Indie horror production company Concept Media Films is bringing us a sequel to the full-length slasher Midsummer Nightmares pretty soon, so to tide us over, they’ve put together the horror anthology Watch This. Not only is it comprised of short films, it’s also short as a whole, running only 53 minutes.
No time wasted here. We see a dude go on the Internet, where he’s greeted by the words “Watch this.” Who wouldn’t click on the link?
“Woodford County”
The first story is a simple tale of a killer knocking off victims one by one. It makes the brave choice of taking place in complete daylight, but that somehow makes it that much creepier and gives it that gritty, low-budget, straight to video feel. It also appears that our killer is just some normal looking dude, which makes it even more eerie. As icing on the cake, one of the victims is a major hottie who gets to show off the muscles during a nice long pool scene.
“The Way of the Buffalo”
This is a pretty ingenious and disturbing stalk and rape story. And it gets right to the meat…so to speak. It throws us into classic killer POV because the killer films it as he breaks in to a woman’s house and sexually assaults her. The rape feels revoltingly real, with no background music, just the woman screaming and sobbing and the rapist grunting and groaning. The key to the bizarre twist in this found footage piece is what the killer says about himself in another clip of found footage that he made before the assault…
And BTW, the killer is played by the cutie lead dude from the first Midsummer Nightmares. He also appears in the next story….
“Ladies Night”
These three fairly innocent dudes are working on their car when they are approached by three lovely ladies—a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead (played by Christy Faulkner, who will be taking over the lead role in the sequel to Midsummer Nightmares). We’ll just never understand the horrible things that happen to these men, especially the stocky cutie who appeared in the previous story. He really…um…gets the short end of the stick. Haters of male genital mutilation beware!
“Summon”
Moving away from the “stalker/slasher” feel of the other stories, this one is all out witchcraft, complete with a scary demon witch from hell! Now this is how you end a horror anthology, although this short definitely leaves you hanging.
And finally, we have an effectively creepy conclusion of the wraparound.
Concept Media Films founders Ryan Stacy and Shawn Burkett are really fine-tuning their craft. After watching the first Midsummer Nightmares, I knew they had a great feel for horror and would find their groove. This short, succinct horror anthology is evidence of their evolving talents. Can’t wait to see Midsummer Nightmares II.
