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Leofwine_draca TRAPPED ASHES is a very low budget anthology horror made in the same style as DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS or CREEPSHOW. It has an admirably old-fashioned feel to it, but unfortunately the constraints of budget and general cheesiness of the execution means that it disappoints rather than innovates throughout.Unusually enough for a horror anthology, the best part of the film is the wraparound segment. This is directed by Joe Dante, who can't resist throwing in some old timers like his beloved Dick Miller and Henry Gibson (THE BURBS), who acts as a tour guide showing a group around an old haunted house. The stories that take place are as follows: The first, THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN BREASTS, is an awful bad taste joke about a woman whose breast enlargement operation goes awry. This one's directed by Ken Russell, who also cameos, and it's terrible from beginning to end. The second, JIBAKU, is directed by Friday THE 13TH's Sean S. Cunningham and is a Japanese-set ghost story. Sadly, the events that play out are entirely predictable, although Ryo Ishibashi (SUICIDE CLUB) bags a small role.The third story, STANLEY'S GIRLFRIEND, arouses some mild interest by tackling the weighty subject of Stanley Kubrick, but it turns out to be routine despite the welcome presence of old-timer John Saxon. The final story, MY TWIN, MY WORM, is another bad taste story and the title tells you everything you need to know about that. I only really enjoyed TRAPPED ASHES for seeing the three old-time actors on-screen but the young cast members are very poor here and the directors appear to be slumming it. It's a pity.

dschmeding I don't know why but I used to be a huge fan of Creepshow and Tales from the crypt although the later series were rather lame. "Trapped Ashes" is very much in this tradition and features 4 horror shorts bound together in a surrounding plot of 2 couples and 2 solo people going on a sightseeing on a Hollywood movie site and getting stuck in an hold horror house with an old guy who leads them around. Turns out they can only leave if each tells their most frightening personal story... so here we go... Story 1 is about an actress who doesn't get any new jobs and decides to get a boob job. Now after her life turns around for the positive she soon realizes that her breast are vampire boobies feeding on human blood which doesn't go to well for her lovers. This story is pretty bizarre and trashy and captures the spirit of old "Tales from the crypt" stories best. Its totally idiotic but the end is so over the top its fun. Story 2 is a ghost-story about a couple moving to Japan where the woman is seduced by a monk who dies and takes her to hell where she turns into a succubus. Her husband soon learns he has to free her from there by feeding her a spell. The story is OK, but as frightening or thrilling as a Sesamestreet Episode. At least you get some naked shots and some nice animation sequences of old Japanese paintings which work pretty well. Story 3 is pretty much nothing leading nowhere. An actor and his best friend a scriptwriter regularly meet for chess until a girl appears. Soon the scriptwriter disappears and the actor begins a love affair to find out years later that the girl is some kind of ghost/witch/vampire... honestly I couldn't care less because the episode is boring and makes no sense. Story 4 is another strange one about a girl who grows up in her mothers womb along with a tapeworm and lives with a strange desire for collecting food for her "twin". When she is treated badly by her stepmother the "twin" takes revenge.What most of the stories suffer from is incredibly long passages of introducing of characters and that is way stretched and often even unnecessary for the plod. So when the action starts most of the time is up and there is not too much time for the horror to happen. Like most of those story collections there is some bad apples in there and I couldn't recommend this average movie just for the vampire boobies and the finale. This is just for real die hard fans of horror shorts... the slow ghost movies won't be too interesting for neither "Tales..." Fans nor others because they don't lead nowhere. Too bad...

geobucks I am so sick of low budget crap movies that try to propagandize with getting their "people" to come here and vote 10's to try and raise feces to a work of art. This is a horrible movie. Period. Lousy direction and acting, a story line that could have been oh, so much more. IMDb may use algorithms and secret formulas to try and limit "stuffing", but it is simply not working. To each their own, but, I think it is an awful movie. I watched part of the movie, but couldn't even bring myself to use bandwidth to pirate. Not "Sraight to Video", straight to coaster and into the garbage. I am reluctant to call this the "worst movie ever", (since there are too many doofae who do that, but ,IMHO, should be considered.

mark-2189 Wow. Where to begin? This anthology offers a whirlwind of styles, moods and horrific situations. I found some of it to be deeply unsettling: scenes & moments stayed with me for days (vampire breasts = more disturbing than you may think; rotting corpse lovers; nightmarish "womb with a view" recollections).The talent on display is simply amazing. Ken (TOMMY, LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM) Russell, Sean (FRIDAY THE 13TH) Cunningham, Monte (TWO LANE BLACKTOP) Hellman (name checked in an REM song too!), John (THE MATRIX Trology SFX supervisor) and lastly but not leastly, Joe (GREMLINS) Dante.I've seen a few message board comments trashing this movie, but let me tell you an opposing POV. This movie reflects the talents of the directors who took the time to make it. This is not SCREAM or THE RING (US) or THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE. TRAPPED ASHES goes down it's own odd and disquieting pathway to hell. It has a decidedly literary flavor, although its shocks are as unpleasant & visceral as any classic horror film.There's some cool acting talent along for the ride; Henry Gibson plays a man with a venomous secret; John Saxon plays a man haunted by the specter of long lost lust; Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Helo on SciFi Channel's amazing BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series, plays Saxon's younger self, a man who lets a succubus destroy a friendship and a life; even director Ken Russell gets in a hilariously strange cameo role.Check your expectations at the door. TRAPPED ASHES is a horror movie unlike most you may have seen. It's an absolute MUST for hard core fans of the genre...