A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio is an anthology with a difference. Rather than several filmmakers being commissioned to create a short for inclusion in a feature film, it is instead a collection of pre-existing shorts that have been curated and worked together with a new wraparound story. The masterminds behind this idea are Argentinian directors Nicolás and Luciano Onetti, of Francesca and Abrakadabra fame, whom also direct the linking story.
The linking story hones in on a radio DJ Rod Wilson whom hosts a late-night show that tells a series of scary stories. These are told via both Rod himself, and listeners calling in, giving the film a ‘ghost stories by the camp fire’ vibe. The stories themselves vary vastly in tone, style, and feature tales of spirit photography, sadistic beauty therapists, and an alternate punishment for one unlucky prisoner to mention a few.
As with any anthology, the short films contained within will not please everyone. Given how wide the net reaches here in terms of creatures and styles etc., there’s no way that each tale can please everyone as horror is a very subjective genre. Scares and taste aside, all of them are well constructed films. Standouts are Post Mortem Mary, The Disappearance of Willie Bingham, Drops, and The Smiling Man.
To give a little context to each, Post Mortem Mary is a period-set piece about a mother and daughter whom photograph the recently deceased so that those grieving have something to remember them by. When the mother has to console the bereaved, it’s left to her young daughter to complete the task; what follows are several minutes of chilling tension. The Disappearance of Willie Bingham is a bleak tale about a convict whom, rather than face death row, agrees to an experimental punishment, which involves him systematically having pieces of him chopped off. In the short format it makes for a harrowing watch and you can’t help but empathise with Willie. Gotas offers a fresh perspective on abuse, with our lead Marta literally being stalked by a creepy Gollum-looking creature. The Smiling Man follows a more traditional short format, but is devastating, sinister and brutal all at once. It tells of a young girl whom wakes in the middle the night to find a trail of balloons leading down to a maniacal mime whose appearance will almost certainly crop up in nightmares later down the line.
Nightmare Radio offers an interesting idea about how to distribute well-received festival shorts to a wider audience. The only snag is that several of the shorts featured here have been, and still are, available to watch on You Tube. This leads to potential irritation for a short savvy viewer having already seen the bulk of the content previously. Were they to have been kept off of the video channel, and prior screenings purely confined to festivals, this wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
The shorts themselves are varied, covering all sorts of creatures and spooky goings on. This is great as it gives us ghosts, killer mermaids, creepy mime’s, a new whirl on body horror, a reason to fear the hairdresser, and a sinister shadow monster. The problem though is that because there isn’t a linking theme or idea to the shorts, the overall film lacks cohesion. It’s an unsurprising issue given how the anthology was constructed, but it does give the feeling that you’re at a short film showcase rather than watching one singular film.
A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest Glasgow 2020.
