Director – Spider One (The Harrowing of Marcus Muller, She Doesn’t Really Like Rabbits)
Starring – Krys Fox (Underworld: Evolution, Nightmare at the End of the Hall), John Ennis (Zodiac, Eight Legged Freaks), and Bryce Johnson (American Horror Story, Death Valley)
Release Date – 2022
Rating – 2.5/5
Writing for Horror Society has given me the opportunity to watch and review films long before they are released. While I prefer to watch indie productions I still find myself drawn to bigger budgeted films with a lot of hype. While I tend to skip popular films I still find myself getting excited for the occasional pop horror flick. Several weeks ago I shared news of Powerman 5000’s Spider One’s debut film Allegoria.
The horror anthology is getting its premier on Shudder in early August and I was lucky enough to get a screener link of it before then. Like most my age I was a huge Powerman 5000 fan during my teen years and couldn’t wait to check it out.
**Spoiler Alert* The film consists of five stories centered around different arts and the monsters lurking beneath the skin. The first story follows an acclaimed acting instructor who tells his students to bring out the monster inside them. The second tale follows a painter who draws inspiration for his next piece from his heartless and greedy agent. The third tale follows an author pinning a slasher story who is visited by his killer character only to have him help out in the most brutal way. The fourth tale follows a young couple on a date. One had a dream of becoming a rockstar while the other is an artist but one of them has other plans for their significant other. The fifth and final tale follows an aspiring actress living with her rockstar roommate who accidentally opens a door letting something sinister in. **Spoiler Alert**
You have no idea how god damn excited I was to watch this one. Receiving news of Spider One’s directorial debut really took me back to my youth listening to Tonight the Stars Revolt on my mp3 player. I was so fucking excited to check out his work but it was quickly evident that this one wasn’t for me. I thought I would like the allegory angle int the film but what really happened was there was a movie with some fairly solid shorts with twists that went over my head. I wanted to like it but I couldn’t.
The acting for this one is fairly well done. What we get is consistent acting throughout the entire film while the viewer is given cliched and one dimensional characters that are as easy to forget as the stories they are in. I was very disappointed in Scout Taylor-Compton. I’m a huge fan of hers and was extremely let down by how little screen time she was given. I would have hoped that she would have been utilized more than she was.
The stories for this one have a lot of potential but they are so short that they never truly gain the traction they need to be effective. I loved the set up for each and every segment but their short running time is their biggest obstacle. When you combine that with the flat characters you get a mediocre horror anthology that just falls short of it’s mark. If the stories were explored to their fullest capabilities then this would be a much different film.
Finally, the effects in this one look decent enough but I was expecting much more. We get some fun make-up effects and blood here and there but none of the deaths we do get are ones that will stick with you. Overall, Allegoria is a little too over my head for my liking. If the segments were longer and the stories fully explored I could see myself loving it but as it I find them to be a bit disappointing and almost rushed. I wanted to love it but I couldn’t.
