Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear (2013) User Reviews

Gruesome horror quintet

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 10 February 2016]

Another year, another horror anthology, and this time it's the turn of 5 SENSES OF FEAR which unsurprisingly contains five short tales each based around one of the human senses. Like SCARY OR DIE or the V/H/S/ movies, this is acceptable stuff for horror fans, although it lacks the quality of something like TRICK 'R TREAT.

The problem with 5 SENSES OF FEAR is not the production values, because they're actually decent for a change; although the stories were shot on the cheap and in a very short space of time, they look good and the calibre of both acting and direction is of an acceptable standard. There are no big names here, but then you don't go looking for them.

The problem is that all of the stories are focused on delivering gore rather than true scares so that the scope ends up being rather limited. The first one, SMELL, is about a guy who comes into possession of a new and experimental perfume; this has a classic outcome and was my favourite of the five stories. The second one, SEE, involves some predictably nasty eye violence and very little else. The third, TOUCH, is about a blind kid who has a car accident and is the most atmospheric of the quintet, although the story is very slight. TASTE is an all-out gore effort set in an office, while LISTEN goes down the found footage route and isn't too shabby. All of the stories are acceptable, but I found them lacking in delivering proper horror themes or scares; is gore all the genre has to offer these days, I wonder?

Intriguing concept, poorly executed

[TdSmth5 · 5/10 · 10 May 2014]

Chilling Visions has five stories based on the five senses.

Smell. A mysterious but cheery sales lady appears at the door of some divorced loser and gives him a spray bottle of pheromones that will make him successful. It works but it also rots his skin where applied. He ends up dead and drops from his corpse are used to make more spray bottles.

Sight. An ophthalmologist extracts some visual energy from his patients during eye exams and distills into drops that he then applies to his own eyes to see things his patients saw. He keeps dozens of bottles. When a pretty patient shows up beaten he asks her to send her abusive boyfriend. And with him he applied some mist to his eyes that drives him crazy. Violence between the two ensue.

Touch. A family has a car accident out in the woods. The blind kid goes searching for help. He discovers the car was disabled due to a trap. He walks around, finds more traps, then a house where victims are who tell him of a villain who doesn't like to be touched. The kid leaves and runs into the crazy guy, who's also the boyfriend from the previous episode. But the kid is resourceful.

Taste. A guy is taken in a limo to some corporation. He doesn't know where or why. Everyone acts weird. When he meets his appointment she offers him a job and warns him that if he refuses he'll be in some unspecified trouble. The job consists of him searching for and reassembling a song, a song that is said to kill the listeners. He refuses. The chick attacks him.

Listen. Two video/sound techs and a camera girl receive some tapes about a Russian guy who composed a song that kills people who listen to it. The tapes involve a researcher in the past who's trying to get someone to play the song. They keep getting more tapes and time markers to reconstruct the whole thing. They succeed. In the tape everyone who plays the song gets sick. No one can finish it. Until the researcher destroys one player's ears. He plays the whole song and everyone in the room kill themselves. The two guys are afraid. The camera girl secretly uploads the song online.

Chilling Visions has some good ideas and is somewhat original. But it just doesn't know how to effectively bring those ideas to screen. The first episode is filmed like a silly comedy complete with goofy and romantic music. The second episode wastes an intriguing idea and ends leaving you nowhere. The third episode has a good performance by the actor who plays the kid, it doesn't have any ideas but I guess is supposed to support the second story. The fourth is over the top and makes no sense but prepares you for #5 and gives you some background to the others. You see, in all of them there's hints of a corporation that is behind it all. Behind what? I guess in the end behind the attempt to kill everyone. The final episode is filmed in parts in POV style, plus the black and white footage of the researcher, but despite the style doesn't capture what should be pretty creepy. Overall, it would have been better had they worked out the purpose of the corporation a bit more. Or a bit less, it could have been like a surprise twist. Even though the stories are long enough, you can't really connect with any of the characters and that is a fatal flaw when you have stories that you don't know where they'll lead you.

The Best Thing *****spoilers

[Mehki_Girl · 5/10 · 30 May 2020]

***contains spoilers****

The best one was the third one, Touch. Blind kid and parents are in car accident. Mom and dad can't move so he goes off into the woods to find help. Alng the way, like blind people are taught, he counts steps from object to object.

He stumbles upon a house after hearing a faint call for help. And after feeling around realizes he may be in danger and leaves. The occupant of the house warns him about the man holding him captive and torturing him - he has 9 fingers and doesn't like to be touched.

On his way back to the car, he meets a friendly sounding man and when he takes his hand to take him back to the wreck, the man jerks his hand away.

This was the best of the lot because, for once, a potential victim in a horror film isn't stupid and doesn't make stupid decisions. I really enjoyed how this kid handled himself. This ended abruptly and I actually wanted more.

Number 4, Taste, a lot of people didn't like, but I did. I thought it was over there top and scary as heck. I almost feel there are businesses out there like that. E only way out is dead.

All the stories have loose tie-ins and one person pointed out it may be a corporation behind it, but that doesn't match up with the Touch story, unless one of the parents worked for the company.



The last story is the weakest as the acting was trying to be natural but was anything but.

It's the pandemic and you could do worst.

I'm not recommending it nor warning you off it either

Unbelievably lame and near worthless anthology

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 2/10 · 20 June 2013]

An anthology series about the five senses all interlocked together.

The Good Story-Touch. Stranded in the forest after a car accident, a blind boy tries to find his way to help only to stumble across a serial killer's secret hideout. Unable to get away, he has to rely on his instincts to get away. While there wasn't a whole lot to really like here, as the ingenuity of the boy having to use his other senses to outwit the madman is negated by the twist ending of requiring him to survive anyway, it really saps the entry of it's potential as the forest setting works nicely and the scenes of him wandering around finding the area is pretty chilling. As well, it doesn't really use it's targeted sense all that well so it has some problems but remains the best of the episodes.

The Bad Stor(ies)-Smell. Unlucky in life, a man receives a mysterious bottle of perfume from a strange woman and soon begins a run of good fortune. However, he soon begins to realize there's dangerous side- effects to the strange accessory. While on the surface this had some potentially intriguing ideas about the destruction of the human body and how those around us will forgo physical attraction over material wealth, the fact that these are downplayed so significantly in favor of a tired rehashing a romance between separated lovers makes this one feel much longer than it really is. In addition, the fact that this one never really plays up the fact that the perfume makes all the difference and it never exploits how it smells to others is a real lost art, meaning this one is really only watchable for the make-up effects on the decomposing body.

Sight-Troubled by his loneliness, an optometrist uses his machines to extract his patient's memories and use them to experience their life. When he inadvertently triggers a homicidal man into a killing spree, he finds himself on the killer's list. Frankly, this could've been something as it really plays on a true fear for once, in that the strange machines at the doctor's office do more than help us, and the stalking in the abandoned office late at night really get quite chilling at times, but this one is just way too short to mean anything. It's got all the ingredients it needs to be creepy and chilling, except length for everything is over far too quickly and it never really uses the sight angle at all as the whole stolen-memories angle is used to experience their lives, not to fix his ailing sight and the process for stealing memories is happened-upon, which could've made this work more than it does. It's the closest to going up, but it stays down here.

Taste-Heading into an office for an interview, a man finds the agency who called him in to be quite unusual and strange. When he rejects their offer, he finds himself stalked through the hallways by the executive who has a strange habit of eating the ungrateful. Quite simply, this was the lamest entry in the series. The main point here is that it has no connection to it's chosen sense, and features a man running away from a woman with a strange contraption on her head that lets her devour human flesh. It doesn't have any time devoted to it and really seems to be there simply to interconnect all the different story lines together since that's how we know they belong together, but it doesn't do anything with them and feels so lame and unrealistic the image of the contraption is wasted by all the negative elements around it.

Hearing-Attempting to fix a documentary, a film crew finds their subject is an insane music composer who crafted a tune that made people commit suicide. Unaware of the dangers of their assignment, they soon realize the deadly powers of the song and try to stop it from spreading. Another one that had potential with a pretty creepy set-up and a rather innovative approach to a clichéd subject, but instead the insistence of this one to appear as a found-footage piece severely diminishes it's impact. The shaking footage and tons of obscure shots really do this one in, and when the horror finally hits home it's in the last few minutes since all they do is argue with each other over how to edit the piece together and then flashes of the song that they're working on. A great concept, horrible execution.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and drug use.

Nonsensical and Weak Gross Out Film

[Foxbarking · 1/10 · 23 June 2013]

"5 Senses of Fear" had a marketing campaign that gave me a lot of hope that it might inspire a resurgence in anthology based horror. Although there have been a lot of horror anthologies in the past decade, most have been rather lousy. The directors on the ads for "5 Senses of Fear" indicated they were hoping this would be the movie to put the new spark in anthology horror. I really hope that they are wrong.

The reason horror anthologies work are because they are able to present the most important elements of a scary story without having to include any of the fluff. But I think that a lot of young directors don't understand that. They treat this movie as if an anthology is easier to make because there is less work in making a short movie. A short story often requires more work than a long one because it does not have the time to tell the story and must concentrate on the central theme.

There is really almost no point to this movie at all. None of the stories has an interesting plot and absolutely nothing makes any sense whatsoever. As I sat and hoped each following story would get better, the movie just descended into the ranks of pure and utter stupidity. What each story lacked in plot, it more than made up for in cheap gross out tactics. The most common device is poking out eyes.

The first story was about smell and it probably had the most story in it. A man is giving a bottle of cologne that makes him utterly irresistible to everyone. He tries to use it to get his wife back, but quickly finds it brings him the favor of anyone who smells it. The rub is that it slowly transforms him into a monster as it dissolves his life and flesh away. The shocking twist (and I use this term exceptionally lightly) involves his remains being used to make more of the cologne.

The story about sight has an eye doctor who has the power to induce the power to see through others' eyes by potions he makes from his patients. He uses violent scenes to try and make a patient's boyfriend stop beating her, but it ends up empowering the boyfriend to murder.

Touch involves a blind boy trying to find help for his parents when they are injured in a car wreck. He stumbles upon a man who doesn't like to be touched. This is the only somewhat interesting story in the entire anthology and it is due to the performance of the actor playing the blind boy. He is the only protagonist you can get behind, but this is not enough to save this movie.

Taste is remarkably bad. It involves a lady who offers people a job and them violently kills them when they refuse. She puts on a big stupid mask and the stupidity flies off the screen.

The last film takes the form of a found footage film; the most overused and highly misused form of horror film today. It involves a composer who composes a song that makes people commit suicide. It's idiotic and annoying to watch.

This is one of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen. The plots are thin and remarkably bad even for a horror movie. It relies on gross outs displayed by third rate special effects. You'll find yourself wondering what the directors like so much about poking people in the eyes.

As I mentioned in the beginning, horror anthologies can whittle a horror story down to its bare bones. By cutting the fluff out of the story, a good anthology can present really good stories. This is not one of those movies. It, in fact, does the exact opposite. There are no stories here, only fluff supported by attempts at gross outs. This movie is a remarkable failure and you should save yourself the time of watching it. It is pure and utter crap.

The one star I gave this movie is way more than it deserves.

A bad movie

[robat_graphic · 1/10 · 27 February 2020]

It was a completely unassuming film that had nothing to do with the senses at all, but merely a sign of the author's and director's ailing mind. I do not recommend watching this movie at all

above mediocre

[trashgang · 7/10 · 28 May 2014]

The title predicts what you will get, 5 short movies about our senses. But all with a twist so that explains the fear. All of them contain horror and I must say that the quality of each flick looks superb.

Smell, the first one doesn't has an original script but you have to watch and go through the first minutes to see what is going on. It all looks messy after a while for the main lead and it's just on the edge of gore. With the use of a perfume given by a stranger a man do attracts beautiful girls but there's a price to pay. The body slowly decays. The effects used are really well done. A nice short with excellent shooting and editing.

Sight, again not an original script. There are so many full features about eye removal and replacing them from killers and here we do have a bit of the same. The instruments used to control the eyesight do capture what's going on in the brain and so we are suddenly into a story about a killer taking revenge on a eye surgeon. It also has a few of nice effects but isn't that scary at all, nice editing again.

Touch, for me that was the weakest of stories involved on this disc. It never really got my attention.

Taste, a lot of blah blah and you're waiting what is going to happen, Beautiful girls running the business and the only thing you want to know is, what kind of work is offered...but once refused things go wrong. A bit sad about the shaky camera's used but original story, nothing is explained and again on the edge of gore. Some will be remember the bear trap from Saw.

Hearing, the only short made like a documentary. To make it more creepy they are after a Russian tape about some kind of song which do affect people playing that song. Didn't like it at all because it's a lot of blah blah even as they tried to involve us by removing the sound sometimes to think we would go mad too. Sadly, you really have to wait until the end before the horror comes in on the found footage. And from there it's uploaded to youtube, so be aware if you are watching youtube....

Overall, not bad due the quality of all shorts but Hearing and Touch weren't the thing I was waiting for...

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

sometimes 5 senses are not enough

[omayfield · 5/10 · 3 December 2013]

This movie contradicts its own premise in a way. The short vignette format works very well for horror, maybe because we don't really want to stay in those designed to be unpleasant environs for way too long. Everyone can remember being exhausted by some bloody and horrific film going on and on, like a nightmare we'd much rather just wake up from. Once we meet the good guys and the bad guys and the severed heads start flying, we get the idea pretty quick. The great old Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock TV shows both used only very short tales that were just long enough, they led us into and back out again of an chilling or startling worldview in a way that was just complete enough to be satisfying and never too much to be dull, like a great restaurant that brings just enough to your plate, but not piled on with a ladle. The problem with this effort is that the brevity is actually too brief. It suggests a writer's laziness instead of a skilled and intuitive conciseness. After each segment we are surprised by the fade out and ask, "Wait. Is that all?" This is especially true of the middle film about a clever blind boy, we just barely meet him and he takes his leave, and he is an intriguing enough character that we would love to get to know him more. The 5 senses motif is really just a pose of course, like a writer's class exercise, it offers nothing substantial to increase interest and every storyline is pretty much unoriginal and forgettable except the final one about a song that kills people. That is just bizarre enough to leave a permanent mark. One cute trick the filmmakers use is to recycle the actors, proper names and places in unexpected ways in different stories so that we get to have fun keeping track and see who pops up again. I kept expecting some of them to wink at the camera and say "Hey! Remember me"? I would be happy to wave back.

Original, Fun, Gross, Entertaining

[jdickson84 · 7/10 · 20 May 2013]

Saw this at The Art of Brooklyn Film Fest's Dark Side program. A great, original anthology.

It's refreshing it see a horror movie that focuses on characters and story and not just blood and guts (although there are some great squirm-inducing moments in this that made a few audience members quite queasy).

Also, the stories are all loosely tied together, but it's not easy to pick up all the connections on the first viewing. I'm excited to go back and watch this again to look for more details.

I'm hoping this gets a DVD/BluRay release, because it definitely deserves multiple viewings.

My only complaint is that I would have liked a bit more of a wrap-up at the end. It seems to finish pretty abruptly. But, maybe we'll get more in a sequel!

Vereeery baaaad I hate it!!!!!!

[goharigd · 1/10 · 27 February 2020]

I hate it Very bad It's not good Very very bad Bad Bad Bad Very bad

Depends on your "tastes"

[tyler-danger · 10/10 · 28 October 2013]

I loved this horror anthology, but I can understand how some people might not. It's not jump-out-of-your-seat horror. If anything, I'd characterize it as a series of unsettling and disturbing scenarios.

I'd equate it with an episode of Tales from the Crypt or maybe season one of Fringe. Each section of the anthology starts with a natural sense and ties it to something very unnatural. With maybe one exception, this doesn't end well for anybody!

SMELL tells the story of a man who's given the chance to change his pheromones to get sex and success. Our protagonist fails to realize that something about that offer smells fishy.

SIGHT deals with a lonely eye doctor who can see what his patients see. Unfortunately, he sure lacks foresight when he tries to help one of them out.

TOUCH starts with a blind boy and his family getting into a car accident. As the only one able to walk, the blind boy wanders through the woods to find help. As I'm sure he would agree, something doesn't feel right here.

TASTE is about an unusual job interview. When the interviewee turns down the offer, he's met with a biting critique.

LISTEN breaks with the rest of the short films and is in "found footage" format. It tells the story of two young men trying to piece together the recording of a song that is rumoured to kill all those who listen to it. In the end, our protagonists try to offer some sound advice -- but is it already too late?

Splendid and Playful Little Jaunt!

[genowhirl · 7/10 · 14 August 2015]

Just watch the opening sequence and you know you're in for a treat.

This movie (1:30 long) is one of the most playful and enjoyable anthologies I've seen in a good while. I think what sets it apart from others is that it doesn't take itself too seriously and it knows it. All the stories are cleverly produced with rather good acting and effects, camera angles, etc. The only drawback is that, while it is very entertaining all the way through, it isn't necessarily entirely filled with horror. The up side to this is that we're given a wide spectrum of horror, suspense, and thriller so that it doesn't grow stale over time.

There are 5 tales and they each feel as if you're being given a gift to open and enjoy. Pretty packaging, full content, and the stories are enthralling to say the least. It's easy to get into the stories and look forward to what's coming next. Even greater is the fact that they are all tied together with subtle clues as to how they are connected. But these subtleties are important enough to make you feel the connection in a very roundabout way such as in "Cabin in the Woods."

I'll go into a brief synopsis of each tale so you can get an idea of what to expect (skip this if you'd rather know nothing going in, but I've kept it bare minimum):

1. Smell - This tale is about a man who is down on his luck but picks up a special aroma that turns his life around, but at what price? As an opener, this one doesn't quite set the stage for what's to come. It's possibly the most playful of the 5 tales, but the ending is pretty funky fresh haha. This one is often considered a weaker tale, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's full-bodied and robust *see what I did there?* =D

2. Sight - This tale is about a lonely man who works as an optometrist and uses his machines to extract memories from his patients in order to enjoy their memories. He's a stalker basically, but when he finally takes certain matters into his own hands, trouble ensues. This one is rather short, but the build up is great and the finale is very enjoyable and somewhat psychedelic. It is chilling, gory to a degree, and creepy. The approach of sight on this one is very creative and engaging.

3. Touch - The best tale in my opinion, this one is about a blind boy who seeks help for his family after a car crash. This tale is amazing and feels so real and almost empowering as the boy makes his way through a rather troublesome environment. It's further strengthened by the boy's intelligence.

4. Taste - If you've paid attention to the clues throughout the film, this is where they lead you - what ties the tales together. This tale involves a young man who is offered a job for a strange company. Upon his arrival, things get a little. .. .distasteful. You'll never see this one coming, and it's a bit funny while also a tad gruesome.

5. Hearing - A found-footage attempt, this film involves a crew who's task is to compile some found footage into one film. The film involves a song that has lethal effects on it's listeners. This one is possibly the weakest. It is a great idea, but it lacks in proper execution. It's neat little way to end everything though I suppose. Not unenjoyable, but not really super enjoyable either.

Keep in mind that these were filmed in roughly 4 days per tale, so the window wasn't large, but they did amazing considering.

Much better on a second viewing

[jdollak · 7/10 · 15 August 2017]

After watching this a few years back, I didn't think too much of it. I remember liking the last section, Listen, with the music that makes people go crazy. On the strength of that segment, I decided to pick up a Blu-ray on sale.

After rewatching the movie - out of order - I realized it's actually better than I gave it credit for.

There are five segments. There's actually a thread connecting all of them. I checked the other reviews here, and it doesn't seem like any of them noticed this.

The corporation that is centered on in the fourth segment has tentacles in all of the other stories. It also sets up the fifth segment.

All of the stories have something to offer. They aren't especially scary, but at the least, they are interesting. The only one that suffers is the Sight segment, which seems like an interesting idea, but the execution is a bit confusing.

4 of the 5 senses were great.

[dlmyst-29813 · 7/10 · 19 May 2020]

The first 4 senses that they covered had really cool concepts. What I liked the most is that they were all interconnected one way or the other. The "hearing" story lacked a lot and it wasn't my favorite. It felt rushed and disjointed but but the actors were pretty good.

5 little stories about our senses. Together they work, on their own they don't.

[face-819-933726 · 8/10 · 1 December 2013]

I came away from this with a good over all feeling; at least a feeling of liking the movie, as a whole, not so much from the gore that was just a bit too syrupy. So you get one over all story told in five parts without the usual arc to pull it together. Instead of that usual arc you get a "Wolfram & Hart" almost Umbrella Corp if somehow it had the Brazil twist running through the whole movie that works nicely, and has some nice little payoffs throughout, and upon re-review you see things from the new angle. Sadly the first story is just so slow, and dry that it really bogs the rest of the stories down from the start, so when Touch ends so very suddenly it sort of makes more sense. I wanted more from the blood effects, I just find making blood look like syrup is just cheap, it doesn't get like that till it has had some time to set, so the fresh stuff should look more like fresh blood. But I do pick. In the end I found that I really did Enjoy this movie, and would think that anyone not afraid of a little fake blood, and vomit (lots, of both) then you will to.

It wasn't a bad movie, it was okay and something to watch.

[dejavuicutooo · 6/10 · 20 November 2020]

I thought I'd leave a review about the movie because I didn't see many. I don't think it was great movie, but it was an okay movie to watch when you don't have much else to do. It was shot well, and the acting wasn't bad. Fun fact; the last one hearing, is somewhat semi-based on a real story. The Russian song "Gloomy Sunday," was linked to hundreds of suicides.

Anyways, the movie was good, and it's something to watch during this during quarantine.

Original "Horror" Anthology Offers Five Great Stories

[HorrorHound1313 · 8/10 · 17 May 2013]

Saw this at the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival last night. This is a very cool concept for an anthology film. There are five segments, each one representing a different one of the five senses. I thought all of the shorts had a very unique "voice." Each segment had an unexpected take on the sense that was portrayed. I enjoyed the look of the films. We were told that Claudio Rietti shot most of the segments. The only segment that looked "different" was the "HEARING" segment, but that's because it was found footage, so it worked. Surprisingly, each story had a very different tone, which was cool.

A few notes on each segment (MINOR SPOILERS): SMELL: Had a bit of dark humor throughout. The director said he was inspired by Tales From the Crypt, and it felt like a lost episode of that show. This was a pretty intricate story with a lot of cool elements. Mixed funny/gross/dramatic in a fun and weird way. Great music. The director and the main actors from this segment were there for a Q&A afterward. Fun to hear them talk about doing the gore effects.

SIGHT: I enjoyed the performance of the "evil boyfriend." This segment also had some cool "vision effects." I felt the ending was predictable. However, the concept was very original. Cool sound design.

TOUCH: Great performance by the little boy. The villain is the same actor as the "evil boyfriend" in SIGHT. Not sure if it was supposed to be the same character? That was a little confusing. Overall, though, cool story with good tension throughout. Cool camera work and "blind POV" shots.

TASTE: This one looked really cool. Neat location, interesting setup. Drags a bit in the middle. I was antsy waiting for what was going to happen. The main character is going to an interview at a strange corporation. We see characters from the other segments that presumably work for this evil corporation, but that's not explained very well. Cool, bloody ending.

LISTEN: Nice play on the found footage concept. Felt sort of like a horror version of the Dharma Initiative tapes from Lost. Good chemistry between the two leads. The ending felt rushed or poorly executed and didn't quite work for me. But it was great until the finale.

After the five segments, the film just ends. I was disappointed with the ending. We never get any explanation of how these shorts are tied together. We see characters from all the shorts appear at the evil corporation in the TASTE segment. Also, we hear about the "Watershed" company. But, it's never really explained how the characters or worlds fit together or what the intent of the evil corporation is. I would have loved one last little segment at the end to sort of wrap it all up and give us some answers.

Overall, I think it was a solid effort by everyone involved. We were told that each segment had only 4 days to shoot and a very tight budget. Considering those facts, the quality is EXTREMELY impressive. There aren't that many "scares" in the movie. Horrific things happen, but overall it's more suspense/thriller with some gross-out gore moments. I think SMELL and LISTEN stood out the most, maybe because they were first and last and had the longest running times. However, I really liked all the segments. Most anthology films have one or two good segments, but every segment in this film had an interesting story, good characters, and great production value. Also, I'm glad I got to see this on the big screen with an audience. It was a crowd-pleaser.

NOTE: 5 Senses of Fear was produced for the Chiller Network. I never watch that channel, because it's not HD, but I might make an exception to watch this again on May 31st.