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“Why do they keep making sequels to bad movies? I kinda liked the first one!” Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories

volumes-of-blood-horror-stories-house-poster-1Over the Halloween weekend the new Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories premiered for the very first time at the Owensboro Convention Center in Kentucky. The original Volumes of Blood from 2015, was five interwoven horror tales set in the Owensboro Library. The slasher anthology gathered friends telling about their own versions of urban horror legends that all had deadly consequences and an ironic twist at the end.

Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories is the newest member of the Volumes of Blood family. Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories is also an anthology, this time with 7 stories of horror that revolve around a haunted or possible cursed house, in the same neighborhood as the first film. Now right off, if I was looking for a house, I might not consider Owensboro after seeing these movies. It seems like the city has a few slasher problems! There is definitely a lot of blood spilling in this town. Maybe that is the fault of our producers P.J. Starks and Eric Huskisson! They are the ones that brought this anthology of horror to town. But I digress. It’s just a movie, right? There are no monsters in Owensboro. So, what is the movie about, you ask?

Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories

The synopsis: A couple plan to purchase an old home, but would like one last tour before the closing. They’re guided around the estate by a creepy realtor that may have more in store than they bargained for. Searching floor by floor, they begin to discover the remnants of its sordid and terrifying past. P.J. Starks’ mission in own his words was “to make the best damn anthology of 2016”.

Says Starks, “It started as a passion project for a bunch of horror fans that wanted to make a horror movie for horror fans. ‘Volumes of Blood: Horror Story’ is a sequel that has not only likable characters, great plot lines, but all the insane over-the-top practical gore FX that you can shake a bloody stump at.”

I got a chance to see the movie this weekend, and Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories lives up to its predecessor and brings on the blood, guts and rock n’ roll even harder that the first movie. It was definitely darker than the first edition and cut off a lot of interesting body parts. I shouldn’t have had this much fun, watching this much gore, but I did!

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It was great to see some familiar faces in the film. It also includes a lot of new ones, including “The Walking Dead”s Moses Moseley (You might remember him as one of Michonne’s walker pets), along with original music from Rocky Gray (Evanescence) and a new single from the death metal band Soul Embraced. Directors this time are Volumes of Blood veteran Nathan Thomas Milliner, along with newcomers Sean Blevins, James Treakle, John Williams Holt, Jon Maynard and Justin Seaman.

The movie starts out with us getting to know about an urban legend in the area. There was a boss that did a very bad thing to one of his employees, including making him into a scarecrow. Now the scarecrow comes back at night to haunt and kill at the warehouse and, in this case, the thieves attempting to rob it. When this story morphs into it being the remake of another movie, and then that movie is being watched by the victim in the next scene, and the next scene, I was really surprised; A movie within a movie, within a movie. Pretty cool.

One thing about VOB:Horror Stories that I really enjoyed was how amusing some of the characters were, even when they were technically monsters. There were some very twisted moments in the film, and they are very effective. It’s hard to dislike a guy whose wife loves him enough to bring him a girl to cut up for his birthday, or a monster who gives you what you asked for when he said “Trick or Treat” and you said “Treat”. Was the guy in the bathroom crazy or was the bathtub really eating all his friends?

VoB:HS - Trick or Treat

Another part I liked was the way the movie went from one scene to another when the realtor took the couple from room to room. We got a chance to see what happened in each room and why the price on the house is so low. I think many of the customers never get the chance to buy, they just stay.

My favorite part was the Christmas Eve segment. All I can say is that if someone takes something away from you on Black Friday this year: let it go, let it go. The main actress in the scene had almost no lines, yet the whole time it was super tension filled, and I was going crazy trying to guess where it was going. The twist ending was emotional, peculiarly funny, and brutally awesome, all wrapped into one short scene.

All in all, Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories is a twisted, brutal, funny, bloody-as-promised film, that I think will be a slasher favorite. It brings on the volumes of blood as promised, with a dark sense of humor and some great SFX.

Feeding Time - Day 1 - Saturday

In the first VOB movie, my favorite kill was death by pencils. In VOB: Horror Stories, my favorite was death by candy canes! I know, I’m a little twisted myself. My only comment would be that it could have been cut down a bit time-wise. It’s a little long, and there were definitely places that could be tightened up in editing. Otherwise thumbs up to all the bloody goodness in Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories.

Earlier in the year I asked Producer P.J. Starks to tell me a little about Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories.

“VOLUMES OF BLOOD: HORROR STORIES is the sequel to our horror anthology from this past year. We had such an incredible and unexpected reaction to the first film that I immediately started throwing around the idea for the sequel. Luckily that door opened and here we are. It’s not a direct sequel; it’s loosely tied to the first VOB. We wanted to give viewers an entirely new experience while paying some fan service to the original. I have a grandiose idea for a VOB universe, so I decided to create a wealth of new characters and scenarios when writing the script. I also brought back Nathan Thomas Milliner, who’s not only an incredible artist and filmmaker, but a strong writer as well. Together we crafted a pretty strong screenplay. Then I brought in all new filmmakers from all over to help bring these scripts to life. We have an awesome crew on this film and I honestly believe that it’s going to blow the first film out of the water.”

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Yesterday, I got to ask him how the premiere this weekend went and how folks interested in the film could get to see it.

“Audience reaction at the premiere was very positive. Everyone seemed to enjoy the movie and some of the kills got fantastic responses,” said P.J. “I couldn’t be more proud of the film, it keeps with the spirit of the first, but is much darker in tone and atmosphere. We’re working on setting up more screenings but the next showing will be at Fright Night Film Festival in Louisville, KY the weekend of November 25-27. The best way to keep up with the film and its screenings is on our Facebook Page.”

‘Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories’  — Behind the Scenes

“Breaking News” — VOBHS Clip #1

‘Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories’ Trailer #1

 

 

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