Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Paul Andrews Screamtime starts in New York as two friends Ed (Vincent Russo) & Bruce (Michael Gordon) steal some videotapes from a shop, heading back to an apartment to watch them the tapes turn out to be horror films...First up is 'That's the Way to do it' in which an ageing puppeteer named Jack (Robin Bailey) gets grief from all sides of his family & when his wife & stepson want him ti burn his cherished Punch & Judy puppets people start turning up dead...Then it's 'Dreamhouse' in which young married couple Tony (Ian Saynor) & Susan (Yvonne Nicholson) move into a new house, immediately Susan starts to see violent visions & hear strange noises but Tony thinks she is having a nervous breakdown...Finally it's 'Garden of Blood' sees a broke teenager named Gavin (David Van Day) decide to rob the house of a pair of rich elderly sisters but hadn't counted on their stories of Fairies being true...This English production was apparently directed by Stanley A.Long & Michael Armstrong under the pseudonym Al Beresford with Long credited as a producer too & Armstrong credited with the screenplay & casting, the British horror anthology had been very popular with the likes of Dead of Night (1945), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), The Vault of Horror (1974), From Beyond the Grave (1974) & The Monster Club (1981) to name but a few & one has to say that Screamtime tries to recreate that golden era with mixed success. The linking wraparound story looks to have been filmed by someone totally different & is at odds with the rest of the film in tone & style & I assume is there to add a bit of American-ness to it. The three stories are fairly solid but the low budget & obvious lack of resources don't help. From killer puppets to terrifying visions to killer Garden Gnomes one has to say that the makers tried & the stories could have been better with more money spent on them, they all take place largely in the same location with minimal special effects. At just under 90 minutes each story runs about 25 minutes long & I would probably say that the second story Dreamhouse is the best with a neat twist ending & was considered good enough for a full length feature film remake Psychosis (2010) which is also quite good. These anthology horror films can be great but rely on striking twist endings which is where Screamtime falls down a bit, while Dreamhouse is impressive, unexpected & memorable the other two are a little tame & predictable.The production values are alright if cheap looking, the special effects vary with the living Garden Gnome surely one of the silliest things I've seen in a while. A little rough around the edges technically how can that kid set the Punch & Judy show on fire with an unlit electric lamp?! Some of the acting & death scenes are also poor with the Garden Gnome strangling a guy coming across as really camp & the shots earlier where row's of Garden Gnomes scare the geezer is hard to take seriously. There's a bit of gore, there's some blood splatter in the first story, some gory stabbings including a cool slit throat in the second & not much of anything during the third story. The stories do have a certain grimy low budget atmosphere that I liked, a sort of sleazy vibe to them that appealed.Filmed here in the UK & in New York. The acting varies, some of it is quite good while at other times it's awful. Jonathon Morris who played Damien is probably best know for played Adrian in the sitcom Bread (1986-1991), Kim Thompson who plays Lady Anne has since found fame in the UK appearing in over 200 episodes of Emmerdale while David Van Day was one half of 80's pop group Dollar.Screamtime is fairly enjoyable for what it is, the three stories vary in quality but they are all decent enough & they all have their own moments whether it's creepiness or silliness or gore. I can't say Screamtime is brilliant but it's a worthwhile watch especially if your a fan of horror anthologies.

udar55 Two guys steal some VHS tapes (big box!!!) from an early 80s 42nd Street video store (they do a walk by a theater showing TABOO II with great flair) and head to a girlfriend's house to watch them. How is that for a wrap around segment? The first section deals with a Punch & Judy puppeteer who has to deal with his nagging wife and disobedient son. When they decide to split, ol' Punch comes alive to enact revenge for his master. The second segment highlights a young couple who move into a new house, where the wife begins having visions of a murder that may have happened there. The is the best of the series and features an excellent ending. The final segment is about a broke biker who takes a job tending the garden for some old ladies who insist it is guarded by fairies. Kinda blah with this last one. Back in NYC, our petty criminals finish the flicks and get their just desserts.A pretty good British anthology-by-force with three random short films strung together with a NYC lensed wrap around. The film proper lists one Al Beresford as the director here, but the IMDb reveals that is a pseudonym for Brit helmers Stanley Long and Michael Armstong, who both a have a history in the softcore UK sex comedy scene. Anyone know this history of these shorts in the UK? And who added on the NYC wrap around (which works in the requisite nudity and captures early 80s NY well)? I would definitely recommend this for the first two segments, which are quite well done.

FieCrier This was a decent horror anthology movie. Two New Yorkers steal some videos from a video store, and take them to a female friend's apartment to watch.In the first one, an old man loves doing Punch & Judy shows for kids, and takes meticulous care of his puppets at home. His wife is fed up with it; they don't make enough money, and she wants him to burn them and move with his stepson to Canada for reliable work. We then see his family being attacked by a wooden board. Has Punch come to life, or has the old man gone nuts? This one wasn't all that good, but it wasn't terrible.In the second one, a couple move into a house their father was unable to sell. The wife sees a boy bicycling in the yard that no one else notices. She hears noises, and sees blood in the bathtub, then on a knife in the kitchen, then on the bannister. She starts seeing other people in the house, and then starts seeing those people bloody or dead. This one was quite a bit better.In the last segment, a young man races motorcycles, and works at a clothing store. He needs more money, which his boss offers to loan him. He takes a job gardening for a pair of old ladies to make the money he needs to pay his boss back. They're quite eccentric, believing in fairies and gnomes, and a pact their 16th century ancestor had with the fairies to help conceal her affairs from her husband. The young man discovers the old ladies have a chest full of money, and he decides to rob them with the help of his younger brother and a friend. This one was pretty good too.Finally, the wraparound segment brings everything together.

Afracious This is an anthology of three tales in the same vein of Creepshow, Torture Garden etc, set in England and starring some known English TV actors like Robin Bailey and Dora Bryan. It begins in New York City with two hoodlums visiting a video store and stealing some video tapes. When they get home they watch each one, which tells its own story. The first one, Punch and Judy, is about a puppeteer with seemingly lifelike puppets. The second stanza is the best one, a family move into an old house and start to see strange visions. The ending of this one is surprising and effective. The last one has a guy visiting two old ladies who want him to do some odd jobs. What he tries to do is burgle them, but the garden gnomes have other ideas. I have not seen this film for a long time but the middle story stayed with me for a while. It is a bit of a sleeper and hard to find, but check it out.