‘Video Shop Tales of Terror’ Review

Stars: Dani Thompson, Laurence Harvey, Annabella Rich, Martin W Payne, Tony Mardon, Singh Lall, Rami Hilmi, Cy Henty, Andrea Sandell, Eve Oliver, Peter Tilley, Faith Elizabeth, Charlie Bond, Mike Butler, Allan Bryce | Directed by Alexander Churchyard, MJ Dixon, Sam Mason Bell, Tony Mardon, Max Davenport, Tom Lee Rutter, Michael Fausti, Andrew Elias, Geoff Harmer

An anthology of tales paying the ultimate homage to the 70/80s Video Nasty Tromaesque-era, from a team of some of the best writers/directors in the lower budget UK horror scene. A carefully curated selection of shorts all with varying degrees of depravity broken up by a wrap around story of the Video Dungeon, all delightfully introduced by Brit Scream Queen royalty Dani Thompson (putting in a number of roles throughout). Anthology movies do seem to be making somewhat of a comeback as of late and have a bit of a tendency of “trying too hard”. Let’s take a look at how Video Shop Tales of Terror measures up..!

Opening up with a couple of Video Nasty “Grindhouse” fake trailers for some hokey cheesy borderline softy porn movies, the stage is set for what’s to come. enter stage left our hostess Dani Thompson giving Elvira a damn good run for her money as she cheekily lets us know what is coming up. With Thompson there are no half measures, she is an actress that consistently plays up to the exact audience the project is intended for and here she is playing multiple varied roles and kinda smashes each of them.

From here we enter the Video Dungeon where our wraparound story will be taking place. A dark and dank video store not unlike the video shops of old that you would find a little ways off the beaten track, with the customer base to match. The sort of place you expect to find perverts through the back masturbating over the Misty Mundae 3 for £10 section (I worked in a video shop in the early 2000s so that is my frame of reference regarding those customers haha). The sort of place that has posters for No Reasons and Death Walks up on its walls. I think you catch my meaning.

Within the Video Dungeon we are treated to some short vignettes that lead into our featured stories after altercations with customers and visiting movie stars alike. I do also want to give a big mention to the look of the exterior of the dungeon which is this stunning little morbid model atop a hill with a creaky bridge. I loved the exterior shots, they added a lair of nostalgia you just cannot fake.

Now I am not going to deep dive into each segment on account of not all of them being up to the same standard, which is to be expected with about 11/12 different directors for their respective segments. Each short definitely has its merits and manages to get its job done but there are certainly 2 or 3 that stand head and shoulders above. Plus if I was to deep dive into all of them this would be a pretty long review! So what I am going to do is highlight some things I think should be mentioned.

First of all, across the board the makeup, special effects (there’s a couple), practical effects and cinematography are spot on. When you consider the budgets you can see these folks are working with you can tell they have put the effort in and have nailed the aesthetic, the vibe, the cheeseballness and the all round tongue-in-cheek mentality of what they are going for.

Cast wise we are all on point, starting with Thompson who, as I have already said, only ever gives her all as she pops up in numerous different guises. Another horror stalwart is Laurence Harvey (Human Centipede 2, Eating Miss Campbell) playing a true thespian of the game that is not opposed to wanking off a toad. A few more of our leading U.K. horror ladies start showing up too, with Annabella Rich teaming up with director Sam Mason-Ball for noirish Red Lipped Moon, Ayvianna Snow jumping on for Vergessen and the always incredible Charlie Bond appears in easily my favourite segment “Mary Whitehouse is a C**t”.

This is starting to go on a bit now, but honestly if you are a fan of the more video nasty-esque, out-there schlocky horror genre stuff then this anthology set will be right up your street. It has a touch of everything from scares to puke, to decapitation by giant scissors, to toad wanking, to scary nuns, to masturbating customers, to hot dogs, to ghosts, to Cheryl Neve in a cheeky cameo, to brains, to eggheads and much, much, much more! A quiet night in at the library? I think not. A bloody good rollicking time? Yup!

I’m not sure how to rank an anthology flick given each segment has its own worth but I think as an overall, Video Shop Tales of Terror deserves a…

**** 4/5