I liked it a lot and I thought the stories were cleverly connected, without the need of an actual wraparound plot.

Eh I liked the first two V/H/S movies more, but this was decent enough. It had some effective gore and the performances were good, but I didn't find the stories that engaging or creepy.

Southbound is an inventive and riveting example of an always welcome, but often extremely uneven form: the anthology horror film. Set in an expanse of desert in the American Southwest, the film ties together five (mostly) unrelated stories of travelers, each burdened with either guilt or regret and put to the test by a criminal or supernatural encounter. Each of the film's seven directors—the Radio Silence credit represents four people—were involved with at least one entry in the at times marvelous, at times dire V/H/S trilogy. Southbound has a similar spirit of provocation, but it is far more cohesive in regard to atmosphere and storytelling. Every story explores a distinctive corner of the genre-iconography pantheon (body horror, home invasion, Satanism, etc.), but each pivot is realized with ease and elegance, and a unifying theme—internalized culpability—is always near the surface. The film also wisely always leave a specter half glimpsed on the horizon, a stone not turned, a tantalizing question unanswered. As a result, there is a sense of space, of a larger underlying tapestry, and this renders the experience even more eerie.

A-

Southbound

So there still is at least a bit of originality in horror. This anthology horror is eerie and superbly well-connected (if at times just by location, or tone, and not actually narrative), and it gives off a sense of the Cryptkeeper as a wild voice narrates. The dials could have been ramped up to eleven in some of the segments, but it was still very well-made and creepy. The best thing about it? The music. It was very 80s and super cool, so very impressed by The Gift.

B+

I saw this sometime back and still remember it. Its pretty good and the connection to all the stories in the end is pretty good. Overall though the atmosphere they build for each stories is great.

7/10

Glad you enjoyed it, Algren. What was your favorite segment? Mine is the one with the driver and the 911 dispatcher.

That was certainly very good. It's between that one and the final home invasion one. I liked how it comes full circle, but the section is just really creepy (masks!!) on its own. The least good is the guy trying to save his sister.

It is very well-made, and an accomplishment how they made these 4-5 stories seem as a whole.

I'm gonna be the usual party pooper I see.

I found this to be extremely boring, non-inventive and a bit cliche. The stories reminded me a lot of The Twilight Zone/The Outer Limits type of stories, which is a good thing. But I found them all to be a bit too obvious. You got a fate section, a witch section, a creepy invasion section, a demon section. Pretty much the usual stuff we've been getting in horror these past 10-15 years.

I like the idea and the setting, but I just wish it was all done way way way better.

*1/2 / ***** (D-)