Trapped Ashes (2006)

Directors:

Sean S. Cunningham
John Gaeta

Writer (WGA):

Dennis Bartok (written by)

Release Date:

2007 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Seven strangers on a Hollywood movie studio tour are trapped inside an infamous House of Horror and forced to tell their most terrifying stories to get out alive. |

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Tapeworm | Ghost | Murder | Breast Implant

Cast

Jayce Bartok	...	Andy
Henry Gibson	...	Tour Guide
Lara Harris	...	Julia
Scott Lowell	...	Henry
Dick Miller	...	Max
Michèle-Barbara Pelletier	...	Nathalie / Martine (segment "My Twin - The Worm")
John Saxon	...	Leo
Rachel Veltri	...	Phoebe
Richard Ian Cox	...	Doug (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Glynis Davies	...	Nurse (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Scott Heindl	...	Zack (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Rob deLeeuw	...	Ben (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Mina E. Mina	...	Dr. Judith (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Winston Rekert	...	Dr. Larry (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")
Ken Russell	...	Dr. Lucy (segment "The Girl with Golden Breasts")

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, violence, disturbing images and language.

Runtime:

Argentina:105 min | Canada:105 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA | Japan | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

11:11 Mediaworks

Movie Connections:

Features Stanley's Girlfriend (2006)

A rocky road

Anthology films rarely work for me. Most of them are as uneven as twenty miles of bad road. TRAPPED ASHES was yet another bumpy ride.

Six people are trapped in a room and must relate terrible things that they've had happen to them to their host (Henry Gibson). What follows are four segments directed by auteurs not necessarily known for their horror chops (with the possible exception of Sean S. Cunningham). Each segment prominently features the ties between sex and death so prevalent in horror films. One features a woman with vampiric breasts whose lamprey mouthed nipples sucks the blood of her lovers. Another woman falls for a corpse who whisks her away to hell while on Japanese holiday. A succubus falls for Stanley Kubrick. And the last, poor woman shares the insatiable hunger of her fraternal twin, a tapeworm.

The first segment sets up expectations that TRAPPED ASHES will be a much more lighthearted film. Surprisingly, this segment was directed by Ken Russell though it felt like something from Joe Dante or Paul Bartel (it was especially reminiscent of Irvin Kershner's "Hell Toupee" episode of "Amazing Stories"). The Sean S. Cunningham sequence felt like a pail gaijin aping of Hideo Nakata (THE RING) and John Gaeta's just didn't work at all. I enjoyed the Kubrick bit, courtesy of Monte Hellman - a perennial Cashiers du Cinemart fave - except that the horror element seemed like an afterthought.

Surprised that this wasn't called TALES FROM THE CRYPT: TRAPPED ASHES, this is one that can be missed by all except die hard John Saxon fans.