Anthology horror films have always been a unique experience in the horror genre. Some have done it well, others have flopped. Creepshow and Tales From The Crypt are two well known classics that have stood the test of time.

It feels like yesterday I was eight years old, sitting in my gitch at three in the morning watching Tales for the first time with my father. Being born into horror, I was used to a typical 90-minute story running start to finish. Tales from the Crypt (and Creepshow) introduced me to horror shorts, which I have grown up to appreciate a lot.

From the creators of V/H/S, we’ve been given Southbound.

In my opinion, V/H/S is a solid, but often overrated modern horror anthology. Directors and writers managed to create a memorable experience for viewers, but while some stories hit hard, others were underwhelming. One thing that needs to be done right with anthology horror films is placement, especially if there aren’t any tie-ins within. V/H/S fucked that up, with one hard hitter, followed by a dull one, followed by a hard hitter, followed by a dull one. You get it.

Southbound, thankfully, did everything right and wraps up nicely before the end credits roll.

Opening, Southbound drags viewers in immediately. Two men, covered in blood, pull into a gas station. Following them are skeletal spectre figures along the highway. Escape is impossible, despite being in a vehicle. No matter where they drive off to, they wind up right back at that gas station. “Fuck”.

In this first entry (The Way Out) directed by Radio Silence, I was a little discouraged. The acting felt forced by one particular character, and dialogue seemed almost robotic. However, the movie quickly redeems itself with Siren, directed by Roxanne Benjamin.

Siren throws us in a van accompanied by three women, drinking beer and heading to an unnamed town for their next gig. As one would imagine, they get a flat, and everything begins to feel hopeless. Lucky for them, a nice couple picks them up on the side of the road. Of course, something feels off about these two strangers, and of course, something is. Siren ends up being a struggle of life or death for one band member, while her two counterparts seem to have already fallen victim to this couple’s trap.

Following the events of Siren, we are thrown into the third chapter (The Accident, directed by David Bruckner).

The Accident is what really pulled me in to Southbound. While the first two chapters felt a little more generic and predictable, The Accident takes a complete 180 turn and begins to really get under your skin.

Driving along this God-forsaken highway, one unlucky son-of-a-bitch carelessly runs over an innocent woman. After some panic and hesitation, he calls emergency. As one would expect, it’s never easy in a horror flick. They can’t find him through GPS, giving the dispatcher and EMT no choice but to walk him through the steps to save this poor girls life, or kill her in the process.

If there was every any doubt, chapter three ends up teaching us a lot about Southbound. There’s no way it’s set in our universe, but rather some sort of alternate reality.

So far, we’ve seen two blood-covered men in a panic to get the hell off of this highway. What have they done and what’s following them? We don’t yet know. Next up was the odd/creepy/evil couple, and then The Accident. What’s missing? Werewolves.

Jailbreak (directed by Patrick Horvath) has us covered. For thirteen years one man has been tracking down his missing sister. Finally, he’s found her. Bad news for him, this entire small community she’s in are werewolves, and he’s fresh out of silver bullets.

Jailbreak, compared to its predecessors in this anthology, can easily be called the fun one. It speaks for itself, and doesn’t wait too long to reveal anything.

The fifth and final chapter is The Way In, and follows up with The Way Out. Here we learn where these two blood soaked men are coming from, and why the hell theyre being followed by the skeletal spectres. It’s the classic home invasion story, but the antagonists aren’t always the bad guys. Tying together home-invasion and revenge nicely, The Way In wraps up Southbound and leaves viewers craving more.

Overall, Southbound managed to go above and beyond my expectations. Being that it’s created by Radio Silence, the team was really outshined by a couple of the other directors involved. Which is a good thing, not a bad one. As I stated above, anthology films can go one of two ways and Southbound manages to do everything properly with no unnecessary bullshit along the way, it’s 100% entertaining and 100% good.

Being the asshole that I am, I try my best to rip apart a movie or find one major flaw in it, that one thing typically ruins a film for me and I’ll shit talk it until I puke. While the acting in The Way Out was dull, and a bit of a turnoff from watching the movie, it was quickly redeemed with the chapters that followed.

The only major issue with Southbound is that Radio Silence’s efforts felt boring and forced in comparison to the others. Though the team seems to have learned from previous errors, It opens a little poorly, and gets great, however then closes a little poorly though is still wrapped up nicely all things considered.

Overall, Southbound sits at an unarguable 7.5/10. Mr Slasher approved.

