Is the new fright anthology, THE HORROR NETWORK, a good Halloween watch? Maybe...

...or maybe not. It depends, I should think, on how old you are and how many other "scary" movies you've managed to view over your years. I am fast coming to the conclusion that I've seen way too many of this genre, and an anthology movie like THE HORROR NETWORK serves mostly to underscore that point. Horror anthologies have a storied history, going at least as far back as the 1945 British gem (in its time; much of it still holds up well today), Dead of Night. Later came some fun Hammer horrors, then the more "modern," special-effects-enhanced efforts like Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt, all of which took fear into a different, less subtle direction, while the most recent examples -- the V/H/S group and the even better ABCs of Death -- tend to count on envelope-pushing sex, violence, transgression and gore to do the job. (And, one must admit, they sometimes do.)

Only one of the short films included in this five part anthology rises to the challenge, and that's the penultimate creep-fest, Merry Little Christmas. Directed by Ignacio Martín and Manuel Marín, with the latter handling the screenwriting duties, this 20-minute film is the longest in the bunch, and also the best, as well as the goriest and biggest-budget effort. Involving masked women and what they get up to (not good), spousal and child abuse, agoraphobia and self-destruction, this is one wild, woolly, yucky piece of filmmaking.

Otherwise, the movie contains four perfectly professional scare films, in which everything will remind you of stuff you've seen previously, and you'll mostly want to ask, Could you please get on with it?" Second best film honors go to Joseph Graham's Edward, shown below, in which a shrink and his patient do an eventually tiresome pas de deux, complete with everything from guck and gore to personality transference.

The film begins with 3 AM, in which a young woman in an empty house in the middle of the night is menaced by...something or someone. Sounds familiar? It is. The Quiet, directed by Lee Matthews, a bullied-because-she's-deaf school-girl go from frying pan into fire, as she becomes predator prey in some highly bucolic, beautifully photographed scenery.

The final tale, in black-and-white, offers us a guy, a dog and a killer, plus Bible verses from Proverbs, Jeremiah, Leviticus, Colossians and Revelation. Seemingly dedicated to exposing the hypocrisy of the anti-gay fringe, it's mostly a yawn -- but at least it's a short one.

That's it.  If all this sounds like a productive way to spend Halloween (or whenever), by all means, take a chance. The Horror Network -- via Wild Eye Releasing and running 87 minutes -- made its DVDebut yesterday, October 27, just in time for that favvorite, would-be holiday.

Another five-part horror opus V/H/S/2: Lightning, it seems, does not strike twice.

The below review first appeared as this film was making its VOD debut last month. TrustMovies is posting it again, as the movie opens tomorrow theatrically.

Last year's six-part horror surprise V/H/S provided a nasty jolt of bizarre, hand-held scares from a few of our favorite independent filmmakers, some of whom had not ventured into this territory previously. Its follow-up, V/H/S/2 -- other than the genuinely scary and original mid-sectioned Safe Haven by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans (who gave us last year's action hit The Raid: Redemption) -- is a disappointing potpourri of repetition and, god help us, zombies and aliens, with another not-so-hot, wrap-around section (which was the original's weakest part, as well).

Safe Haven, about a couple of journalists trying to discover the truth behind a little-known Southeast Asian cult with a taste for suicide that could lead to something, well, uh... bigger has the the kind of documentary feel and narrative flair that could give Jim Jones nightmares. In addition to being the best of the five works cobbled together to make one full-length film, it is also the longest and most assured piece of movie-making.

Low-budget, it nonetheless smacks of creativity in everything from story to performances to production values, which is more than can be said for most of the other sections -- which reply on jiggly, hand-held scares which, often as not don't arrive because you really can't figure out WTF is going on. This is not true of A Ride in the Park by Edúardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale, in which you can figure most everything out. This short film returns us to zombieland once again but doesn't provide much that's new (other than the POV) yet seems to go on and on and on.

The wrap-around, Tape 49 by Simon Barrett (above), is another of those break into a house and discover a bunch of videos, which of course must be played and then paid for rather drastically. The usual suspense and little surprise ensues.

Phase 1 Clinical Trials (above) by Adam Wingard does The Eye kind of thing in OK-but-so-what? fashion, while the final segment, Slumber Party Alien Abduction (below) by Jason Eisener, is the roughest-hewn of the five and also the least compelling. The low-budget here wears its heart on its sleeve, doing nobody any favors.

So, when the movie -- from Magnet Releasing, The Collective and Bloody Disgusting and running a too-long 95 minutes -- opens theatrically on July 12 (it's actually opening tonight, 7/11/13, in West L.A. at the NuArt), go for the Asian cult number. Or better yet, as the movie made its VOD debut on June 6, stay at home where you can fast forward when necessary. If you prefer the theatrical exper-ience, you can find V/H/S/2's scheduled theatrical playdates here.

The five-part horror opus V/H/S/2: Lightning does not strike twice, folk

Last year's six-part horror surprise V/H/S provided a nasty jolt of bizarre, hand-held scares from a few of our favorite independent filmmakers, some of whom had not ventured into this genre previously. Its follow-up, V/H/S/2 -- other than the genuinely scary and original mid-sectioned Safe Haven by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans (who gave us last year's action hit The Raid: Redemption) -- is a disappointing potpourri of repetition and, god help us, zombies and aliens, with another not-so-hot, wrap-around section (which was the original's weakest part, as well).

Safe Haven, about a couple of journalists trying to discover the truth behind a little-known Southeast Asian cult with a taste for suicide that could lead to something, well, uh... bigger has the the kind of documentary feel and narrative flair that could give Jim Jones nightmares. In addition to being the best of the five works cobbled together to make one full-length film, it is also the longest and most assured piece of movie-making.

Low-budget, it nonetheless smacks of creativity in everything from story to performances to production values, which is more than can be said for most of the other sections -- which reply on jiggly, hand-held scares which, often as not don't arrive because you really can't figure out WTF is going on. This is not true of A Ride in the Park by Edúardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale, in which you can figure most everything out. This short film returns us to zombieland once again but doesn't provide much that's new (other than the POV) yet seem to go on and on and on.

The wrap-around, Tape 49 by Simon Barrett (above), is another of those break into a house and discover a bunch of videos, which of course must be played and then paid for rather drastically. The usual suspense and little surprise ensues.

Phase 1 Clinical Trials (above) by Adam Wingard does The Eye kind of thing in OK-but-so-what? fashion, while the final segment, Slumber Party Alien Abduction (below) by Jason Eisener, is the roughest-hewn of the five and also the least compelling. The low-budget here wears its heart on its sleeve, doing nobody any favors.

So, when the movie -- from Magnet Releasing, The Collective and Bloody Disgusting and running a too-long 95 minutes -- opens theatrically on July 12, go for the Asian cult number. Or better yet, as the movie made its VOD debut yesterday, June 6, stay at home where you can fast forward when necessary. If you prefer the theatrical experience, you can find V/H/S/2's scheduled theatrical playdates here.