I am a sucker for a good anthology movie, which gives you multiple stories for the price of one. While I tend to gravitate towards horror anthology movies, I also love films that present collections of shorts from all different genres. The question is, what is the best story from each of the best anthologies in cinematic history?
Sin City, “Hartigan And Nancy’s Story”
While the definitive and most heartfelt segment from 2005’s Sin City is actually named after its brightly colored main antagonist (played by Nick Stahl), it is better known as the tale of Det. Hartigan (Bruce Willis) and Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba). Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s striking adaptation of Miller’s noir-inspired graphic novels is bookended by the two-parter in which a hard-boiled detective goes to jail for a young abuse victim and remains devoted to protecting her from her attacker years later.
Stephen King’s 1982 classic, Creepshow, applies the word “creepy” in its literal definition? “They’re Creeping Up on You!” stars E. G. Marshall as a wealthy, germophobic, cantankerous recluse whose penthouse becomes infested with cockroaches.
horror anthology TV show is often overshadowed by the disastrous production of John Landis’ segment, during which three people died in a helicopter crash. However, the film should be noted for its amusing reinterpretations of classic Twilight Zone episodes, especially George Miller’s version of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” starring a brilliant John Lithgow as the disturbed man who spots something sinister on the wing.
Jeffrey Wright as a food critic wrapped up in a ransom plot.
mature animated movie classic from 1981, Heavy Metal, which is made up of various bizarre sci-fi fantasy stories, such as “Den.” John Candy voices the title role of this segment, who is a meek, lanky teen who finds an orb that sends him to another planet where he is transformed into a hulking hero.
celebrities as themselves, with “Cousins” being one unique exception. While Oscar winner Cate Blanchett does portray herself here, she also disappears into the role of her fictional brunette relative, Shelly, as they both meet at a hotel lobby for an awkward reunion.
found footage thrillers. The most revered segment from the 2012 original, which was later adapted into the 2016 feature Siren, is called “Amateur Night,” in which three male friends, one of whom wears glasses equipped with a hidden camera, unwittingly bring a hungry succubus (Hannah Fierman) to their motel room.
Disney animated movies probably cannot get enough of 1940’s Fantasia, which is a showcase of the studio’s best animated shorts up to that point. The signature segment, which loosely inspired a live-action feature starring Nicolas Cage, is “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which stars Mickey Mouse as the assistant to a magic-wielder who tries to get out of doing chores with his boss’ enchanted hat, but ends up causing more trouble.
Antonio Banderas and Tamlyn Tomita).
Black horror cinema starring Clarence Williams III as an eccentric funeral director who entertains three young men with stories about his most bizarre clientele. One of its scariest, funniest, and most refreshingly socially conscious segments stars Corbin Bernsen as a racist Southern senator taunted by dolls possessed by the souls of slaves who used to work at the plantation home he now uses as an office.
classic parody film featuring uproarious vignettes and some of the most amusing fake commercials in pop culture history. For instance, one faux ad promotes a board game called Scot Free, which challenges players to successfully carry out a political assassination without getting caught.
straight-to-video ’90s movie that would soon become a holiday tradition in my home is 1999’s Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas, which presents a trio of heartwarming holiday tales narrated by Kelsey Grammer and starring some of Disney’s most iconic animated characters. Mickey and Minnie lead the strongest segment, based on O. Henry’s seminal short story, “The Gift of the Magi,” which is a wonderful reminder of the true value of exchanging presents, complemented by a rousing rendition of “Jingle Bells” led by Mickey on harmonica.
horror movie icon Boris Karloff. The Italian thriller is most revered for a deeply unsettling segment called “The Drop of Water,” in which a nurse pays the ultimate price when she snatches a ring off the finger of a recently deceased medium.
Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy plays the Caped Crusader in all six animated segments from the underrated Batman movie, 2008’s Batman: Gotham Knight. It is truly challenging to pick a favorite, but if we want to go off of excitement alone, I would choose director Yasuhiro Aoki’s “In Darkness Dwells,” in which the Dark Knight takes on Killer Croc, who has been infected by Scarecrow’s fear toxin.
Predator: Killer of Killers, might be the franchise’s best since the 1987 original, if not ever, for the way its stunning tales deepen the lore behind one of cinema’s scariest aliens. Before all three decades-spanning segments culminate into one grand finale, Viking warrior Ursa’s story, “The Shield,” succeeds as a beautifully animated, strikingly choreographed, and ultimately heartbreaking tale of vengeance that features one hulking behemoth of a Predator.
Japanese horror movie Kwaidan consider the strongest segment to be “Hoichi the Earless,” which is a visually entrancing story of a blind musician asked to perform an account of the Tale of the Heike by a group of spirits.
“Quitters Inc.,” starring James Woods as a man who enrolls in a program to crush his smoking habit and discovers there are grave consequences for breaking the rules.
horror films directed by women, which I, admittedly, wish I liked as much as I hoped to when I first heard about it. However, I was still quite impressed with writer and director Jovanka Vuckovic’s mysterious and deeply upsetting adaptation of author Jack Ketchum’s short story, “The Box,” in which a boy takes a look inside a box held by a stranger on a subway and, from that point on, refuses to eat.
Asian horror cinema – Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook, and Takashi Miike – team up for a trio of intense tales released in 2004 as Three… Extremes. A segment that especially helps the anthology live up to its name is Park’s “Cut,” starring Lee Byung-hun as a filmmaker held captive by a vengeful background actor he has worked with in the past.
late-night TV host Arsenio Hall leads this uproarious display of physical comedy as a man experiencing one increasingly horrific instance of bad luck after another.
creepy clown movie Terrifier and its sequels took the slasher genre by storm, Art the Clown was first introduced in a short film of the same name by Damien Leone in which he stalks an innocent woman traveling down an isolated road at night. The terrifying tale would later appear in, and serve as the best segment from, Leone’s 2013 anthology film All Hallow’s Eve, which involves the horrifying harlequin (then played by Mike Giannelli) as a recurring presence throughout.
Lust Stories, “Anurag Kashyap”
Arguably the strongest segment from the Emmy-nominated, romantic Indian anthology, Lust Stories, comes from director Anurag Kashyap and follows a woman (played by Radhika Apte) indulging in extramarital affairs.
Body Bags, “The Gas Station”
Horror master John Carpenter stars in 1993’s Body Bags as the ghoulish host of the made-for-TV anthology, originally optioned as a series for Showtime, who presents the stories behind the latest clientele at a morgue. Carpenter also directs the strongest and most grounded segment, starring Alex Datcher as a convenience store graveyard shift attendant having her first day on the night a serial killer is announced to be on the loose.
Twenty Bucks, “Jimmy And Frank”
There is no known, official title for what is widely considered the best of the interconnected tales from 1993’s Twenty Bucks, which is a star-studded comedy following the travels of a $20 bill and the stories it stumbles upon along the way. The story in question follows a pair of thieves named Jimmy (Christopher Lloyd) and Frank (Steve Buscemi), whose distrust in one another over the eponymous bill proves to be their downfall.