DVD Review: Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales

By Brad Henderson

This is devastating.

Tom Holland has made two of my most beloved horror films: Fright Night and Child’s Play. Child’s Play is still one of my favorite horror films of all time and one of the only films that frightened me as a kid. I still get extremely nervous when Andy’s mother discovers that there are no batteries inside of Chucky. That film and that certain scene are perfection to me and both are a huge inspiration for all sorts of projects and things I do.

When I heard that Tom Holland had a TV show coming out with a collection of his short films, I was very pumped. Even though he doesn’t have the largest filmography he has some fantastic films under his belt and I was hoping this would be no different.

Unfortunately, Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales didn’t even seem real and I kept wondering if Tom Holland actually wrote and directed all these shorts. From what I can tell he did and I don’t get it. These shorts even have a hell of a cast between William Forsythe, Danielle Harris, AJ Bowen, Ray Wise, Sarah Butler, Noah Hathaway, and Marc Senter. With those people I would expect a quality product but instead we get a CGI-filled poop fest.

Usually in anthologies there are a few good segments and then some not so good ones, but the good outweigh the bad and we are left feeling fulfilled with the anthology. . . most of the time. Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales is over two hours and 20 minutes long and includes nine segments (one segment has a few episodes) and none of them are worth it. Even the one with AJ Bowen (one of my favorite actors) called “Fred and His GPS” is not very good. All the actors do a decent job but they don’t have enough to utilize because the stories are extremely weak and predictable. The “Pizza Guy” segments provide some solid acting by Marc Senter who steals the show but it is still swarmed with terrible CGI fire.

“Boom” is the only segment that is well done and tolerable but still predictable with, guess what? CGI fire! Even in the last segment Holland speaks throughout the short trying to cast some kind of foreshadowing, but it is so silly you end up rolling your eyes. I would think with the last segment being vampires and all we would get some homage to Fright Night, but we are left with a corny story that goes nowhere.

There is no wraparound story to these shorts as either; it is just Tom Holland being himself, telling us what we are watching. It is incredibly awkward. I wish there was something that could save this film and make me tell you this is somewhat worth your time but it isn’t.

I’m so sorry, Tom Holland, but I still love you. You’ve impacted my life a great deal. I still have faith in you and hope you continue to make movies. However, this was definitely not my bag.

Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales will be released on March 18 from Image Entertainment.