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Review: XX (2017) ★★½

<p><em>XX<&sol;em> is one of the few &lpar;possibly the only&rpar; horror anthologies written and directed by female filmmakers and focusing on female protagonists&period; The film has four distinct stories&comma; each approximately 20 minutes in length&period; While the each of the shorts centers on a woman&comma; there is virtually no other thematic connection between them &lpar;though 3 out of the 4 shorts do focus on women taking care of their children to one degree or another&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are brief stop-motion sequences between each short&comma; showing bizarre dolls and objects moving around an old house&comma; but these feel rather pointless&comma; and do nothing to provide any real link between the stories&period; While the shorts are all visually well-crafted and of high production value&comma; the stories are somewhat hit-and-miss&comma; and frequently lack any effective horrific elements&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">The first film in <em>XX<&sol;em> is called <em>The Box<&sol;em>&period; Written and directed by Jovanka Vuckovic&comma; <em>The Box<&sol;em> tells the story of a young boy&comma; Danny&comma; who&comma; when riding the train with his mother Susan &lpar;Natalie Brown&rpar;&comma; looks into a box that a stranger is holding&period; He refuses to tell anyone what is in the box&comma; but the sight of it causes him to no longer have any desire to eat&period; When Danny starts losing weight&comma; Susan and her husband&comma; Robert&comma; become increasingly worried&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">The situation soon spirals out of control&comma; leaving Susan to obsess over what was in the box&period;Though <em>The Box<&sol;em> sets up an interesting premise&comma; it fails to craft a cohesive story&comma; and&comma; with the exception of one dream sequence involving graphic cannibalism&comma; there is very little in <em>The Box<&sol;em> that is overtly horrific&period; It is certainly entertaining&comma; as the search for the box’s contents becomes increasingly more dire&comma; but many viewers will find the supernatural elements of the story to be a little confusing&comma; and the ending somewhat disappointing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;916" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-916" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-916 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;IMG&lowbar;0039-300x169&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-916" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&&num;8220&semi;The Birthday Party&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The second film is entitled <em>The Birthday Party<&sol;em>&comma; and is written by Roxanne Benjamin and Annie Clark &lpar;who also directed it&rpar;&period; This story is more simple and straightforward than the first short&comma; and doesn’t involve any kind of supernatural elements&period; In fact&comma; it doesn’t contain any horrific elements either&comma; as it functions much more ably as a comedy short than a horror one&period; In <em>The Birthday Party<&sol;em>&comma; a stressed-out housewife&comma; Mary&comma; attempts to prepare everything for her daughter’s birthday party&comma; only to discover her husband’s dead body in his office&period; Mary spends the remainder of the film attempting to hide the body from nosy neighbors&comma; her nanny&comma; and especially her daughter&comma; so as not to ruin the festivities&period; While this is a funny little short&comma; and Melanie Lynsey gives a fantastic performance as Mary&comma; there is nothing particularly horrific about <em>The Birthday Party<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;917" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-917" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-917 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;IMG&lowbar;0038-300x169&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-917" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&&num;8220&semi;Don&&num;8217&semi;t Fall&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The third film in the anthology is <em>Don’t Fall<&sol;em>&comma; written and directed by Roxanne Benjamin&period; <em>Don’t Fal<&sol;em>l is much more of a traditional horror film&comma; borrowing from the traditions of many monster movies before it&period; The story follows a group of four friends who drive their camper into the desert to have a fun outing in nature&period; While searching the surrounding area&comma; they find a cave painting of a demonic spirit&period; Later that night&comma; Gretchen&comma; who is afraid of heights&comma; wanders out on her own and is attacked by the very same creature from the painting&period; She soon transforms into a monster&comma; and begins hunting the other members of the group&period; Though there is nothing spectacular about <em>Don’t Fall<&sol;em> &lpar;and the name is a little misleading&rpar;&comma; it works well as a straight-forward&comma; by the book horror film&period; It doesn’t take any real risks or tell a story that hasn’t been told before&comma; but it is both adequately entertaining and frightening&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;918" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-918" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-918 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;IMG&lowbar;0040-300x169&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-918" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&&num;8220&semi;Her Only Living Son&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The final film of <em>XX<&sol;em> is <em>Her Only Living Son<&sol;em>&comma; written and directed by Karyn Kusama&period; This short focuses on Cora &lpar;Christina Kirk&rpar;&comma; a single mother who struggles to control her rebellious son&comma; Andy &lpar;Kyle Allen&rpar;&period; We come to find out that there is something innately evil in Andy&period; His mother finds a dead animal that he has nailed to a tree&comma; and the mother of another student at Andy’s school claims that Andy ripped her daughter’s fingernails off&period; Andy frequently comes back late at night covered in blood&comma; and refuses to tell Cora what has happened&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As the story progresses&comma; it becomes clear that Cora knows&comma; to a certain extent&comma; the secret behind Andy’s behavior&comma; and she must protect him at all costs&period; <em>Her Only Living Son<&sol;em> is another well-told story&comma; and is certainly more horrific than <em>The Birthday Party<&sol;em>&comma; but it still does not frighten in the way that a horror film should&period; It feels more like an intimate portrait of a mother loving her son unconditionally&comma; despite the burden of his evil nature&period; And while it is generally a well-made and enjoyable short&comma; some might be disappointed with the ending&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; <em>XX<&sol;em> is superior to most horror anthologies&comma; and is perhaps the best horror anthology to date&comma; but this isn&&num;8217&semi;t saying much&period; Some horror anthologies are overly ambitious &lpar;<em>The ABC’s of Horror<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; while others are frightening&comma; but technically unimpressive &lpar;<em>V&sol;H&sol;S<&sol;em>&rpar;&period; <em>XX<&sol;em> doesn’t bite off more than it can chew with just 4 shorts&comma; and they are all expertly produced&period; However&comma; it really suffers from a lack of genuine scares&period; And&comma; while the shorts are not thematically linked&comma; it is a little disappointing that the narratives put so much emphasis on women functioning only as housewives and mothers&period; In short&comma; <em>XX<&sol;em> is certainly worth a watch&comma; as it is entertaining and showcases the talents of various women in the film industry&comma; but don’t expect to see any real scares in these shorts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <em>XX<&sol;em>&comma; the full movie is available to stream on Netflix or purchase on Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B06W9J5DZS&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B06W9J5DZS&amp&semi;linkId&equals;11780102e509147ff9f14dbff6e1da06">here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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