During the heyday of British horror in the 1960s and 70s, the anthology became an integral horror movie concept. A selection of four or five short tales loosely held together by an overarching theme was common practice and remains popular to this day, however, for every Tales from the Crypt or From Beyond the Grave there were disasters and in a lot of instances the stories were patchy. So it is with trepidation that I approach modern anthology movies, we’ve had some like the V/H/S franchise which have produced very mixed results, including some very good stories, but the quality has often lacked. Check out the ABCs of Death to see a great example of the gulf in quality that can exist between episodes of the same anthology.  " />

During the heyday of British horror in the 1960s and 70s, the anthology became an integral horror movie concept. A selection of four or five short tales loosely held together by an overarching theme was common practice and remains popular to this day, however, for every Tales from the Crypt or From Beyond the Grave there were disasters and in a lot of instances the stories were patchy. So it is with trepidation that I approach modern anthology movies, we’ve had some like the V/H/S franchise which have produced very mixed results, including some very good stories, but the quality has often lacked. Check out the ABCs of Death to see a great example of the gulf in quality that can exist between episodes of the same anthology. 

Anyway, when Underneath: An Anthology of Terror landed on my doorstep I was immediately intrigued. Released by Darkside Releasing who have been at the forefront of low-budget horror production in the modern era, this Canuxploitation movie features five originally wild short tales of madness and horror to paraphrase the blurb on the box, added to this is the fact it has picked up a bunch of awards for best horror picture, sound design as well as a best actor award, it obviously has something to make it worth a watch.

Directed by John Nicol (Channel Zero, Glimpse and he is currently working on the follow-up to this movie, Underneath: Threshold), Andre Becker (Seeking Oblivion, Secret Santa and Channel Zero) and Cory Ivanchuck (whose only other experience is as an actor in Glimpse) Underneath is an ambitious undertaking for three fairly inexperienced filmmakers. Melding horror with some, at times, stunning arthouse visuals, Underneath is a very good-looking collection of short stories. Violent, gory and very strange, it manages to scratch several itches for me. 

An unstable individual returns to his country home, having been lured back by strange shadowy forces only to find that his home sits on a gateway to hell and there are breaches in the basement through which a mysterious black gunk spews forth, bringing with it whispers of insanity, namely the five stories that make up this anthology. Several of these short stories eschew linear storytelling in favour of something wholly more experimental and otherworldly. I’ve seen other reviews draw comparisons to the music videos of Nine Inch Nails and Aphex Twin and it’s a fair and reasonable comparison to make. In fact, several of the stories, due to their impressive sound design, do feel more like expansive, experimental music videos for industrial soundscapes.

Overall, I found Underneath: An Anthology of Terror to be a pretty decent stab at an arthouse horror anthology movie that relies heavily on a great cast, some stunning visuals and outstanding sound design. I am very interested to see where the directors go from here as their talents as visual artists are there for all to see. The Blu-ray release features an audio commentary from the directors, an isolated version of the rather wonderful score and a copy of Nicol’s previous short, Glimpse.  If you like your horror movies to be a little more surreal and experimental then this is probably going to be of interest to you, if not then you’ll probably struggle with it.