MY CALL: Another average horror anthology. This one has some good messages, yet lacks the execution to feel impactful. MORE MOVIES LIKE Horror Noire: For more “horror noir”, consider trying Def by Temptation (1990), A Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Tales from the Hood (1995), Bones (2001), Get Out (2017), Us (2019), Lovecraft Country (2020), Spell (2020), Candyman (2021), and Them (2021-2024). There is also the documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019).
MORE HORROR ANTHOLOGIES: Dead of Night (1945), Black Sabbath (1963), Tales from the Crypt (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Uncanny (1977), Screams of a Winter Night (1979), Creepshow (1982), Screamtime (1983), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985), Deadtime Stories (1986), Creepshow 2 (1987), From a Whisper to a Scream (1987; aka The Offspring), After Midnight (1989), Tales from the Crypt Season 1 (1989), Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Grimm Prairie Tales (1990), The Willies (1990), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Body Bags (1993), Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993), Tales from the Hood (1995), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Campfire Tales (1997), Dark Tales of Japan (2004), 3 Extremes (2004), Creepshow 3 (2006), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Chillerama (2011), Little Deaths (2011), V/H/S (2012), The Theater Bizarre (2012), The ABCs of Death (2013), V/H/S 2 (2013), All Hallows’ Eve (2013), The Profane Exhibit (2013), The ABCs of Death 2 (2014), V/H/S Viral (2014), Southbound (2015), Tales of Halloween (2015), A Christmas Horror Story (2015), The ABCs of Death 2.5 (2016), Holidays (2016), Terrified (2017; aka Aterrados, a pseudo-anthology), Oats Studios, Vol. 1 (2017), Ghost Stories (2017), XX (2017), All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018), The Field Guide to Evil (2018), Nightmare Cinema (2018), Blood Clots (2018), Deathcember (2019), Shudder’s series Creepshow (2019-2021), Scare Package (2019), The Mortuary Collection (2019), Xenophobia (2019), V/H/S/94 (2021), Netflix’s series Cabinet of Curiosities (2022), V/H/S/99 (2022), V/H/S/85 (2023) and V/H/S/Beyond (2024).
Whenever I encounter a horror movie that really fits my interests (e.g., horror anthologies) that was released years ago and I somehow never even heard of it, I wonder how it flew under my radar. Sometimes these under-advertised or (on streaming apps) under-auto-recommended movies become little hidden indie gems for whom I want to run down the halls of the internet announcing my accolades. And other times, well, there was perhaps a reason I hadn’t heard of them. Horror Noir unfortunately is the latter.
Still, for those seeking a variety grab-bag of horror concepts, this anthology features a giant spider, murderous cults, a siren-like lake monster, family curses, a doppelganger, magical runes, vampires, occult Nazi symbology, and some social commentary on black issues. In this case, there is a theme uniting all the stories. However, the theme does not link the stories or characters in any way.
So, let’s review the segments…
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The Lake—A single woman (Lesley-Ann Brandt; Lucifer, Spartacus) and her cat move into a lake house shortly after an alligator attack killed the local pastor and a child. In classic troped up style, a wise, old harbinger-type warns her not to swim in the lake and tells her the sad story. But, perhaps feeling drawn to the lake, or just dismissing the old man’s warnings, she swims in the lake and develops cravings. Her personality begins to change, and even her body changes.
This starts out okay and closes as dumb as it gets… even in terms of monster make-up.
Brand of Evil—A street artist (Brandon Mychal Smith; Appendage) is hired by a wealthy white man to illustrate a specific symbol based on vague verbal instructions. Yes, of course it looks like some magical rune or occult glyph or whatever. The pay is so good he turns his back on his community, and the demands for more illustrations come in fast. But as the commissioned symbols are completed, black people in the community die bloody deaths. The obvious themes here are temptation and greed overcoming duty, honor and loyalty (and everything else).
The premise is interesting, but the execution just isn’t there. The finale evil that is conjured is laughable and sadly cheapens the entire segment with hokiness.
Bride Before You—After desperately trying all honorable means to become pregnant to avoid being cast out by her husband (Sean Patrick Thomas; Halloween: Resurrection, Dracula 2000, The Burrowers), a wealthy woman (Lenora Crichlow; Being Human) seeks dark magic to solve her problems. After the birth of her son (Tyriq Withers; Him), the cost she paid is that her home is forever inhabited with a dark presence.
This was among the stronger segments… in at least some ways. Still, I’d just say watch Cobweb (2023) instead. But this one had stronger allegory in its resolution.
Fugue State—Cult researcher Dr. Berry (Malcolm Barrett; Preacher) is proselytized into a cult of his own investigation. It’s not riveting. But things get just weird enough to remain interesting as he attempts to convince his wife to join him to “church.” Maybe go watch something like Faults (2014) if you want the top tier version of this. But this wasn’t half bad, and it was nice seeing a cameo by Tony Todd (Final Destination, Hatchet, Wishmaster).
Daddy—A father receives an ominous warning from an elderly fellow, and then the father suffers a scare. He receives more, and less kind, fatherly anecdotes from the older stranger, and is overcome with a paranoid protectiveness of his son. We wander into an ill-executed “fear of the other” situation. Ultimately, there are good bones in this script. It just could have been done better.
Sundown—A campaign team for a black West Virginia political candidate find themselves stranded in a historically racist “sundown town” after dark. The creepy fiddle-playing mayor (Peter Stormare; Constantine) leads them to an evening dinner party with a questionable main course. This was the most fun segment, as it was horror-comedy and decently executed despite a painfully limited budget for the almost-all-off-screen action and gore.
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The production value in this anthology is good-ish (until you judge any gore or monster effects), the acting is fine-ish, but the content and writing itself seems to be the prevalent shortcoming. Still, this wasn’t bad. Not regrettable anyway. Just also not very recommendable.