Uncle Sleazo's Toxic and Terrifying T.V. Hour is a 2022 horror anthology, which is alive with creepy flair, chilling invention, and a few dark laughs. It’s helmed by up & coming underground horror director Lucky Cerruti. This New York state-based film-maker made quite an impression on me with his 2019 debut Kindness Of Strangers, and I must say this anthology lives up to & exceeds the promise of his debut- with three well-conceived stories, and some darkly amusing fake ads in between them.

The film opens with its wrap-around story- where we see a 1980s pre-teen being left by his parents as they go for a night out. He’s thrilled to bits as he’s allowed to watch TV, instead of just playing with his robot toy. He flicks the box on, and up pops Uncle Sleazo- a greyed, blading and fairly aminated/ campily OTT host in a tuxedo on and a red ‘n’ white polka dot bow tie- in his lap is a ventriloquist dummy dressed up like him. The first story out of the bag is Curse Of The Beta Wolf- this is in black & white, and made to look like a 1950s horror film- though it has a nice gory bite in its tail. The plot regards two lovers coming back from a night out & encountering a strange beast on the road- it features some fairly neat low-budget transformation scenes, and gore.

Next up pops Uncle Sleazo, and we move into an ad break- the first advert is for a Jeffrey Dahmer children's playset- this is wonderful bad taste & rather amusing,  After two or three ads we have our next story The Soulmate. This finds two female friends chatting as they walk down a nighttime city street. One has just moved out into a house from a flat, though she feels very lonely- wanting someone to share her life with. Her friend tries to be positive and insists she’ll find someone. They pass by a fortune teller who is just packing up- and quickly rushes in to get a reading- the friend with the house asks about her soulmate, and the fortune teller says it’s strange- but seemingly her soulmate is already dead & gone. This story features good acting from the two female leads, and has a nicely ghoulish resolve.

After some more banter from Uncle, and a few more darkly amusing ads- some of which nod back towards Cerruti other films. We get the third and final story Transferal- this regards a late-night male jogger out on a snowbound & freezing night- where he encounters a strange almost half-dead-looking figure. This one has some neat unease chills and some quite neat monster effects- I won’t give away the twist/ resolve of this one- but the title is a big hint.

Uncle Sleazo's Toxic and Terrifying T.V. Hour is most certainly one of the better horror anthologies I’ve seen in some time. With Cerruti’s talent for creating entertaining & creepy horror craft firmly in place, as well as some neat/well-released effects, and some of the better low-budget acting I’ve seen in some time too. Very much recommended!.