VOD Review: Southbound (2016)

"This is how more Horror Anthologies should be done."

We love Horror Anthologies.

A lot of them aren't all that great, and some of them are even downright bad, but when they're good, there's almost nothing better to give us the quick, impactful Horror fix that we're fiending for.

Thankfully, Southbound is one of those good ones that delivered most of what we hoped that it would. Had it delivered just a bit more, it would have been an A+ sort of affair, but we're still happy with what it did give us; which was some decent thrills wrapped in an ever-present sense of dread. What more could we really ask for from the people who gave us three uneven V/H/S movies?

Southbound is a Horror Anthology that revolves around a group of people who are pulled into their own living nightmares while traveling down a desolate stretch of highway. Presumably, they're all heading South. Or the title could just be a metaphor for Hell, in which case they could have just called the movie Hellbound, and been done with it.

Anywho, we're going to break down each segment as simple and spoiler-free as possible. 

THE WAY OUT

Two guys are on the run after having done something bad, and they're being chased by some creepy, floating squid-like creatures. What did they do, and why are they being chased? We don't find that out until the final segment, where everything comes full circle. 

This was a pretty solid opening. Nothing remarkable, but solid.

SIREN

When their tour bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere, the all-girl band The White Tights accepts a ride from an nice older couple, which of course leads to nothing good. 

This was a good segment that had a truly creepy vibe about it, as well as plenty of great black comedy throughout; it wasn't funny though, so don't get the wrong idea. It reminded us of the Satanic Cult movies that were so popular in the 70's. It's also a pretty bloody segment, with plenty of vomiting, mysterious meat eating, and white milky medicine drinking that turned our stomachs a bit.

Good stuff.

THE ACCIDENT

A guy is driving down a lonely stretch of highway in the dead of night, when he hits a girl who wanders into the road. She's hurt bad, and it's apparent that if he doesn't act quick, she's going to die. So he does act quick, doing everything in his power to save her life, which leads him to an empty hospital, where one of the most disturbing scenes that we've seen in recent memory unfolds.

The Accident was our favorite segment of the movie, as it was nasty, creepy, and pretty frigging intense. It's also a cruel segment, which you'll understand after seeing how it unfolds. It also boasts one hell of a nasty, cringe-inducing sequence, which you'll definitely know when you see it.

This one was the high-point of the movie for us.

JAILBREAK

Danny has been searching for his sister Jesse for over ten years, and he's finally tracked her down to a small, out of the way town in the middle of the desert. When he finds her though, the reunion isn't quite as happy as he expected it to be...

This was the section of the movie that we liked the least. It wasn't bad, mind you, it just didn't have the impact on us that the other segments had, and it ended on a pretty lame note. After all of the "you can't go out there" bullshit, all we get is a bunch of guys in white makeup, and an off-screen scream?

Very anti-climactic.

THE WAY IN

As a family gets ready to send their daughter off to college, a trio of masked men show up at their isolated house in the middle of the night with other plans...

The last segment of the movie would be the best of them all, if The Accident hadn't been so good. The Way In not only presents its own twisted, intense story, but also manages to tie into the first story (The Way Out) in a very satisfactory way; and we love how it tied in.

This was a solid way to end a solid Anthology flick, and we are pleased.

SHE'S NOT VERY PLEASED, BUT WE ARE.

As Horror Anthologies go, Southbound is at the top of the heap for us. It's not Trick 'r Treat or anything, and it wasn't without its weak points, but it was a thrilling and cohesive ride through Hell that made us want more.

The cool thing about this movie is how seamlessly all the stories flow together. Where in other Anthologies like V/H/S, the stories all have a kind of thrown together feeling, the ones in Southbound are all connected and joined together organically. That was a really nice thing to experience.

We would have liked to have had a bit more info to chew on, as a lot of the cooler aspects of the movie were left ambiguous for the most part. Was the little strip of highway, the hospital, the bar, and everything around them a sort of Hell on Earth? Was it actually Hell? The way we look at it, the Pentagram on the poster makes it all a sort of Hellish Bermuda Triangle of sorts, but that's just us.

And what did the one guy do the the other guy's daughter? We can draw our own conclusions, but a little more info would have added some weight to that segment, which felt like it ended a bit too quickly.  And really, what was the point of the Jailbreak segment? It felt like filler, in a movie that was most filler-free, like it was a "we need one more segment" sort of thing.

AND WHAT WAS HER DEAL?

Plenty of gore throughout this one, including some impaling, some exploding heads, plenty of stabbing, and once horribly disturbing scene in a hospital that made us wince and turn away more than once. That fucking leg gag...

It's definitely bloody enough for most folks.

YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EATEN THAT MEAT.

Even though there were plenty of attractive women in this movie, there was no nudity on display.

SASSY.

Next time you have to drive through the desert, take a plane instead. Also, the bad shit you do always comes back to haunt you. Always.

IN THE FORM OF GIANT, SPECTRAL SQUID MONSTERS.

Southbound is one hell of a Horror Anthology that got just about everything right, and the things that it got wrong weren't really all that wrong, but more like off a bit. I really don't want to sound like I'm overselling this one (this movie is made my many of the folks who gave us the V/H/S movies, and I had no issue ripping them apart as needed), but it's better than any of them were, and one of the better Horror Anthologies in recent years. It may even be the best one since Trick 'r Treat.

If you dig Horror Anthologies, then you need to give this one a rent.

B+

Southbound is available now on VOD, and in Limited Theatrical release.

There's plenty of eye candy in Southbound; so much so that we gave them their own little Horror Hotties post, which you can check out right HERE.