LouHomey From my favorite movies..

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Leofwine_draca TRAPPED ASHES is a very low budget anthology horror made in the same style as DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS or CREEPSHOW. It has an admirably old-fashioned feel to it, but unfortunately the constraints of budget and general cheesiness of the execution means that it disappoints rather than innovates throughout.Unusually enough for a horror anthology, the best part of the film is the wraparound segment. This is directed by Joe Dante, who can't resist throwing in some old timers like his beloved Dick Miller and Henry Gibson (THE BURBS), who acts as a tour guide showing a group around an old haunted house. The stories that take place are as follows: The first, THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN BREASTS, is an awful bad taste joke about a woman whose breast enlargement operation goes awry. This one's directed by Ken Russell, who also cameos, and it's terrible from beginning to end. The second, JIBAKU, is directed by Friday THE 13TH's Sean S. Cunningham and is a Japanese-set ghost story. Sadly, the events that play out are entirely predictable, although Ryo Ishibashi (SUICIDE CLUB) bags a small role.The third story, STANLEY'S GIRLFRIEND, arouses some mild interest by tackling the weighty subject of Stanley Kubrick, but it turns out to be routine despite the welcome presence of old-timer John Saxon. The final story, MY TWIN, MY WORM, is another bad taste story and the title tells you everything you need to know about that. I only really enjoyed TRAPPED ASHES for seeing the three old-time actors on-screen but the young cast members are very poor here and the directors appear to be slumming it. It's a pity.

Scarecrow-88 Anthology shaped in spirit after the Amicus films from back in the day. Except, unlike those past anthologies where one director helmed the entire series of stories throughout the omnibus, "Trapped Ashes" features stories directed by a series of familiar names. Joe Dante(Gremlins;The Howling;Matinée)directs the wraparound story about various people(a screenwriter & his actress wife, a disgruntled married couple with issues, a down-on-his-luck writer whose now a relic, a weird employee at a theater who books films there(..perhaps modeled after Dennis Bartok himself who wrote "Trapped Ashes)and has a case of the munchies) who converge to ride a studios tour, guided by Henry Gibson. They plead in visiting the forbidden "Hysteria" mansion once operated by an effects maestro, known for his salacious sexual behavior and wicked parties, who was abandoned by Ultra Studios(..the setting for this film). Once inside the characters and their guide find themselves trapped in a room with seemingly no exits, this scenario perhaps modeled after the film Hysteria where the mansion was it's setting. The tour guide proposes that horrific stories shared by members of the trapped group might lead to their exit from the mansion and so the anthology begins.Ken Russell(Gothic;Lair of the White Worm)directs the first tale regarding a pretty actress, nearing 30(..which is 60 in dog years in Hollywood)who decides to try out a new breast implant procedure(..using flesh from cadavers)in the hopes that it'll assist her non-successful career. The procedure has a nasty side-effect..her breast implants need human blood and drain the bodies of victims! The second tale, directed by Sean Cunningham(The New Kids;Friday the 13th)concerns a married couple in Japan and the wife who is haunted by a monk who committed suicide, ravaging her body as a rotting corpse, kidnapping her soul with the husband having to enter a hole to hell in order to save her. The third tale, from Monte Hellman(Two-Lane Black Top;Silent Night, Deadly Night III), shows how a seductress, with a taste for human blood, comes between friends, a director named Stanley(*wink*)and a writer, both whose careers are on the rise. The fourth tale, from John Gaeta(a visual effects expert), focuses on a pregnancy where the baby must share her womb with a parasitic worm which was ingested as the mother ate undercooked meat, and the aftermath. Lots of nudity(..the Russell tale obviously displays breasts, because Rachel Veltri's are creatures which suck blood), necrophilia(..during Lara Harris' "assault", mostly consensual, she actually puts her fingers into his face and under a chest bone while riding him on top!), a parasite molesting a female victim(..she's the stepmother of Michèle-Barbara Pelletier's girl-child who beguiled her father away from her mother), animation mixed with live action(..while the husband searches for his possessed wife in hell, Cunningham's tale uses anime to enliven certain aspects the low budget couldn't compensate), and some minor computer graphics(..in Gaeta's tale, we see inside the womb how the baby is affected by her mother and father's broken marriage with all the shouting). VERY low-budget, and perhaps shows signs of an amateur screen-writer, Dennis Bartok(..who operates the American Cinematheque)because, disappointing to me at least, the tales aren't quite up to par. I didn't think the cast was as bad as others, but the talents involved in this film perhaps deserved better material and actors(..other than the reliable vets, Dick Miller, who barely has any lines, and, especially, Gibson)than were given to them. Most of the tales, other than the Hellman tale, Stanley's Girlfriend, which was pretty much memorable for who the director turned out to actually be, left me rather underwhelmed(..particularly Cunningham's, which I felt needed more exposition). I thought Russell's was sick and morbid enough, also containing a wicked sense of humor and playful performance from the adorable Veltri, but most of the tales really leave anything to be desired. It was great seeing John Saxon in a major role within the film, hitting on a married woman, so there are a few treats for horror buffs. Maybe not enough, though, to recommend to the average horror fan. There's a great deal of unpleasant violence(..the aforementioned necrophilia, finger nails scratching down a man's chest before the woman drinks his blood, and a torn throat of a victim whose blood is used to nourish Veltri's monster tits)which might bode well with gorehounds. Maybe, anticipating this as much as I was, the film couldn't live up to my expectations, but I was expecting so much more than the results provided.

geobucks I am so sick of low budget crap movies that try to propagandize with getting their "people" to come here and vote 10's to try and raise feces to a work of art. This is a horrible movie. Period. Lousy direction and acting, a story line that could have been oh, so much more. IMDb may use algorithms and secret formulas to try and limit "stuffing", but it is simply not working. To each their own, but, I think it is an awful movie. I watched part of the movie, but couldn't even bring myself to use bandwidth to pirate. Not "Sraight to Video", straight to coaster and into the garbage. I am reluctant to call this the "worst movie ever", (since there are too many doofae who do that, but ,IMHO, should be considered.

scooterandpetunia Remember all those British-produced anthology horror films that sometimes made it to US theaters back in the 70s, but were more often screened on Saturday late night or Sunday afternoon television? Stuff like THE VAULT OF HORROR or TORTURE GARDEN or FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (or TALES FROM THE CRYPT or TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS and on and on)? TRAPPED ASHES is a heartfelt and enthusiastic (and largely successful) attempt to revisit that kind of sometimes-serious, sometimes-funny, sometimes-trashy scare flick.Encompassing four short episodes and a wrap-around set in a deserted Hollywood studio tour's "haunted house," TRAPPED ASHES explores vampiric breast implants, horny spirits of suicidal Japanese monks, tapeworm twins, and the soul-sucking girlfriend of Stanley Kubrick. Some of the episodes are more successful than others, with the most confident probably being the "Stanley's Girlfriend" one, directed by the most decidedly NON-genre vet Monte Hellman. It's a really touching, elegiac little piece, full of imagination and a genuine love for the world of film. The other three stories - and the wraparound - are more traditionally horrific, but also very inspired in their mixture of sex, horror and a warped approach to the genre. The Ken Russell segment in particular, "The Girl with the Golden Breasts," had the audience in Toronto alternately laughing with glee or squirming in discomfort, leading to three audience casualties!TRAPPED ASHES will appeal most to horror fans who are looking for a sometimes familiar, but definitely unique and twisted type of anthology genre film. Full of breasts, blood, great special effects, appearances by older actors like Henry Gibson, John Saxon, and a cool, "blink and you'll miss him!" cameo by none other than Dick Miller, it's a wonderful horror-movie debut for screenwriter Dennis Bartok and a great turn by all the veteran directors (and new director/vet f/x guy John Gaeta).Highly recommended for a fun and old-fashioned-style scary time at the movies.