If there’s one thing that can be taken away from SINPHONY, an ambitious new horror anthology, it’s that sometimes cool things can come from social media.
It all started thanks to a social audio app called Clubhouse, where users from around the world can gather in chat rooms to talk and listen to one another in real-time. During the pandemic, a few burgeoning filmmakers from Clubhouse’s horror community discussed possibilities for collaboration. Each of them produced a ten-page script and, after some time, SINPHONY was born.
It’s a wholesome, fascinating backstory that speaks to the potential of a social networking app like Clubhouse. During the Q&A after the screening, one of the film’s producers confirmed that a sequel is in development, so it could mean this has a promising future as a franchise.
Consisting of nine short films, the stories of SINPHONY are connected by song – well, one song in particular. The film’s introduction shows us a nurse who sings a creepy tune to a newborn baby, turning it into a monstrosity before the parent’s eyes. It’s the thread that ties the shorts together, and each one offers a different rendition of the song. It helps to bring a sense of cohesion to the overall package, even if each of the short films is quite different from one another.
There’s a common issue that tends to plague horror anthologies and that’s inconsistency in terms of the quality of the shorts themselves. It’s especially true when it comes to films featuring a larger collection of shorts than usual, such is the case with SINPHONY. The highlight for me is “Forever Young,” by actor and filmmaker Haley Bishop. A cute and clever take on the current trend of TikTok dances (referred to here as “BeeBop”), it’s a cheeky nightmare scenario for older millennials who grew up in the early aughts. Kimberley Elizabeth’s “Do Us Part” is another one of the more comical entries, with a dead woman attempting to make contact with her husband by any means necessary.
The shorts here that left me wanting more aren’t necessarily due to the craft on display, which is admirable for what’s clearly a small-budget effort from new filmmakers, but rather because I felt they were actually stifled by the runtime. Mark Pritchard’s “Limited Edition,” in which the owner of a classic car meets a bewitching woman, is lovely to look at and has some interesting ideas, but perhaps needed some more time to flesh them out. Steven Keller’s “Ear Worm” has one of the more notably nasty moments in the movie and could also benefit from being expanded, possibly into a full-on body horror feature.
Again, that’s par for the course with any collection of short stories. Your mileage will certainly vary depending on what you’re looking for. But anyone who’s a fan of the V/H/S series, The ABCs of Death, or any number of recent horror anthologies will likely find at least something to enjoy. During the Q&A, the producing team expressed that the second volume of SINPHONY will continue to serve as a platform for new, exciting, and underrepresented filmmakers in horror. Who could possibly argue with that?
SINPHONY had its world premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on October 15, 2022. On October 21st, the highly anticipated release of SINPHONY: A Clubhouse Horror Anthology will be released in theaters and on digital platforms.
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