XX is a modern anthology horror film directed by four women. Unfortunately, that’s about the only thing
novel about it. The stories themselves
are mostly thin and uneventful, but it must be said that each director gets
about as much mileage out of them as they possibly can.
I guess another unique thing about XX are the Wraparound Sequences
(***). Before each story, there is a
little segment where a bunch of creepy old toys and dolls run around on their
own. I don’t know what they have to do
with anything, but they reminded me of a Tool music video.
The Box (** ½) is the first story. It was directed by Jovanka Vukovic and based
on a story by Jack Ketchum. It starts
off with a little boy sitting next to a strange man holding a box on a
subway. He asks the man if he can look
inside his box and he is happy to oblige.
Afterwards, the boy starts acting strange and eventually stops eating
altogether. Pretty soon, everyone in the
family except for his mother is on the starvation kick.
This segment is filled with promise, but it ultimately
fizzles out in the end. There’s no
shocking twist or grand finales here. Quite
the opposite in fact. It’s more of a
denial of an ending than a satisfying conclusion. An open-ended ending might have worked for a
feature length film. However, for a
short such as this, it leaves things frustratingly unresolved. It does have the benefit of one gnarly
cannibalism scene. Since it turns out to
be all a dream, I guess it doesn’t count.
The Birthday Party (**) is the weakest story of the
lot. A harried mother tries to get
everything ready for her daughter’s birthday party. The preparations come to a halt when she
finds her husband dead in his office. She
doesn’t let that stop her though and she continues on with the festivities as
if nothing’s happened.
It’s hard to tell what director Annie Clark was going for here. Was it supposed to be a black comedy thing or
a psychological horror type of deal? She
tries to split the difference and consequentially, nothing really works. This scenario is ripe with humor, but Clark
never goes for laughs. She also doesn’t
focus enough on the mom’s fragile mental state to make it click as a psycho
drama. Unlike the last segment, this one
does have a decent twist ending, which comes via title card that explains
everything we just saw. It’s an OK
punchline, I just wish the set-up was better.
Things improve remarkably with Don’t Fall (***). A quartet of friends go hiking through the
desert. They make camp and find some
nearby cave drawings that could be gibberish or could be a taken as
warning. That night, an evil Native
American spirit possesses one of the campers and turns her into a monster. She soon starts picking off her friends one
by one.
This tale isn’t really typical of an anthology movie. There are no twist ending or messages about
morality. It’s just a straightforward horror
show. Don’t Fall is short and to the
point and doesn’t fuck around. While I
appreciated that aspect of it, I have to admit that there’s not a whole lot to
it.
Her Only Living Son
(** ½) comes to us courtesy of Karyn (Aeon Flux) Kusama. It revolves around a single mother whose son
is approaching his eighteenth birthday. She
is shocked to learn from his principal that he is abusive to his classmates,
but is even more shocked to learn that the teachers approve of his behavior and
even praise his leadership abilities.
Eventually, we learn who his real father is and why his birthday is of
such significance.
This final tale continues some of the same themes of previous
stories: A son going through a strange
transformation, birthday stress, and a mother doubling down on her maternal
instincts. The conclusion is obvious and
done in such a low-key manner that it leaves you feeling shortchanged. (Maybe if the budget was a tad higher Kusama
could’ve delivered the goods.) On the
plus side, the set-up is well done, and the performances are strong all
around.
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