"Scary Or Die" anthology tells five very different dark and twisted stories with L.A as a backdrop save the first. The first story happens in the borderlands outside the city close to Mexico. The film manages to quietly hint at the interwoven depth of the five tales with carefully hidden elements to the tale which require careful attention from the viewer to catch the connection. "Scary Or Die" has directors Bob Badway, Michael Emanuel, and Igor Meglic coming together to create some clever and fresh urban tales of horror which star Bill Oberst Jr., Alexandra Choi, and Corbin Bleu just to name a few playing out these ill fated lives.

scary or die"Scary Or Die" is a classic horror trilogy that celebrates the classic dark, witty and twisted styles most common in 80's anthologies and television series (Tales From The Darkside is the one I kept coming back to as I watched this film). The stories are "The Crossing" - a very dark and poignant story of prejudice and karma which has a couple of 'good ole boys' seeking to deport immigrants in their own sick manner only to have fate exact a gruesome justice of it's own; "Tae Jung's Lament" - a Korean vampire tale that is both elusive and clever in it's re-imagining of a 'damsel in distress' story; "Re- Membered" – a story that brings a scene of almost demonic or devilish cat and mouse dance between a shady character with someone in the trunk; "Clowned"- is an emotional horror story that has a family torn apart over some demonic case of twisted circumstance which conjures nightmares on so many levels; and "Lover Come Back"- a sinister and justified voodoo love story that proves some emotional bonds go beyond the grave or in this case the gross dumping ground.

For me this is one of the better produced anthologies that flows cleanly between tales as given through us by an unknown person via a website entitled "Scary Or Die". The person becomes known at the end, tying up the thread of continuation in this nice little flick. The stories varied from dark humor to melodramatic despair. Each of the stories held out to the very last scene before unveiling the full scope of the twisted tales which brought a freshness to each of them and made this film very entertaining. It is not a balls out scary anthology but it is clever and modern. "Scary Or Die" is a new urbanized 21st century anthology that holds it's own against the classics. I will watch this one many more times before I tire of it. Mainly because there are some deep messages in these stories that you don't see in a lot of the new anthologies and I am still trying to figure out what those messages actually represent.

A website host examines a series of stories that take place among residents of Los Angeles.

The Good Stor(ies): The Crossing-A group of teens take a trip to the Mexican border for fun and games with captured illegal aliens, but things take a dark turn when their previous victims rise from the dead to take revenge. Actually fairly decent enough with a clever twist here in that it's not immediately about the torture of the victims before since this one manages to get through a little spiel before getting to it's main point, which is fun but those aren't that interesting. Thankfully, the zombie attacks are gruesome and gory enough that they're one of the saving graces here, and manage to make a clichéd segment into something fun.

Clowned-After getting bit by a strange clown for his brother's birthday party, a man finds transforming into a frightening clown and tries to stave off a series of murderous urges as he searches for the one responsible for his condition. Clearly the film's main selling point as there clearly was a lot put into this one with it's extended and obvious length advantage over the others, it's also quite a lot of fun as the change comes on quite slowly and makes for a pretty chilling transformation as all the parts start coming in slowly before the big reveal at his final form which is outrageously creepy and saves the whole film just by itself. While it doesn't get resolved and features a lame shock twist, this is still bloody enough and has a great air about it that it's easily the best thing about this entry.

The Bad Stor(ies): Tae-Jung's Lament-A lonely man attempts to rescue a woman from a strange thief, and upon doing so is granted an opportunity for thanks with her and her friends, unaware they're part of a vampiric cult being hunted down by a master tracker. Far too much melodrama than horror with his rituals about trying to honor his deceased wife and trying to live while doing that, but it doesn't really have a lot of scary moments. The final twist is quite nice as they don't have any association with normal vampiric activities or actions, which again makes this quite frustrating since it doesn't make them appear to be for any reason other than a shock twist at the end. The rescue attempts aren't that bad and actually have some good stuff to them as the segment doesn't tell us what's going on and are just throwing them into the scenario. Overall, this one just feels quite lacking.

Re-Membered-Having finished his assignment, a dirty cop returns to his patrol route in an attempt to get away with his deeds, only to be constantly under suspicion that the dismembered body in his trunk is still alive. A pretty disappointing effort that again runs on tons of clichés, as this one acts like the Poe story 'The Tell-Tale Heart' with a different organ chosen as the only difference here, but the constant thumping in the trunk of the car and his frantic worry about getting away with it are just right out of that story. It's brevity is another issue, as the barely fifteen-minute time doesn't allow for it to go anywhere but the story doesn't really give it the chance to. The appearance of the still-alive body at the end doesn't have any ring to it at all, and overall this one feels like filler.

Lover Come Back-After a spat with her lover causes her to die, she returns from the grave powered by a voodoo curse to seek revenge on her philandering spouse. This is overall the weakest at barely ten minutes in length and given a pointless, needless narration which brings out the entire backstory and what's going on on-screen while it's happening and robbing it of everything it could've had by choosing to do such a tactic. Again, the story plays out the way you expect it to without any real change simply because it don't offer any place to go but to dwell in the land of the familiar and because it focuses so long on the romance to start the relationship before dwelling on the supernatural return this doesn't get the chance to do anything of any importance before it goes for the familiar, and more than any of the segments this one's inclusion is pointless and unnecessary.

Rated R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

POSSIBLE MODERATE SPOILERS AHEAD

I went into this expecting for it to not be very good, and was very surprised when it actually was. It's not prefect, and it's not very scary despite the title, but it's a good amount of entertainment for a viewer with low expectations.

The Crossing - A pair of rednecks and their girlfriend are killing illegal aliens along the border and burying them to send a message to other potential border-crossers. One of the rednecks spills his homemade drink which causes the corpses to come back to life. Nothing too noteworthy, but features some average zombie splatter which was entertaining.

Teujung's Lament - A fascinating story of a man who's wife was taken from him and now wanders around drinking and following random women around, until he finds one he is especially struck by, who is knocked out with chloroform and kidnapped that same moment. Teujung then sets out to save her. Started off very good but in the end became rather predictable, but still pretty good overall.

Re-membered - A man is pulled over by a cop for erratic driving, the cop hears banging noises, and asks the man to pop his trunk... saying anything more would be considered a spoiler. Again, not bad, but nothing noteworthy.

Clowned - Best story of the movie by far, which follows a young man who gets bitten by a flesh-eating clown and undergoes a strange transformation that puts his family in danger. This one is sad, funny at times, and the clown make-up looks great (if you saw the movie's cover you already know what it looks like, but I guess they had to do something to draw you to the cover).

Lover Come Back - The last story and also the least interesting. It involves a woman recounting her relationship turned sour and her history of black magic. Again, the make-up looks good, but this one really isn't anything special.

Despite all flaws, this one is actually worth checking out, if only for Clowned.

7.5/10 (Rounded up to an 8 for IMDb)