Finally saw this one after years of seeing it for exorbitant prices on eBay, Half.com, and Amazon's Marketplace. Its a low budget anthology that actually
lived up to its expectations, granted they were low to begin with. A group of college students go out to a cabin in the woods (sound familiar) but instead of
conjuring demons, they tell horror stories in between trying to scare each other with practical jokes. First story is a variation on the kids go parking, the
guy goes out to get gas the girl stays inside the car and hears strange sounds on the roof. The second story is about three frat pledges that are dared to
stay in an old hotel where a green light in one of the upper rooms is supposed to signify a ghostly presence. The third story is sadly underdeveloped as it is
probably the best one of the three and probably could've made an interesting feature in itself as an unpopular mousy girl is set up with a guy that tries
to rape her so she kills him and it is blamed on a maniac terrorizing kids who go parking. The girl withdraws and goes nuts when her hottie roommate borrows
her shawl. This bit features the best acting even if its blatantly obvious what's going to happen. All three stories have the characters played by the
actors playing the college kids in the framing story and are generally amateurish. I'm sure some are stage actors trying to invest their cardboard
characters with some stereotype nuances (notably the rich #%++# who comes across like a cold, society wife rather than your run of the mill college ice queen).
Probably the most notable cast member is a young William Ragsdale (FRIGHT NIGHT) who plays one of the creepy backwoods kids seen in the opening. Technically
there's a fourth story that unfolds audio-only under the elongated opening credits that would clue us in to the surprise ending had the local legend been
better explained earlier on in the film.
The exteriors are overly dark during the night scenes and have harsh contrasts during the day shots (no reflectors used in this film) so one can imagine how it might have looked on the drive-in screen but the limited music score is effective. I'm sure theatrical matting probably obscured the boom mike which dips in at one tense moment. I'd love to see Code Red put this on disc just to see who they can dig up to do interviews and commentary.
The exteriors are overly dark during the night scenes and have harsh contrasts during the day shots (no reflectors used in this film) so one can imagine how it might have looked on the drive-in screen but the limited music score is effective. I'm sure theatrical matting probably obscured the boom mike which dips in at one tense moment. I'd love to see Code Red put this on disc just to see who they can dig up to do interviews and commentary.
