It's coming in hot with 10's across the board from IMDB movie-goers. But let's take a closer look at this already relatively renowned 2022 horror anthology. P. S. At the very bottom of this review I attempted to piece together the frame story, if you're interested.
Hot take:
This experience felt to me like I was watching a bunch of relatively poorly acted cliches interacting with each other within storylines featuring mostly exhausted tropes. The innovative frame story - this film's saving grace - offers a lot of world-building, but it doesn't really explain much about the significance of the different vignettes, and so they largely feel disjointed and even unnecessary, especially when several of them are so lackluster or underwhelming, such as Special, Disturbed, Icarus, Unanswered, and arguably Ballistic - that's half of the skits!
On with the review:
We've got 3 directors for this one ladies and gentlemen, each with their own screenplay contributions. Grayson Berry (Law & Order: SVU) offers us "Icarus," "Unanswered," and "Vortex parts 1 & 2." Our second director, Raffaele Marchetta has carried many short films and smaller projects under his wings, and it shows as he delivers "Disturbed," "The Place," and "Ballistic." The third boy in the band, Thomas Ryan Ward's main experience with filming and directing stems almost entirely from this anthology. He gives us "Bitter Cup," and "Special."
I'll say this:
Vortex: A Film Anthology is by no means a solid 10, especially insofar as horror anthologies are concerned. Still, it is a solid endeavor.
Creativity is gushing out of every nook and cranny of this thing, and THAT'S where it derives its sort of highbrow charm. With clean, smooth cinematography, inventive story-telling, largely habile acting, and polished visual and practical effects, this anthology treats us to 9 decently-crafted, somewhat refined and mostly uninspired tales.
As for what holds this movie back from being a 10/10? Sound, is a good place to begin. It is either poor audio mixing or low-grade audio equipment that is the culprit for the shoddy sound quality. In the filmmaking industry, they say, "the eye forgives, but the ear does not." The sound design for this, in terms of soundtrack and soundscape, is spot on, but then any time the somewhat muffled dialogue - which at times can be obscured by any other competing sounds - becomes even remotely loud, the sound thunders in with a very choppy and static boom. It can really break immersion.
Well, that's it for the ears. Onto the eyes! While the cinematography is passable, the shots are usually overexposed, giving it an overall amateurish, dated finish. Just as well, this anthology struggles with the classic indie-movie issue where some actors/actresses are better than others, but to such a degree that it is detrimental to the scene. It's kind of like watching several people try to build a PB&J sandwich, but one person brings the bread, one brings the peanut butter, and another brings a piece of lettuce. It might not taste that bad, per se, but it sure as hell ain't jelly. The acting already isn't stellar to begin with, and so it's like comparing apples to onions. . . .or PB&J to a PB&L.
Kudos to the team for constructing this anthology during Covid-19! I'm sure that was difficult to work around. Overall, I really got a "Chilling Visions: Five Senses of Fear" vibe from this anthology, but without the production value and clever screenplay, and the addition of a more intricate frame story. It's also worth noting that the credits for this anthology feature, well, it's not quite a blooper reel, but it does have outtakes. . . Or perhaps its a blooper reel masquerading as outtakes. Anyway, it's a nice touch and puts on display the fact that this anthology was indeed a passion project.
Below are brief Plot Summaries:
Bitter Cup:
Serving justice as cold and bitter as the darkest coffee.
Stephanie's just trying to move up in the world, but it's hard when the top positions of the company she works for are seated by elitist bedlamites.
Disturbed:
A natural man-eater, this player loves the game.
An intruder breaks into a young couple's home. However, he's not exactly a stranger.
Icarus:
Two kids go searching for a man who has fallen from the sky.
Short and sweet, but wanting.
The Place:
On their way home from a restaurant, a young couple get into an accident and end up in a very strange pickle.
This is the longest and most compelling story of the bunch.
Ballistic:
The proof is in the pudding. . .but you have to have the pudding first.
A married couple and their friend are waiting for their seemingly inevitable death, and so they speak their last words to one another and share their darkest secrets.
Special:
After an all-time low, she's back on the up and up.
A young and failing actress receives an offer to die for.
Not much going on here.
Unanswered:
A religious young man is haunted by visions of his three friends that went missing.
Again, not much going on here.
Vortex Part 1
Nikola Tesla's brilliant mind holds the key that unlocks alternative realities. Two men have him strapped to a table and connected to a device, forcing him to generate and experience these different alternative realities while a third man observes.
Vortex Part 2
As the experiments continue, Nikola tries to contend with his captors. To stop him, they travel through time and space.
My best guess - put Vortex 1 and 2 together and you get something like this:
Because he created a free source of infinite energy, Nikola Tesla was swooped up from his timeline/alternative reality by a group from the future that is mad about the fact that they can't profit off of energy anymore. They used certain chemicals and apparatuses to subdue and incapacitate Nikola. While unconscious, the group could then use his mind to access alternative realities, most likely a result of Nikola's mind attempting to return back to his own reality and timeline.
The group possesses a chart they stole from Nikola that depicts a cosmic ritual of sorts that opens up "the gap," and it requires a certain number of alternative realities to exist at one time. So they transfer the alternate realities that Nikola unlocks into televisions in order to sustain those realities indefinitely, keeping the gateways open for as long as they need them to be open.
But something they didn't expect occurs. Nikola becomes conscious whilst inside of the dreamlike alternative realities. With an awareness of how he ended up in his situation, and the understanding that completing the ritual would most likely have unknown devastating effects, he shuts down the opened gates by releasing the doves, which were physical representations of the gates, and opts to end his life, shutting down the "gap ritual" forever.
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