This is relevant because in our (wraparound) story opening, a brother and sister are surveying their trick or treat candy haul only to find that for some unknown reason, someone gave little Timmy an unmarked VHS. Needless to say the babysitter is a little apprehensive but relents to kid power, putting the tape on and with it, our first story (THE 9th CIRCLE) begins.

 

A lone female is sat in the empty waiting room at Realmsville Station on Halloween night. After taking a brief break to wash her face she returns to find the room no longer empty - a solitary clown is sat there. Silent and patient. Quickly things take what appears to be a kidnap/torture route or so it would seem as things get out of control quite quickly and rather than a HOSTEL style knock off we enter a nightmarish world of strange characters led by a devil who strikes an uncanny resemblance to Darkness from the film LEGEND.

 

THE 9th CIRCLE is a strong opening segment that perfectly manages to play with convention without straying too far into the bizarre as to alienate the majority of its viewers. 

 

Clearly this footage is too much for the children to watch and our, let’s be honest bad, babysitter turns off the tape and sends the kids to bed. These wraparound segments however appear to be offering us much more than just a segway to the next story and at times feature some genuine tension. Clearly this aspect of the movie has a strong story of its own to tell. With not only our interest piqued but that of the babysitter, we cannot resist seeing what else is on this mysterious tape.

 

The second story (TERRIFIER) sees a woman unpacking her belongings in a new, secluded home. Whilst on the phone to a friend she tells us of a strange and creepy painting recently created by her artist partner even though he had no recollection of making it and it was far from his usual style.

 

Unfortunately this extremely positive start is let down by the later direction of the story and save for a few moments of well built tension, once the cat is out of the bag plot-wise the action does start to drag, ultimately reducing the impact of what by now has become a predictable reveal.

 

Nonetheless, we are quickly into the final story, one that was created specifically for this release, and it is pleasing to see that Damien Leone had not rested on his laurels during the years that had passed because this is arguably the best of the lot. 

 

This story has its own distinctive look as it embraces an older grindhouse style despite clearly being set in modern times. Again featuring a woman in the lead; there seems to be a lone female in peril theme here, after pulling into the last petrol station for a while she witnesses an altercation between the attendant and Art the Clown, who by all accounts fouled not himself but the walls of the restroom.

 

With the incident over and things back to normal our friendly attendant utters those immortal words “I’ll be right back” and spoiler alert: he isn’t. 

 

Played for entertaining scares this segment morphs into a series of gruesome sights and unending danger where logic takes a backseat to the demands of terror. With this decision the pace is kept high and feels almost Fulci-esque in its construct and objective. 

 

I only have one issue with this segment and that is its choice of ending or more specifically one aspect of this. Nothing in the whole story led me to think this final humiliation was necessary nor was it ever hinted at in the psyche of our villain. Unlike much of the violence in these movies, where sometimes an unknown motive, if indeed any, is more than acceptable I believe that if this sort of idea is to be used it needs some reasoning behind it.

 

Moving on from this personal opinion I am glad that Damien Leone gets things back on track as he smartly moves the action from the recorded to the present with the result being a well crafted and inventive finale utilising a previously unused psychological angle.

 

It is of credit to Leone that his older short films both stack up well against and maintain coherency with his more recent work, making ALL HALLOWS’ EVE a well planned out and constructed portmanteau film which no doubt will help push the character of Art the Clown to a wider audience and this is certainly something that appears to have worked with the feature length release of TERRIFIER in 2018. A modern Halloween classic, ALL HALLOWS’ EVE is one that should be watched every year alongside TRICK R’ TREAT as part of your annual holiday horror binge.

 

If films like THE RING and anthology horror V/H/S made you not want to watch randomly obtained videos then ALL HALLOWS’ EVE will make you not even want to have a player near your house.