Horror anthology. One of the most flexible oeuvres in all of film. 26 solid filmmakers given free rein to produce something innovative. Their imagination was the limit. They could have created any kind of cosmic horror they envisioned. So why was 80% of it clumsy, heavy-handed social commentary? All of humanity's fears at your disposal and you give us "Y Is for Youth," a ten minute sequence about a teenage cutter with a bad stepfather and neglectful mother learning to find her inner strength? In all seriousness - and it was so very serious - she fantasized a giant hand emerging from under her skirt to flip them an enormous bird. It was so on-the-nose it watched like a film student's freshman project. The most annoying part was how well the film was made... it would have been much easier to swallow if the visuals had been as cheap as the content.
Allow me to save you some time: all male characters are thuggish, boorish, and/or cruel. All female characters are the victims of that cruelty and many take their revenge. Subtext is non-existent. There is very little in the way of supernatural horror: most of the sequences are just normal people hurting each other. If you're a millennial and spend a lot of time on Facebook this movie will give you that same warm glow of self-righteousness that fuels your ongoing quest for a world where nothing makes you think too much. If you're looking for a creative horror movie, however, I suggest you keep looking.
Allow me to save you some time: all male characters are thuggish, boorish, and/or cruel. All female characters are the victims of that cruelty and many take their revenge. Subtext is non-existent. There is very little in the way of supernatural horror: most of the sequences are just normal people hurting each other. If you're a millennial and spend a lot of time on Facebook this movie will give you that same warm glow of self-righteousness that fuels your ongoing quest for a world where nothing makes you think too much. If you're looking for a creative horror movie, however, I suggest you keep looking.