Directors: Roxanne Benjamin, Sofìa Carrillo, Others
Writers: Jovanka Vuckovic, Jack Ketchum
Stars: Natalie Brown, Jonathan Watton, Peter DaCunha
Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Link: https://amzn.to/2GYcGa2
Synopsis
It’s a four-segment anthology, with all four parts directed by women.
“The Box”
A woman complains about how difficult it is to go into the city with two young children.
One of the children, Danny, asks the man sitting next him on the subway “What’s in the box?” The man opens the box just a crack to show Danny what’s in the box. Danny is clearly disturbed. He doesn’t eat dinner that night. He doesn’t eat the next night either. Danny’s completely lost his appetite. Three days pass, and he just won’t eat anything. “I’m not hungry.”
They take him to the doctor, who thinks it may be an emotional problem. Danny has a long talk alone with Jenny, his sister. The next day, she stops eating as well. Danny whispers his secret into Dad’s ear as well. Mom realizes this all started with the man and the box on the train. Months pass, and soon the two children and husband are in the hospital on life support; they’ve starved themselves to death.
Mom starts riding the subway looking for the mysterious man with the box…
“The Birthday Party”
Mary and servant Carla are getting ready for Lucy’s birthday party. She finds her husband’s dead body on his office, but she has to go on with the show; the party must go on. Carla’s roaming the house, and Mary decides to hide the body to keep things on schedule. The neighbor woman comes over for a chat, and she wants an invitation to the children’s party too.
The dancing panda-gram guy comes to the door, and she offers him $1000 for his panda suit. She puts her dead husband inside the panda suit, thinking that’d be a great place to hide the body.
Then all the children arrive in their costumes with many parents in tow. They have the birthday party, and the giant panda is the center of attention, right there in front of the birthday cake and everyone. Until things go from bad to worse…
“Don’t Fall”
A group of hikers makes it to the top of the plateau. It’s got a great view. They find an old cave-painting and take a photo of it. They think it might be a historic site, and illegal to camp there. Maybe it’s even cursed.
The night progresses, and the full moon rises. Gretchen wakes up, and she’s in a prehistoric cave with a monster. Jay comes outside and finds her, changed into a monster. Then, things get bad…
“Her Only Living Son”
A woman remembers something that happened 18 years ago. Then she looks in on her son, Andy, who is about to turn 18. The boy’s father is a Hollywood producer. Later on, she finds. A squirrel nailed to a tree outside. Chet the mailman asks Nora out, but she can’t leave her son alone.
She’s called into school because her son tore off a girl’s fingernails. They’ve all heard the stories about Andy. “Your son needs real help, and if you can’t see that, apparently so do you,” says the other mother. The Principal at school is firmly in Andy’s corner. She is clearly one of his followers. “He’s a truly remarkable human being.”
That night, she dreams about the birth of her son. Chet the mailman tells her not to fight with Andy anymore. “His real father is coming to claim him soon.” Chet says he’s heard the story many times, and he’s been watching over them for years. Andy wants to know who his real father is. Then his real father comes for him. It turns out that this story is an unofficial follow-up to “Rosemary’s Baby…”
Commentary
The creature effects in “Don’t Fall” are pretty good. The emaciated children in “The Box” are pretty good too. There’s no special effects in “The Surprise Party,” but the story is hilarious. The fourth story is probably the most intense, but it’s also a sequel, so the main party of that story has already been told.
I liked all four stories, and the animated bits between the segments don’t really tell a story, but they are definitely weird. The thread running through all the stories are that they are all directed by women (hence the title “XX” referring to chromosomes). I honestly can’t say I can see much difference between these and horror shorts directed by men. They do all take a female point of view, but then so do many male-directed films. The stories are all fine, it just seems like a thin premise for naming the film that.