In Smell, a man receives a cologne of pheromones that makes him an alpha male, and irresistible to women.
In See, an eye doctor extracts visual memories from his patients, and tries to set an abusive man straight.
In Touch, a young blind boy tries to find help for his injured parents after a car crash, running afoul of a serial killer who has laid traps in the woods.
In Taste, a man goes for an interview, encountering a bizarre boss.
Lastly, in Listen, a group of people work one piecing together a video of a performance of a song that is supposed to kill the people who listen to it.
There are a few ties between some of these stories. The boss in the fourth story is looking for someone to acquire the song that the fifth segment is about. Characters from the first couple stories appear in the fourth. They aren't tightly woven together, but it's at least a little interesting.
Like most anthology movies, there are both good and bad points, and there's always a weird balance between gore and actual horror. Tension takes time to develop, and these stories are told too quickly for that. The first story was a solid premise, and it felt like a modern version of Tales From the Darkside. The acting was kind of silly. The price for his pheromones seems to be that use of them deteriorates his body, eventually killing him. Not too clever a twist. But it's an acceptable story.
See had the potential to be a much more interesting idea, but the execution seemed to push the story in the least interesting direction. There's much more that he could have learned from memories, especially multiple people, as he pieces a story together. Instead, the story just seems to want opportunities to gouge eyes. Meh.
Touch was a great idea, but it is far too rushed. All the pieces are there, but it just seems like there's no time to bond with the lead, and every shot seems less artful, and more focused on pushing the story forward. Normally, I would think this is great, but in this case, it seems like a missed opportunity.
Taste was the weirdest story, and it seems to have a poor reputation. I can see why. It sets things up, then goes straight for gore. Not terribly interesting. It's a bit disappointing, since I think there could be a nice dark twist to things. Instead of playing on the uncomfortable nature of interviews, the interview itself seems to be entirely fine.
Listen was a mixed effort. I was pretty interested for most of it, but once we see the performance of the song, it falls apart. I found myself thinking of John Carpenter's Masters of Horror episode, Cigarette Burns. A similar story, but Carpenter's approach to the idea is far more interesting, and much more plausible in the world he constructs. This approach seemed a little weak.
Overall, it's a passable anthology. The stories aren't great, some are memorable, but it does have one thing going for it - pacing. It moves fast, so it's easier to forgive poor choices.
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