From the makers of V/H/S comes this horror anthology set across a desert highway. As a radio DJ (Larry Fessenden) spouts out his words of wisdom, a number of individuals face horrifying terrors near an isolated town by the highway. This includes two blood-soaked men on the run from supernatural horrors, an all-girl band taken in by a strange family, a man who has to perform emergency surgery, and a rescue mission that goes horribly awry.
Featuring segments directed by Roxanne Benjamin, Patrick Horvath, David Bruckner, and Radio Silence, Southbound is a horror anthology that comes across as a gory mix of The Twilight Zone and Twin Peaks. Unlike many anthologies, which are built around a framing device, Southbound is edited as a continuous narrative, with the many characters intersecting to transition between segments. That said, each new segment is marked by a new radio broadcast by Larry Fessenden’s DJ.
While each of the segments of Southbound stand on their own, they also form a complete narrative about the true nature of this town on the southern end of the highway. While Southbound can be better described as darkly humorous than scary, the film has some very bloody violence and even a few hellish characters. Southbound also has a very memorable score, continuing the synth-heavy trend of recent horror films. Altogether, Southbound is a quite effective and really well-edited horror anthology.
★ ★ ★ ★ | LIKED IT