Karim Hussain

(In French, On Cable TV, April 2021) As far as horror anthologies go, The Theater Bizarre is a bit more striking than most. For one thing, it doesn’t hold back on the gore, sex and disturbing material; for another, it’s also curiously versatile in the ways it approaches horror. There’s a framing device (starring Udo Kier) having to do with a woman discovering the titular bizarre theatre and being told macabre tales until terrible things happen to her. The first story, “The Mother of Toads,” is probably the blandest of the bunch, what with an entirely predictable bit of Lovecraftian folk horror. Things don’t necessarily get better with “I Love You,” a tragic anti-romance with another completely predictable ending — although the segment does get blackly hilarious as a standard I’m-leaving-you speech gets progressively crueller, to the point where it leaves no awfulness unturned in its quest for the ultimate put-down. “Wet Dreams” abruptly cranks the gore and the body horror within another tale of adultery — and a supporting role from horror legend Tom Savini, who also directs the segment. “The Accident” is the oddest and best segment of the bunch, largely gore-free but haunting in illustrating a conversation about death between a mother and her young daughter. “Vision Stain,” from well-known Canadian cinematographer Karim Hussain (you can spot downtown Montréal streets in the exterior shots), looks great but more immediately renews with the horror by way of needles in eyeballs to make up for a nonsensical story. Finally, “Sweets” does end in predictable gore, but takes an interesting path to get there, going for food-based grossness for once — it’s remarkably disturbing. Clearly meant for fans of all-out horror leaving nothing to the imagination, The Theatre Bizarre remains a better-than-average horror anthology, especially considering the ways some of the segments take a slightly askew approach to the genre.