Fireside Tales (2016) User Reviews

Fireside Tales-A low budget slasher anthology

[whatthehellme · 5/10 · 23 February 2018]

It is no secret that I love horror anthologies no matter what the budget as long as it has heart and stays true to its horror roots. Ian Messenger of CatchMeKillMe Productions, definitely has a true love for the slasher genre and had an estimated $5,000 budget burning a hole in his pocket to make a slasher based horror anthology all of his own! So each segment is full of plot holes, has some stale acting and masks can be seen when that clearly wasn't the intention, BUT I have to say that the wraparound story with the story telling friends brings all of these shortcomings to the forefront after each segment. With the group tearing town each story after it is told (obviously to insult the story teller), the stories become acceptably cheesy and fun for all of the same shortcomings and whether intentional or not on Ian Messenger's behalf, this was a genius move because the true story of the movie is about the partying, story telling friends and the fate that ultimately befalls them.

Don't turn it off when the credits start to roll because there will be more story to be told.

Go in with low expectations, watch it with friends, drink some beers and have fun.

Less can be more

[chaosbaron · 3/10 · 15 January 2017]

I enjoy anthology horror films, because it gives writers multiple chances to tell a good story, and also frees me up from having to commit to one potentially overdrawn bad film. Unfortunately, the characters we are met with are not at the highest point of likability. The acting shifts from decent to really bad, namely with a script chock full of terrible one liners. Only 20 minutes into the film, and we had the same bad dick joke recycled twice. What are you twelve? Twelve inches in your mom har har. What are you 7? I will be seven inches in you tonight har har. At these times the characters speak when you really wish they wouldn't. Sometimes when characters are completely alone, and have no purpose to speak they sometimes feel compelled to issue palm worthy lines, like when a girl is tanning on the beach, sits up with an exaggerated hand wave and says "this must be what the kids in Africa feel like". When it comes to story, even the characters reading them point out the plot holes.

I'm a cob tail

[jdollak · 6/10 · 16 January 2017]

If this movie pretended to be something it wasn't, I'd judge it more harshly. However, the description starts off by saying it's low budget. And it is. According to this page, it was $5,000 to make it!

There are lots of problems with this movie. But it still comes across sort of charming. It feels like a bunch of friends who like watching movies decide to make a movie, but decline to learn exactly what's involved in accomplishing that.

There are sound design problems, but they aren't constant like Birdemic. There are acting problems, but it doesn't seem like they're reaching beyond their abilities.

The villains in the stories are mostly interchangeable, wearing ridiculous masks.

One of the stories - the last one - does play out a little differently than the other ones, and I commend the variation.

The framing device is probably the weirdest part of the movie. It's mostly a bunch of people hanging around a campfire in the middle of nowhere, telling these "scary stories" that all play out about the same. There's just a huge amount of dick jokes during these sequences. And there are conflicts between characters that are written in this bizarre way, having characters overreact to trivial slights.

There's a post-script story, told via some VHS footage. The story is strange, and it does tie into the framing device. But it's also strange. Why is the villain having a camcorder recording the road ahead of him as he's driving?

The best part of the movie is some of the flubs and odd choices. 1 - when a guy fires a gun, they use a sample of a gunshot. They use the same sample in quick succession, and it doesn't match the sound design of the rest of the scene. 2 - in the second story, a father is telling his wife how angry he is that the police aren't doing enough to look for his daughter. He drives off to look for her. As he's riding in his car, he has an inner voice... remembering exactly what he said to his wife. 3 - One of the subtitles, about 2 minutes into the movie, has a character saying "I'm a cob tail."

The line is "a macabre tale"

Good but not quite up to it's own standards.

[flunk_joe · 6/10 · 20 June 2017]

I'm going to start off saying that I am a resident of the area this film was shot in and I know many of the cast and crew personally, and knowing that this is a amateur film, I think it has many strong points, but I also the acting isn't up to par with what I know many of the actors are capable of, and it really does seem like there are a lot of opportunities that they didn't take advantage of. Overall an enjoyable film but it could've been so much more.