Return to Horror Hotel (2019)

Return to Horror Hotel: Directed by Ricky Hess, Brandon Thaxton. With Baby Norman, J Michael Grey, R.C. Sayyah, Stephanie Stevens. Return to Horror Hotel is an anthology feature with 4 segments. One is about giant a bedbugs, one is about a magical charm that turns girls beautiful, one is about a WWII sailor who hasn’t aged and one is about a terrorizing severed hand.

“This is an American portmanteau featuring four tales connected by the titular hotel. The tone is slightly elevated, not realistic, and the characters are not unlike those found in a John Waters film, a Jerry Springer episode, or a documentary by Ulrich Seidl. I warmed to the focus on the grotesque, and appreciated the moody, gel-happy lighting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe hotel of the title is of the Bates Motel school (not flashy or 5-star), but it serves as a solid launching pad for the various tales. This is not a horror film to be taken terribly seriously; it revels in its own excesses, and ludicrous concepts, and pitches its performances at a level in concert with its tone.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor me, my favorite story was the third one, which involved a bunch of lost submariners, although the first tale, which focuses on decay and bugs, arrested my attention. Well worth catching.”