It has been a fair while since I last reviewed an anthology horror film on my blog. Something that I parrot each and every time is that I sure do enjoy anthologies as there is often at least one of them which will stick out. How Dark They Prey is an indie horror anthology made up of four different shorts. The first directed by Adam Ambrosio (in his directorial debut) and the other three directed by Jamison M. LoCascio (Know Fear, The Depths).
Rather than any type of wrap-around story this anthology instead begins with a couple of short scenes, the first a Halloween-esque first person perspective piece about someone entering a garage and grabbing a knife, the second a static shot of an altar as a voice in the background discovers the bad side of summoning a demon. The first segment proper is Ambrosio's Encounter Nightly in which the host of an online UFO show (Jeff Ronan) heads to his latest story alongside his trusty cameraman (Paul Pallotta). This was mostly played for laughs, but worked thanks to the likeability that Ronan brought to his character of Trent "UFO". This was presented as found footage, being made up of filmed clips from the fictional 'Encounter Nightly' show. The segment establishes a running concept throughout the anthology, obviously due to budget constraints the shorts are all dialogue heavy, leaning on talking over actually showing much.
Next up was Harrowing which was shot more traditionally. I had expected by this point the whole anthology was going to be found footage and so it was a nice surprise to find it wasn't. Set during World War II, two American soldiers (played by Samuel Pygatt and James M. Reilly) and a German prisoner, find themselves pinned down in a forest from enemy gunfire. The longer they are there however, the more they begin to suspect something really odd is going on, especially when one of the soldiers realises the random gunfire isn't actually as random as it first appears. Sometimes less is more, and with Harrowing you have a story told almost entirely through dialogue. There was a real Twilight Zone feel to this one, and I actually thought the way this concluded (with no answers revealed only suggestions) was a great way to end things.
The penultimate short is the H.P Lovecraft flavoured Blood Beach. A young man (Josiah Schneider) encounters a fisherman (Marc Lubbers) who tells him about the legend of an ancient creature that lives within the lake he is fishing at, and about the cult that are said to worship it. I'm always going to like things that reference the works of Lovecraft, while this was the most uneventful of the shorts (with a story that felt a little like it needed more time and characters to properly work), it did end on a nice little moment.
Final short is the black and white Nelly. This managed to be both the most overtly comedic film, yet also the most gory and horror filled one. An eccentric police officer (David Johnson) pulls over a woman (Alisha Spielman) for speeding, both then get kidnapped by a Fred Flintstone mask wearing, chainsaw wielding maniac. Johnson played such a bizarre character here, who by default stole his scenes. The horror when it appears was pretty good, with plenty of blood. Later on there is an obviously plastic skeleton prop, I wondered if this was the lynchpin for making this one into a comedy, or if it was due to being a comedy that such a fake looking prop was used. A shout out to the fun recreation of a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
I had fond memories of LoCascio's horror film Know Fear and so I was interested in checking out How Dark They Prey. While none of the shorts compare to that one, this was still an interesting and varied quartet of films, ones which worked within the constraints of the budget by focussing on story over spectacle. How Dark They Prey released on September 15th on Amazon Prime Video and Watch Movies Now.
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