Film Review: "Bordello Death Tales"

Anthology films seem to be all the rage these days in the horror genre. There been a lot these films in the last five years. From known films such as V/H/S, “The ABC’s of Death to lesser known ones such as “Horror Independent 8” to “Faces of Scholck” to most recently “Afterimages”, which my review will be up next week. Add “Bordello Death House” to that list.

“Bordello Death Tales” brings together filmmakers Jim Eaves (“The Witches Hammer,” “Bane”), Pat Higgins (“KillerKiller,” “Hellbride,” “TrashHouse”) and Alan Ronald (“Jesus vs the Messiah”) bring you three killer tales, “Stitchgirl”, “The Ripper”, and “Vice Day” Each of them are told from the closed bedroom doors of the mysterious Madame Raven’s bordello. The first film in this anthology was “The Ripper”. This was the best of the three. One of thing that I liked about was the fact the film had a creepy feel though out. Director Jim Eves does a very good job making sure that his short looked good and having a gory feel to it. It helped make this interesting and entertaining. The screenplay for the short was also good. I liked how he does a good job making sure that he gives you an uneasy feel to the scenes. This helped gave the film its identity and separate it from the rest of the film.

The second film in this anthology was Alan Roland’s “Stichgirl”.This was the most surreal of the bunch but was also entertaining. One of things that I liked about it was the choice of Roland to use black and white for most of the short. It gave the film a gothic tone to it and the title character. But the best thing about this short was the way that Roland directs the film’s dream sequence in color. It had the special and surreal feel to it as this is the only time that you see the film’s main character in color. It made everything feel bizarre and entertaining at the same time.

The final short in this film is Pat Higgins’ “Vice Day”. This may have been the weakest of the film in terms of action but I thought it was good. The main reason for that was the fact that it focuses on the two main characters of the short. He does a good job developing them through the conversation that the characters had for most of this. If didn’t do that and rush the action, this would’ve been a short that I would’ve been complaining. Instead, I was interested in the characters and the story.

The only problem that I had was the fact that the film felt like it had no wrap around segment. It would’ve been nice to see a story to connect all these stories, but at least you have the bordello front and center for each of the stories to let you know that they connected to the bordello. So, they get a pass for this complaint.

“Bordello Death Tales” is worth checking out, if you’re into horror that is surreal and out of control horror.

Review Rating: Three and a Half Skulls.