Chilling Visions: 5 States of Fear

5 STATES OF FEAR:
Chilling Visions has a new installment for the fear series called “5 States of Fear”. Taking place in 5 different states in the United States, 5 States of Fear has 5 short films that will tread on some basic fears people can have. From being buried alive to having your mind play tricks on you, the fear that people have just might consume them.

5 SHORTS OF THRILLERS:
With a name like “5 States of Fear”, I expected these short films to be something that would scare me into not wanting to sleep. I didn't quite get the fright that I was expecting from these, instead I got to watch 5 shorts that play to some sense of a fear that I might have, like being buried alive or being a part of a conspiracy plot. The fears that they play on are psychological, even though there is a ghost like presence in some of these shorts, they are not of the variety that tend to make you look over your shoulder or afraid to look under the bed once the lights are out. Some of these actually happen in real life, well aside from the ghost aspect, there are actually crimes being committed in the shorts.

Even though I was never really scared by watching these shorts I still enjoyed them for the most part. The way they are set up and the plots of them remind me some of the “Twilight Zone” show but just not as crazy and creepy. Though they still have that crazy, creepy sense to them that make me wonder, could this really happen? The thing is some could actually happen in a sense because they all play to a persons sanity about something that could happen. Such as losing a child, then seeing that child, but having to get revenge for the child so the soul can be at rest. Maybe seeing the dead child isn't real, at least to me, but the fact that someone else could think they see them and do what is done because of seeing the child, that could happen.

It's this sense of playing on reality that makes these shorts be creepy to watch and it's also why I liked it. None of the shorts are great, they are entertaining, they have some good plots that try to keep the viewer guessing as to what's going to happen. I did like how the progression of the plots would tug along trying to drag out what's going to happen in the story. There was a few moments that I thought that they could have cut out a little of the time by speeding up certain points in each of the shorts but as a whole they are entertaining. What I didn't quite understand with the shorts where what some of the characters do in them. Would someone really do that, why shut a door when you are going to be leaving the room after you just entered it but it's also because of these stupid actions that make the shorts entertaining. What I really liked about these shorts is the way they are all filmed. There's good, not great, but good cinematography being used on these shorts as well as having a good soundtrack to them. The way it's short and the music that's played both give a good sense of danger and sense of fear while also looking good doing it. I also liked that they are short enough to give me a sense of dread while being over quick enough that I get to watch another one.

I only have 2 main gripes about these shorts. One is that they are called 5 States of Fear but in the shorts themselves they never really play on the state that they are in. I was expecting the state to play an actual role in the plot of the shorts but they don't, except for one, “Mutilation” which does kind of have a reason for it being in the state that it is. The other reason is that throughout the shorts, from the start and between each one of them, there's a mystery guy in a car driving around. It's a way to do a creepy introduction of the shorts but I have no idea what the mystery man in the car is doing there. Does he have  place or is he really just a transition between the shorts that is trying to be made to be creepy? I don't know but I would have liked to know what the man in the car is about. For the rest of the shorts, the plots are entertaining to watch, the acting is decent, and there is a real quality to the plots that make them all the more creepy.