Brimstone Media is a company that was founded by Kevin J. Lindenmuth in the early nineties.  While the folks at Brimstone cut their teeth on low-budget horror indies, the last few years has seen the company go more “legit” by producing several serious documentaries for viewing on PBS as well as other channels.  But now, Brimstone Media is again delving back into independent horror films with an ambitious slate of products in both pre-production as well as post-production.  Twisted Tales was Brimstone’s second full-length feature way back in 1994.

Twisted Tales is a mystery/horror anthology composed of three film shorts.  Lindenmuth gives us a very creative “wraparound” story; instead of a silly host popping up with stupid narration to tie the stories together, and instead of using one theme for each story, this time the same location is used to tie the various stories together.  Each story begins with a year (1991, 1990, and 1989) and tells the story of various residents that occupied the same apartment.  Because each main character eventually dies, the apartment is able to be turned over rather quickly, apparently with no one the wiser that this particular location is rather unlucky…

The first story, “Nothing but the Truth,” is directed by Rita Klus.  It is about Joey, a blustery liar and braggart that can’t help embellishing every story he tells.  We all know (and hate) characters like these, but Joey’s embellishments become so bad that they actually come alive.  So when Joey is mugged by one lone guy, he can’t help but tell his friends that there were three muggers and one had a baseball bat.  Leaving the bar after telling his story, lo and behold, he is attacked by the same three muggers he created in his story.  This time the beating is so bad that Joey tells his friends that there were eight muggers.  After his friends leave, he walks downstairs only to be confronted by his imaginary muggers.  He manages to lock himself in the closet where he realizes his mistake and starts trying to convince himself that no one is outside the closet door.  As the beating on the door slowly ceases, Joey is relieved to realize he has a unique ability to change his future… or does he?

Reminiscent of Cronenberg’s “The Brood” (where mental patients created physical manifestations of their anger), this short isn’t too bad.  Every viewer has had to deal with a “Joey” and we can easily identify with the character.  It helps that the character is played perfectly by Freddie Ganno, who creates a balance between Joey’s boisterous and obnoxious machismo and his lovability as a loud but ultimately lovable lunk.  While the plot was fairly predictable, the ending had a nice little twist to it I wasn’t counting on.  There are two main problems with this short.  First, there isn’t much action.  There are a couple of muggings, but they are quickly over with Joey not putting up much of a fight.  That leaves a lot of talking in the ensuing 20 minutes and a great deal of whining by Joey himself and the putzes that still hang out with him.  I also think the script could have fleshed out Joey’s power (or problem, depending on how you look at it) a bit more.  It might have been more fun if Joey had embellished some other stories that then came true.  I think the script had a great deal of potential, but unfortunately had to be shortened in order to fit into the anthology format.

The second story, entitled “The Shooting” is directed by Mick McCleery and is a mystery about a teen named Tommy who kills his abusive brother only to have the brother to continue the abuse from beyond the grave.  The ghost pushes and prods Tommy to the point that Tommy pulls his gun in front of a cop, forcing the cop to shoot and kill him, thereby allowing the ghost to have his revenge.  Of course, there are some psychological aspects to this story, namely the question of whether there really is a ghost or has Tommy created the “ghost” as a coping mechanism for the murder he committed.  The answer is never made clear, which I think is the strong point of this film short.  The viewer must make his or her own decision as to what actually happened, and either explanation works well.  Again, there isn’t much action and this talky little short comes across more as a character study than a scary story.

The final section of this anthology is directed by Kevin Lindenmuth himself and is called “Hungry Like a…Bat?”  The story involves a young man who was unfortunate enough to be bitten by both a vampire and a werewolf on the same night.  Since he has both sets of characteristics, neither vampire nor werewolf will have him, so he is forced to live on society’s fringes.  It is also unfortunate that he happens to be a nice guy, so it isn’t fun for him to kill.  Needless to say, he doesn’t get out much and is basically a loner.  Enter the lovely new neighbor who moves in next to him and seductively begins to woo him.  He tries to resist, but finally succumbs, only to find out that she’s a demonic succubus out to kill him.  But the tables are turned on her because she didn’t realize she was attacking a member of the undead!

This final tale is told with a great deal of humor, which is done fairly well.  Lindenmuth realized that he didn’t have the budget to create the Next Great Werewolf Transformation, so he wisely turned to humor, using rubber werewolf and gorilla masks and hands, giving the film a cheesy 50’s sci-fi feel.  There is also some cartoonish blood and even some fairly stylish black-and-white flashbacks that reminded me of Romero’s Martin (also used in the second story as well).

Overall, this isn’t a bad sophomore effort.  The acting ranges from very good to pretty terrible and the film suffers from some fairly pedestrian plotting, but while I’ve seen better, I’ve also seen much worse.  It is clear that these filmmakers have talent and I’m interested enough to look up some of their later efforts to see how they developed.  Some of the actresses have gone on to do some television work.

There is also a terrible (and terribly funny) theme song that is so bad it’s good and will give any viewer a belly laugh—kind of reminds me of the theme song for the original The Blob.

If you like cheesy horror or you’re a sucker for anthologies, you might want to give this one a try.  You can rent it from some of the larger online stores or you can purchase directly from Brimstone Media’s website, which can be accessed by clicking here.