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EVIL TALES 3: THE FINAL CHAPTER
Produced, Directed, Written, and Edited by Ryan CavallineFeaturing:
Joel Wynkoop
Pamela SutchAny short film compilation I view after watching Jason Santo's BENT series will pale in comparison. So much so that it's almost impossible, and unfair, to compare anything else to Jason Santo's micro-budget masterpieces. Those shorts are exceptionally well-told with time put into their production value. It's what makes them worth buying, something EVIL TALES 3 director Ryan Cavaline has been striving for since he created his first amateur production DAY OF THE AX almost 4 years ago, but has yet to come close.
Having had the luxury of following Ryan's work since the beginning, it's interesting to chart his growth as a moviemaker. From project to project you could see his confidence behind the camera build as he experimented with and deconstructed various element of the horror genre. Unfortunately, Ryan's last few projects have been stagnant. He's become enraptured in marketing his project's more exploitative elements and less concerned with storytelling. That holds especially true with his latest short film compilation, EVIL TALES 3.
With Ryan's last few projects he's partnered with other people willing to do the writing, something that has never been Ryan's strong suit. Unfortunately, this time around he's back by himself. Each of the four short movies that comprise EVIL TALES 3 start interestingly enough, but they go nowhere. For someone who was on his way to becoming the next Eric Stanze, Ryan Cavalline lost his way pretty quickly.
First up in "The Madness," a young man has visions of killing his ex-wife, who looks like a stripper about 15 years his senior, and seeks aid through a psychiatrist. After a few nightmares, and a handful of long-winded scenes chatting it up with the psychiatrist, we find out the young man is under someone else's control. In a story with only 3 characters, it's not hard to figure out who is the villain. And when it's revealed, it comes so matter-of-factly that one has to wonder what was the point of the story. Double the number of scenes with much needed character development and story and this could have been an interesting noir-thriller.
Second is "The Dead Forest," the most experimental of the bunch. A father is pushed over the edge by his crying infant and shoots the baby dead. Like Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the child's cry haunts the man as he tries to bury the evidence. In a case of less-is-more, Cavalline creates his best moments of tension since DAY OF THE AX.
"The Nudy Channel" is the most lightweight of the bunch. It plays like some strange fetish video one would find on sale at the Chiller convention. A loser with an increasing addiction to porn television is amazed to find that he can interact with the characters on his T.V. Being quality Cavalline, soon these naked women convince the poor joe to kill himself. Again, a lack of direction and focus undermine what could have been a fun piece.
Finally, "Demons in the Basement" tells the story of just that, a young man with demons in his basement, or so he thinks. A common thread in much of Cavelline's work is the inability for the heroes to distinguish between reality and fantasy. This could have been the best short on the tape had the concepts been fleshed out more. Perhaps Cavelline could revisit this one sometime down the road as a feature.
I'm not really sure what to think about EVIL TALES 3. The end product is standard amateur moviemaking and comparable to anything else to come from Ryan Cavalline, but when you see someone progressing into a real moviemaker with something to say you tend to get disheartened when you see them fail. The kid has heart, or he would have stopped making these movies years ago, and its time he starts taking the game seriously if he wants to be taken seriously and have been pay for his product.