The Worst Film Ever

Sadly Over-hyped

Fantastic!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Directed and written by many, Southbound is a interesting, genre savvy anthology feature. Being a huge fan of anthologies I gave this a go blindly, after not hearing much about it, and was pleasantly surprised.Southbound features five loosely related stories all taking in the same desolate area. It will leave you with both haunting imagery and interesting train of though. I, however, came away wanting more clarification due to a rather unexplained plot and an ending which also doesn't explain much. Despite the low budget, Southbound is clearly well thought out, if slightly secretive, and very well designed. If you are a big fan of anthology horrors like me then I think you will probably be a big fan of this.

SPOILER: Two guys in a truck are escaping from something. They end up at a gas station/diner/motel. When they try to leave they end up at the same place over and over. Finally they stop and one guys is butchered by the thing that has been following them. The other guy goes back to the motel where he starts hearing and seeing his daughter and encounters the thing.In a different room at the motel three girls from a band leave and end up with a flat tire somewhere and without a spare. A friendly old-fashioned couple gives them a lift. During dinner another couple comes over with their twin sons. Two of the girls eat some nasty looking meat dish, the third girl is a vegetarian. Later the two end up vomiting some black stuff and late at night simply walk outside in the dark. The other girl follows them and sees them joining some ceremony. All the others are in robes and chanting. At some point they discover her and chase her as she runs to the street.And is hit by a car. The driver calls 911 but doesn't know where he is or where he is going. He decides to drive to a city nearby, goes into a hospital, which is completely empty. The dispatcher, EMT, and now a doctor are on the phone and guiding him. He's told to intubate the girl by hand, and then manually to compress her lung. He does so and eventually he allowed to leave.Nearby a woman is on the phone, I think she may have been one of the people talking to the guy. She goes into a bar where later a guy with a shotgun breaks in and asks if anyone has seen his missing daughter. After several scuffles, the guy at the bar takes him to a tattoo parlor where the daughter works. Against her will, the brother takes her with him and they drive away, but where to? The brother faces a nasty while the girl drives back and goes into a restroom.From it a girl exits and joins her family eating. They go to a vacation house where soon enough 3 masked guys appear. The break into the house and grab the couple. The daughter hid and is safe. By accident they end up killing the couple, and attack the daughter, but now things turn very surprising. Among the surprises, two of the masked guys are the guys from the beginning in the truck.Southbound presents these interesting and creepy stories. Each story poses more questions than it answers. And in this case it worked. Others here on the boards have come up with excellent explanations. Perhaps one problem with Southbound is that it didn't intrigue me enough to try and come up with answers. I was perfectly content with not knowing how it all comes together, or whether it does, but apparently it does. So a lot of thought went into these scripts but not enough clues were offered to the audience or it wasn't made clear that they were clues. In any case, I enjoyed Southbound. It's a different, original, interesting movie that sets quite an atmosphere. I found the creature thing to be very neat and different, as well. The cast was mostly unknown to me but Nathalie Love and Hassie Harrison are just lovely.

After watching Southbound, I was left with the sensation that I hadn't really been able to understand it. So, I decided to watch it again (something I rarely do before writing these reviews) and, effectively, the second visit helped me to fill in the holes and comprehend the intention of the movie better. I don't know whether to recommend that "double exposition" in order to appreciate the many pros of Southbound (even though there will probably be intelligent spectators who will understand it from the first time); I just wanted to mentioned it as a warning. Having cleared that out, let's focus on this anthology film itself. The first tale (The Way Out) is the briefest one, but it makes a pretty good job at establishing the cruel and disturbing tone of the whole movie, as well as a black sense of humor which reminded me of the endings of The Twilight Zone; the production design is very attractive, and even though some digital effects could have been better, it was definitely a good start. The second tale (Siren) is the most normal one, and I also found it interesting, with an ending which links it to the following tale in an efficient way. The third tale (The Accident) displays the most extreme gore of the anthology, and it's supported by the overwhelming anguish suffered by the main character, challenging us to think what we would do in his place. The fourth tale (Jailbreak) is the one I liked the least, but it's the one which offers the most clues to solve the big puzzle of Southbound. Finally, The Way Out retakes elements of the first tale in order to "close the circle"... even though we still have to deduct the rest of the enigma on our own. Oh, I forgot to mention the recurring element in all the tales: a radio DJ whose pseudo-existential monologues tell us about the consequences of sin and redemption. In conclusion, I liked Southbound pretty much mainly because of its global consistency, which made it a deeper narrative experience than the arbitrary parade of styles and techniques from other horror compilations. So, I recommend it due to its high ambition which makes us think, and because it proves the authentic potential of the anthology format, which is rarely taken advantage of like this. In the most literal sense, I found Southbound more than the sum of its parts.

These small films fit into one another just like the Twilight Zone movies. If you're looking for a common theme, you're likely to be disappointed, There are these giant devilish skeleton bats that chase some of the characters, apparently for justice. Other than that, it's just a fairly well made, and simply made, horror movie with a few clever twists.There is one part where a man is distracted by his phone while driving and he hits a girl who had just escaped a satanic sacrifice ceremony. He calls 911 only to become more confused by what has happened and of course frustrated. Some of the stories are like that, unsatisfying.Th giant bat effects ARE satisfying, along with the final scene where we are brought up to speed about what's happening in the chase in the opening scene. The movie works like a circle, setting you on a path and then replacing you there after you've finished another story.This film has a lot of killing and blood in it. There isn't much explanation for any of it though. I suppose you could draw the conclusion that if you live an immoral life, you'll have to reckon with the grim reaper or the devil or some being at the end of your life. Not a very original idea for a horror movie but there are enough clever twists to keep you guessing. It lost two stars with me for the lack of explanation about many elements in the stories.I suppose it could be seen as the devil is coming for those who have killed or sinned terribly but they never say why. If you don't mind open ended movies, you'll probably not get my criticism. I like finding out why the mysterious things happen. It pleases me when everything fit, Southbound is a good movie but seems to leave so many thinking projects up to the viewer. For plain text horror with minimal production, I recommend it!