DVD review: Slices of Life (2010)

Mira (Kaylee Williams) awakens in front of a seedy roadside motel with amnesia. She searches for clues to her identity in the pages of three bound sketchbooks, in which each book represents a different aspect of everyday life, maybe her life. WORK LIFE aka W.O.R.M. (which is the title on the DVD disc); A lowly clerk at a nano technology firm unleashes a deadly virus at the office headquarters, giving new meaning to the term corporate zombie. HOME LIFE aka AMBER ALERT (which is the title on the DVD disc); As local girls begin to disappear, a young pregnant woman is haunted by visions of evil demonic children hell bent on stealing her unborn fetus. SEX LIFE aka PINK SNAPPER (which is the title on the DVD disc); A young brother and sister on the run from a sexually abusive home life, take refuge in a countryside Victorian manor- only to discover the monsters hidden in this house have been looking Slices of Life is written by Alan Rowe Kelly, Eric Richter and Anthony G. Sumner who also is the director. W.O.R.M. offers some uneven acting, the camerawork and editing is good. I like the plot and love the Cronenbergesque elements. It´s is never scary but it is entertaining. AMBER ALERT is darker, it has many good ideas and some nice imagery but some of it is hampered by the computer rendered fx. The soundtrack is good. The acting is pretty good, the camerawork and editing is good and it has a couple of nice moments. PINK SNAPPER is nicely shot and edited, the acting is better than in the previous short movies, the plot is very cool, it´s creepier, sexier and gorier... actually much gorier. The sounstrack is good. The wrap-around short movie is called SKETCHER, it stars Kaylee Williams who does a good job as Mira, the plot is cool and features some decent gore. It´s nicely shot and edited. Slices of Life is gory, there is both computer rendered and practical gore. In my opinion the gory high lights appear in PINK SNAPPER. The demonic children (there are also adults) in AMBER ALERT are for the most part created by computer rendered fx which looks pretty decent but I would have prefered practical make-up. There´s also zombies make-up fx and some creature fx which looks good, especially the creature.  There is some brief T and A, Deneen Melody provides some topless nudity. There is a rape scene and a very bloody sex scene but I won´t go into details due to spoilers.
This review is based upon the region 1 DVD release from Midnight releasing. The reason that I haven chosen to use "also known as" is that there is some confusion about the titles, one title is listed on IMDB, another on the DVD cover and at the start of the short movies but then they use the title listed on IMDB during the end credits. I found it all a bit confusing.
Rating: 5½ out of 7.  In my opinion PINK SNAPPER is the best of the of the three short movies, AMBER ALERT is pretty good,W.O.R.M. is also pretty good and has some really cool Cronenbergesque imagery and ideas which are really cool. If you´re in the mood for a horror anthology you should check out Slices of Life, even if it is a bit uneven it features good entertaiment value for your money, I was never bored while watching it and this is yet another example that good things come in small packages!

/JL