proper foreshadowing ('Don't Fall'), and absorbing secondary character portrayal (The modern hammy take on free-spirit traveling youths in 'Don't Fall' being surprisingly easy to enjoy where and the glimpse of the outraged student mother in 'Her Only Living Son' steals the spotlight for dignified and affecting delivery in just one scene...) So much more puzzling is trying to ascertain the amount of bitter responses this film has accumulated around it. For this collection is not groundbreaking but is by no means without watchable elements (Particularly the lovely segments of stop motion animation). If the viewer is told quite emphatically beforehand to pay attention to the all-female writing-directing accreditation it is not wild to assume an unfocused scrutiny is placed on how-this-circumstance-makes-this-film-any-better-successful dancing around the back of every mind while the lead actors (all predominately female) portray what is over-embellished to be a vastly different horror experience. To which at wholesale value isn't.3/4 main story characters are mothers in some elaboration and their opposing male cohorts appear at times shallowly culture-flipped representations ('The Box') or plot devices to explain thematic conflict 'Her Only Living Son') which appear more to do with a genuine (although non-unique) invention rather than any agenda to level the gender playing field of countless bimbo-harlot-hand-wringing side-liners of horror film plot-lines seen again and again. And at that...weak bits of dialogue, jump-scares, and choppy plot-lines are nothing close to rare in the genre. XX is certainly not breaking any glass ceilings but neither is it tarnishing any sort of record for hit-and-miss interpretations of its storytelling material. Sifting through films let alone short budget attempts for one or two elements which satisfactorily work should be second nature to long-time fans of horror. If you are of a patient sort you may be able to commend some dues, or in the least kill and hour and a half to watching hateful gimmick cinema gathering intel you can thoroughly expose' during your next platform against the matriarchy in a poorly chosen drunken stupor.

venusboys3 I watched this with a friend tonight for our October horror movie night and was quite impressed. It's pretty clever all the way through, doesn't fall into the trap of many horror anthologies of playing for laughs or going too heavy on the gore. There is some good gore in this, but not a lot and nothing gratuitous... it's in service to the story, not the goal of the story, if that makes sense. It also didn't strain at its budget and try to pull of FX that weren't really necessary to the stories... as it often does, this lack of visual spectacle ended up making each story more intimate and focused on the characters. The first segment was quite intriguing and I really liked how it resisted giving a simple/dumb explanation for what's going on. It sent my head to some odd places, thinking about food and our need to eat. My wasn't as pleased with it as I was, I think she wanted more exposition/explanation. I was surprised that it was based on a story by Jack Ketchum because it was less visceral and more cerebral than most of his stories... creepy and weird.The second segment was much more humorous, but just as sinister in its way... being as it's about the pressures put on women of a certain class of society. The scene at the end with all the children and their mothers spilling into the house... their clothes and costumes and hair... it was hilarious and horrific at the same time. Again, my friend didn't particularly care for that segment but I think she didn't see the horror in it. The third segment was the most overtly 'horror-movie' fare.It's about some campers who pick the wrong place to spend the night. Well done but nothing too surprising about it. It was my least favorite segment by far, but my friend liked it best. The fourth segment was very clever indeed. It's a sequel of a sort to a famous horror film of the 60s... though it also serves as an alternate ending to the film. I wonder how many people will pick up on its hints as to that provenance... and I'm not sure it matters. My friend wouldn't have picked up on it if I hadn't pointed it out to her. It's also the segment I'd most like to go on about... but that would be hard to do without massive spoilers. There wasn't a bad segment in this, IMO. The third one was a bit average, but still not bad. The animated segments between the stories were fun too... a bit like lighter-hearted Brothers Quay shorts.