Prayer Beads

[Riff]

I just picked this up... It apparently was a Japanese TV series, each 30 min. episode is a different horror story. It's shot on digital (which I hate), and a lot of the acting is horrible, but it's got a few interesting story ideas. Anyone else seen this?

[Riff]

So far I've only watched 2 episodes... The first one was a love affair gone bad/ghost story. The second was incredible surreal... kind of a vampire vending machine thing...

[swiss tony]

Originally Posted by Riff

So far I've only watched 2 episodes... The first one was a love affair gone bad/ghost story. The second was incredible surreal... kind of a vampire vending machine thing...

when you are finished with the set come back and give us your rating of each

[Riff]

I'm done with the first disc... my initial impression stands. They have a few interesting ideas, but incredibly low production values other than the occasional bit of computer animation. The acting is mediocre to horrible, and it's all shot on digital. It looks like someone's film school project... It's worth a look, but I wouldn't spend the money on buying it (too late...).

[Pygar]

I like horror anthologies, but have been stung too many times. One of the Japanese 'Tales of Terror' collections turned out to be stories that were only five minutes long each!

Of course there are exceptions - Takashi Shimizu's early five minute stories were actually scary. Again Shimizu's two early Ju-on (Grudge) films are shot on digital video but are actually two of my favourite J-horrors.

But I now need a mess of good reviews to persuade me into short story horrors, especially for TV. They tend to have different scriptwriters and directors (like the Kazuo Umezu Horror Theatres) that mean the quality is very variable and inconsistent. Even if there is one good story, it's unlikely that the whole collection will be worthwhile.

TALES OF THE UNUSUAL was a film (?) with four stories in it, was pretty good, but only one horror tale.

ZOO was OK, with two definitely interesting stories, offset by a couple of stinkers. More on this here...

[Riff]

Yeah, I don't recommend buying this one... There's a couple of decent ones in there, but it's mostly crap. Some solid ideas, but really poor execution.