Fireside Tales (2016) A Low Budget Slasher Throwback Horror Anthology-Fitz of Horror

Written by Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror) February 13, 2018

It is no secret that I love horror anthologies no matter what the budget as long as it has heart and stays true to its horror roots. Ian Messenger of CatchMeKillMe Productions, definitely has a true love for the slasher genre and had an estimated $5,000 budget burning a hole in his pocket to make a slasher based horror anthology all of his own!

Synopsis–A low-budget anthology film focuses on a young group of friends, gathered for a night of fun and drinks around a campfire. Every year they try to outdo themselves telling scary stories. Will they survive another round? One story showcasing 5 unique macabre tales to frighten audiences everywhere.

The movie begins with a guy bringing his new girlfriend to meet his rowdy group of story trading friends for the first time at their yearly middle of nowhere bonfire scary story-a-thon. The cheesy tone is set immediately as the overacting friends hurl insults at each other but then settle in to start trading stories to see who’s is the scariest.

Segment 1-“Undertow”– 3 friends stranded in the desert are stalked by a supposedly deformed psycho miner cannibal madman who seems a lot like Jason Voorhees, rises from the creek and decides to kill them one by one.

Segment 2- “Axe Wielding Madman”-This time the psycho killer madman dude comes out of the forest to claim a jogger as his victim which leads to the girls father grabbing a gun and hunting down the Leatherface-like killer who is wearing his daughters face as a mask. Revenge is taken by the distraught father via drastic measures.

Segment 3- “Tormentor”- 3 girls gather to watch horror movies in a house when the power goes out and a psycho killer wielding multiple knives begins to slice and dice his way through the people in the house.

Segment 4- “Where Skinwalkers Dare”- This was the most solid segment of them all. A guy and a girl go on a hike and end up at a cave where the girl is attacked by a nasty looking skinwalker creature. He goes to get his friends to go back and kill the creature but when they arrive back at the cave the story takes a wicked and unexpected turn.

So each segment is full of plot holes, has some stale acting and masks can be seen when that clearly wasn’t the intention, BUT I have to say that the wraparound story with the story telling friends brings all of these shortcomings to the forefront after each segment. With the group tearing town each story after it is told (obviously to insult the story teller), the stories become acceptably cheesy and fun for all of the same shortcomings and whether intentional or not on Ian Messenger’s behalf, this was a genius move because the true story of the movie is about the partying, story telling friends and the fate that ultimately befalls them.

Don’t turn it off when the credits start to roll because there will be more story to be told.

Go in with low expectations, watch it with friends, drink some beers and have fun.

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