‘Galaxy of Horrors’ DVD Review
Stars: Olli Banjo, Adam Buller, Michelle Colao, Greg Engbrecht, Elle Gabriel, Francesc Garrido, Alias Hilsum, Charles Hubbell, Rob Kerkovich, Vin Kridakorn, Mathis Landwehr, Claire Oelkers, Julio Perillán, Fabio Prati, Luke Sorge | Directed by Dennis Cabella, Javier Chillon, Todd Cobery, Andrew Desmond, Benni Diez, Marcello Ercole, Richard Karpala, Justin McConnell, Antonio Padovan, Fabio Prati, Ethan Shaftel, Marinko Spahic
Much like Dread Central’s Zombieworld,which brought together a number of short films under one banner to create an all-new anthology film, Galaxy of Horrors is a selection of eight shorts, curated from Rue Morgue and Unstable Ground’s Little Terrors Festival by Toronto film programmer Justin McConnell, all wrapped up in the story of a man trapped in a damaged cryogenic pod.
This wraparound segment that sees and astronaut awoken from his cryogenic slimber too soon and forced to watch a series of shorts while the power supply drains away BECASUE he’s watching these shorts… Yes, for our astronaut the terror-filled tales are terrifying not only because of their content but because they’re literlly killing him! Of the short films the astronaut (and we the audience) watch there are a number of standouts: Iris, directed by Richard Karpala, which tells the story of a siri-like phone assistant with a conscience when her owner, an assassin, does not. It’s a great take on how technology and humans interact and how far that realtionship with technology could, possibly (more likely imporbably), go.
Pathos, directed by Fabio Prati, Dennis Cabella and Marcello Ercole, is a foreign-language entry which is easily the best – and most memorable (it’s the one short that vividly stuck in my mind waaay after I’d finished watching the film) and tells the story of a future where citizens must pay -literally – to be alive and experience a “life” outside of the odd chamber in which our protagonist’s “exists” – yes his reality, his very existence, is all in his head! This short is yet another look at how humans and technology interact, in this case taking the ideas of alternate realities and how humanity perceives reality, borne out of the likes of The Matrix, to their logical and more importantly, horrific extreme.
Special mention must also go to Antonio Padovan‘s short Eveless, which sees men try to keep the worlds population going without women; and Benni Diez and Marinko Spahic‘s kinetic action/horror hybrid Kingz – which recalls the best of horror anthology V/H/S whilst staying true to its own badass terror-filled ethos.
Whilst the eight shorts tell very different stories, there is a common thread running between them – they’re all damn good films! Unlike a alot of anthologies that have one or two dud amongst their number, each and every short in Galaxy of Horrors hits it out of the park: all eight tales having interesting sci-fi stories to tell and cool concepts to portray. Plus it’s nice to see sci-fi horror in the spotlight once more…
Galaxy of Horrors is out now on DVD from StudioCanal.
