Compendium horror – who’s it for? That question formed in my mind as The 100 Candles Game told its seven different stories, plus another one that links them all together, Arabian Nights style.
Are audiences hungry for this sort of thing? I don’t think so. Film-makers love the portmanteau horror film, though, because it gives directors a chance to hawk their wares, in affordable chunks, often supported by a producer who knows his way around the business.
But on the whole they are patchy affairs, usually a mix of the OK, the pretty skanky and, rarely, a magnificent outlier.
There is no true magnificence here, though the film-makers on display are a lot more than just competent. Most succeed in conjuring quite a head of atmosphere in the scant screen moments they have before the story moves on.
But first the set-up – the dark and stormy night bit. Four people in an old dark house sit inside a circle of 100 lit candles, each taking a turn at telling a story. When the story is over, they pick up a lit candle and go to the next room, where they must stare into an old mirror before blowing it out. At this point one of two things will happen – nothing, or something horrible. Need more be said?
Yes, one thing, this strand, the Scheherazade bit, is by far the weakest element in this mixed bag. More connective tissue than meat, it’s conceptually hobbled by its function – to link the stories together. I’m guessing it’s directed by Nicolás Onetti, the film’s producer, who’s named as one of the directors on the IMDb, but without a segment to his name. If you’ve seen Abrakadabra, his astonishing giallo homage, you’ll know Onetti is better than this poorly acted, under-written segment – think of it as the ad breaks.
The other directors are either newbies, or slightly more battle-scarred practitioners switching from a different branch of the biz, but all show a remarkable grasp of the nuts and bolts of making a horror film. Character, mood, soundscapes, commitment by your actors, cameras that enhance rather than show off, they have it nailed.
The stories themselves vary wildly in length. The opener, A Little Taste, probably lasts less than five minutes yet packs it all in – character, plot, setting, plus two twists. Beautifully concise.
Children recur as a theme – a boy (props to Jonathan Ohlrogge) and his strangely paranoid father in one, a sick woman terrorised by a demon child in another, another woman convinced (wrongly) her child is a demon in another.
I have to say I liked them all. Buried Alive – girl wakes up alive in a coffin – made me genuinely squirm. Blight was a little homage to The Exorcist which was punchy and quick and featured Alicia Gerrard as a latterday Linda Blair – god, that girl can howl.
To pick a winner is invidious, as they say. All these mini-movies have something to offer, not least answers to two questions in my mind. Has Clara Kovacic done anything else, I wondered while watching Abrakadabra in the middle of last year. Here she is, as one of the foursome telling stories. And whatever happened to Amy Smart, who used to be everywhere but seems to have dropped off the map. Here she is, in The Visitant, another very short but grimly effective psycho-horror.
Most of the stories have a either a jump scare, or a twist at the end. Some have both. All the film-makers seem to like their soundscapes and music up high in the mix. They like their subsonics and sudden escalations in volume too. Victor Català, Oliver Lee Garland, Guillermo Lockhart, Tony Morales, Nick Peterson, Daniel Rübesam and Christopher West, you’ve done a good (if loud) job.
If you like horror and enjoy a compendium, it’s recommended. In which case you’ll probably also be interested in the follow-up – The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession – with six fresh directors doing their thing, Onetti returning as producer/svengali and, sole front-of-camera holdover, Magui Bravi – a good giallo name – returning to flash her dark and spooky features at the camera.
The 100 Candles Game aka 100 Candles – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2025
