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Circle of Death is an anthology horror film that is hosted by late night podcaster Deadman Dave (Mark Ricche), who takes his listeners through four macabre tales of obsession, madness and murder. It's written by Christian Bareford and BC Fourteen, with segments directed by Fourteen, the Bareford Brothers and Scott Vangrootenbruel. The DJ Deadman Dave connecting sequences were directed by Mark Ricchie and were written by Christian Bareford and BC Fourteen. They don't just quote classic stories, but also a Geto Boys song.
The first of these stories is "3 To Go," directed by Scott Vangrootenbruel and written by Christian Bareford. Four acquaintences reunite once a year to compare tales of the fantastic. They are Erving Rosseau (Erik Thompson), Miranda (Delaney Hathaway), Dr. Bartholomew Chambers (Olav Carter) and their host, Dante Beaumont (Bill McLaughlin). They each draw numbers from a chest, which must be part of their story. Dr. Bartholomew tells about a patient named Mitch Ermer (BC Fourteen), who had an abdominal tumor and died in a surgical accident. Beaumont then tells the story of a small town named Cyril and the McMullen family and how they died in a fire. Miranada tells of Michael Williamson, a single man and sports columnist who was killed as he looked for the darker side of love. Erving is last, filling everyone's glass before he tells the story of a wanderer, a woman who was in a car crash. Yet Erving has the darkest secret story of them all and the connection to all that we have just heard. This feels like the story was shortened to fit into the running time and I feel would be a much better full-length story with more time to breath, as there are some good ideas in this.
The second story of obsessive madness, starting with the words of the "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. "The Heart and the Hunted" is directed and written by BC Fourteen. It has Del (Jason Bareford) in a hunting stand with a crossbow, then having a rough night dreaming of running through a field before screaming at someone unseen and repeatedly firing his handgun. As he drives in the day, we find Mary (Jennifer DiBlasio) getting out of the shower and getting ready for an evening on the town that ends with Del and her getting together, only for her to wake up bound with her mouth covered with duct tape. He's in the tree stand, waiting to shoot her if she tries to get away, leaving her in the woods all night while he watches. He's been waiting for a monster known as The Thing (Michael Kolence) and is using her as bait. This looks really great at the end and the creature design is so fun. It reminded me a lot of Humanoids from the Deep and again, as I said after the first story, I would have loved to have seen this as a full-length movie.
"The Dirty Hands Man" is directed by the Bareford Brothers and stars Mark Sebetch as that character, who was created bt Christian. A day at a house on the egde of the lake becomes a waking nightmare for a young man named Jakob (Logan Monaco) who discovers more about himself, as well as her legal guardian Catarina (Reagan DeFazio) and her family and friends. She looks down on Jakob so much that she won't even let him go to the bathroom inside the house, which may seem weird to you, but I had a girlfriend -- who I dated for years -- whose mother wouldn't allow me to use their bathroom because I was low class. Once Jakob is allowed to use the toilet, Katarina follows him and makes him wash his hands again. She also meets Robert (Erik Thompson) and Ashleigh (Brittany Stoler), the rest of her family. But because this all starts with him being questioned by the police -- Boggs (Boomer Payne) and Merkle (Jason Bareford) -- you know this all isn't going to work out.
As they sit around the fire, Robert and Ashleigh explain their life story to Jakob, including how they lost their parents in a car wreck that left her with pins in his leg. They also learn that Catarina had a child that she gave away, all in time for the Dirty Hands Man to appear out of the woods and murderer everyone and knock out Jakob. Or so he'd like the cops to believe. There's a big reveal in this and again, I wish the story had time to breathe because the conversations between the characters feel real and I was just starting to get into it when it was time to move quickly to the resolution.
The last story is "Perfect" and it was directed by BC Fourteen. He also wrote the story with Josh Garrell. A plastic surgeon Clay Smith (Andrew Hopper) meets Patricia (Laura Leigh) and tells her about his friend Peter (Lance Arthur Smith), whose emails brought them together for what seems like a blind date, even if she's been dating Peter. Clay is someone who operates on several movie stars and is known from gossip magazines. Worried about Peter, she brings him to meet him in person and to possibly speak to him about what he's been doing. When Clay gets there, he learns that Peter is operating on brains and covered in blood. This entry has some dark imagery and really effective lighting throughout that really adds to the darkness within this episode.
The Circle of Death has some interesting stories within it. It's definitely worth exploring to scratch your anthology film itch and it's great to see a movie made around Pittsburgh with this level of quality. I'd love to either see these movies expand or another collection of them, as it was a fun watch.
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