Moving on in the Tales of Terror series, Tales of Terror Vol.3 are, just like Vol.1-2, stories from a tv show that tell tales based on true supernatural encounters. In this third volume, there are 8 short stories. This DVD continues episodes from Part 2 with another 8 episodes from 17 to 24.
17. Stones (Keisuke Toyoshima)
A man is fishing and some guy that stands far away asks the man if the fish bites. Next second he's right next to the man, asking him the same thing again. A bit freaked out and slightly irritated, the man stops fishing and starts biking through the forest. Suddenly he gets hit over the head with a stone that comes flying through the air, and right after yet another stone hit him as well. When he turns around there's huge pile of stones on the ground, and then apparently a lot stones are coming at him through the air.
Why I said that apparently there were stones coming at him in the end, is because we don't get to see it, only hear it. As far as I understand, the man who was out fishing angered some ghost who got back at him later. A bit funny but not really any good.
18. My Sister's Room (Keisuke Toyoshima)
A girl wakes up at exactly two o clock every night from what seems like horrible nightmares where some ghost with long black hair is standing over her bed. She tells her parents about this but they don't take her seriously, saying that it's just puberty kicking in. Later in the kitchen, ten minutes before two, her brother tells her that he has heard strange sounds from her room every night for a long time but that they always stop when the clock strikes two. Then as the clock strikes two, her brother seems to get possessed and starts making weird noises.
Geez, this one started out ok but turned into a mess quite fast. And like all the other stories it was really short.
19. The Train (Ryuta Miyake)
Two girls sit in a friends apartment while the friend is out buying some things. As they talk, they suddenly hear a train go by just outside the window. Later on they hear it passing by again, and when their friend comes home they ask her how she can stand to live there with all the trains passing by just outside. The friend says that there are no trains passing by and that there's a river outside. They open the window and a train passes by, and the next moment, the girls are gone.
At least this one didn't have any ghost persons in it, but instead a ghost train (that we never get to see). Not great.
20. The Lover (Norio Tsuruta)
While being at home, a guy tells his girlfriend that he's sick of his job and wants to quit, and she just tells him to hang in there. Apparently the guy suffered from depression, and after that killed himself, only to later show up in the apartment as a ghost to scare the shit out of his old girlfriend.
This one was not great but better than the previous ones. The guy couldn't stand his life, and his girlfriend wasn't very helpful either. He kills himself and later shows up as a ghost, and the best thing here was that he did a lot of freaky stuff with stretching out his neck a lot etc. Quite a cool effect, but the story wasn't anything special really.
21. Take A Good Care Of Him (Kei Horie)
A guy from a company is sent to look after another employee's mom while she's in the hospital, and he's not too happy about it. When he arrives there, he sees the other employee, who's been on paid vacation for two weeks, sitting by the side of his sick mom's bed. The guy stars talking to his work mate and at the same time the mother dies. Then while the son is crying, the mom suddenly opens her eyes and tells the guy to 'Take A Good Care Of Him', which I guess should be 'take good care of him'. Then when the nurse walks out the door, the dead mom is the nurse.
Quite good but at the same time also quite strange. To short to give the proper effect, but it was still good enough. If you consider that it has happened for real, it's a bit freaky. But why did the mom become the nurse, and what happened to the real nurse?
22. Let's Play (Toru Moriyama)
Some girls are playing on the yard, and one girl sees another girl standing in a window, looking down on the children playing. The girl writes let's play in the sand for the window girl to see. The window girl comes down but soon runs upstairs again, followed by the other girl. Later the girl tells her parents about the window girl, and they find out that no one has lived in the apartment she was in for years.
Scary? No not really. Slightly interesting but, just like the others, too short to make a good impression.
23. A Motel (Takafumi Ota)
After the shooting of a horror video, two girls stay at some motel that has a creepy host and no other guests staying there. In the middle of the night, one of the girls wakes up from someone banging on the door. The person behind the door has a really creepy voice and says; "Let me in, I'm in pain". Suddenly the other girl stands up and says in a manly tone of voice not to open the door.
This short film was the one that had the most actual horror in it, just too bad it didn't last longer.
24. The Garden (Yo Takahashi)
A woman hears some strange bugs/flies buzzing away, and feel that there's something that's not right in her house. She calls a friend to come over but they can't find anything. When the friend leaves, the woman hear that the vacuum cleaner is on up on the second floor of the house. She goes up there, and when she bends down to turn it off, she sees some pale-looking ghostly pair of feet next to her. When she stands up they're gone and then she gets another call from her friend who tells her to get out of the house.
Ok, forget that the 'A Motel' had the most horror in it, as I think this one actually did. Apparently there used to be some kind of beast caged in the garden, and the were murders in the house were the corpses were fed to the beast. There's one scene where we get to see the cage and it has some kid in it (who looks like the boy from Ju-on) that gets pulled away which looks really cool. Even though it was too short, it still kinda delivered.
Half of the stories here were quite good, while the other half kinda sucked. But after having watched Part 1-2, I'm starting to get into the whole concept of these stories more and more. They say that all these stories were told by people who have actually experienced what is been told here, and if you consider the fact that they have happened for real, it of course gives it a better effect. But whether you believe that they are true or not, they are still all too short to make a stronger impact.
After the 24th episode, there's actually one more called "Fox and A Bath" where we only get to see a guy sit and tell a story to a girl. Thing though is that the story was neither scary nor interesting, and I just wanted it to end. Apart from that, Tales of Terror 3 was just as good as part 2, but I'm not sure whether or not that's really a good thing. Even though I decided to give it a 5 out of 10, I can't really recommend it. It's not your normal type of Asian horror, and the fact that the stories are so short is a really bad thing. Some of them are quite interesting and have some potential, it's just that they end way too fast.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Tales of Terror from Tokyo 3
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: See next the title of each story
WRITING CREDITS: n/a
GENRE: Horror, Supernatural
CAST: Uncredited
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 55 min
RATING: 5/10
Tales Of Terror Vol 3 Website/IMDB Click here
Tales Of Terror Vol 3 Trailer Click here
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