Watching The Theatre Bizarre is like sitting down to eat at an exotic restaurant and being served samples of tantalizing unfamiliar foods; six dishes to be exact. This bold horror anthology directed by some of today’s risqué auteurs aims to slake modern audiences’ debaucherous appetite. Udo Kier plays a creepy human puppet which hosts the theatre’s entertainment for a curious girl who happens to venture into the abandoned movie house.

We start things off with "The Mother of Toads" directed by Richard Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devil). An American couple vacationing in France are thrust into an occult world when the boyfriend engages a witch with powers to summon a demon. The folk atmosphere and Lovecraftian tone stick to you like sludge in this concise monster tale. In "I Love You" Buddy Giovinazzo (Combat Shock) introduces us to a desperate and dangerous man who will stop at nothing to keep his adulterous wife from leaving him. This is an excellent depiction of a deranged soul at the end of his fuse who will snap in a violent outburst.

Tom Savini (makeup & special effects wizard who starred in Jose Prendes‘ The Monster Man) directs "Wet Dreams" in which a couple manifest their dissatisfaction with the other through their dreams. These gore-filled nightmares drown us in the revulsion and loathing two people can have towards each other. Next is "The Accident" helmed by Douglas Buck (Sisters) where a young girl witnesses a tragic road accident and tries to understand death. This short, presented through the child’s point of view, touches upon the delicate moment where a parent must explain to their child the meaning of death.

In "Vision Stains", directed by Karim Hussain (Subconscious Cruelty), a nutty woman believes she can extract people’s memories by inserting a hypodermic needle into their eyeball as they die and siphoning them out. Plunging the needle into her own eye, she experiences wonders until one day she goes too far by attempting something even more unspeakable. With the final tale, "Sweets" directed by David Gregory (Plague Town), food becomes an object of fetish and violence for a group of twisted individuals. This short paints a nauseating portrait of gluttony gone berserk.

Maybe it’s because I’ve delved into excessive cinema for so long but I was left wanting more. They were all great tales, no doubt about it. But in the case of "Sweets" and "The Accident" instead of feeling as if I’ve read short stories from one volume, it felt as if I’ve read random chapters from different books; in other words these tales felt like incomplete scenes pulled from a whole film. "Vision Stains" and "Wet Dreams" were the best prepared stories in my opinion. They were delectably graphic and indulgent. "The Mother of Toads" contained beautiful cinematography and dense atmosphere. As a whole I liked this movie and recommend you watch it. If you’re an extreme film junkie you probably won’t overdose, but get a good high off this flick.

- Jorge Antonio Lopez