A Taste of Phobia (2018)

The Score: 6 out of 10

An international collection of filmmakers bring you several shorts based on different phobias in this showcase featuring their separate filming styles.

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The Review:

This one, as is with all anthology features, is a bit difficult to do a proper write up on.

Honestly, I hate reviewing anthologies and I tend to avoid doing so unless it’s sent to me from a distributor. Since Barbara sent this over to me, I will review it.

That said, it is yet another late night and I have to be awake early tomorrow to get my booster shot for the particular thing that is going on right now that I can’t name because Facebook and every group out there will probably delete my post and delete my account because their algorithms don’t work.

As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of dancing around my words.

Anyways, let’s get into this.

What impresses me most here is how unrestrained all the filmmakers are, despite the short runtimes for each short film. We’re given abstract expression, minimalism, oversaturations of tropes, anti-horror, rough shots that tribute classic horror, and even some atmospheric content. Plus there’s some extreme Euro content for those wanting to satisfy that itch. There’s something here for everyone, sometimes even moreso.

Despite the low budgets, everything looks really good. Everyone involved has enough skill to know how to capture a shot, whether it’s an artful one or a more abstract though, or even a somewhat shaky shot. It’s all caught and depicted properly here. 

Writing obviously varies. Some of the shorts did a great job staying on topic and properly setting up not only its topic but also to give us a version of it that works well, accompanied by an assortment of characters that compliment the respective theming and topic. But the other, less developed shorts, don’t do as well, some even stray off their topic and don’t bother addressing the specific phobia, with poorly defined and sometimes even undefined characters. Anthologies are always going to be dragged down by their weakest short film, but the short films are so short that they actually make things work. Sort of. On the plus side, some of the terrible shorts are so bad that they’re funny. Thankfully the ones from Domiziano Christopharo and Sam Mason Bell are really good and stay on theme. I actually found Bell’s work to be my favourite here, especially with the comedic overtones in it.

The acting also varies. Some performances are greater than they deserve to be, and others are unnecessarily exaggerated, or otherwise somewhat unskilled in other ways. 

It’s frustrating to evaluate these anthologies because of how varied they are, and I really don’t want to nitpick each and every single one of them.

The soundtracks are consistently good, which is of much relief. Every single composer knew how to add depth and aural tonality to each scene, sometimes to the point where most of your sensory experience is from the compositions, if not the sound effects by some of the more talented crews.

I know some of this review seems like a cop-out, but I swear it’s not. A Taste of Phobia is, overall, good for a watch, but better if you know what you’re looking for and skip to the good stuff.

-Joseph