Ask the average horror fan to name their favorite 1980s’ “anthology horror” film and most of the time, the answer you will receive is either Creepshow or Creepshow 2. There’s sure to be the occasional Cat’s Eye, Nightmares, or even Twilight Zone: The Movie. You may even meet a few folks who claim that 1981’s The Monster Club or 1985’s Night Train to Terror is their favorite. These people are clearly delusional, potentially dangerous, and should be trusted under no circumstance.

One film that I rarely, if ever, see or hear mentioned is 1987’s Chillers, the first feature film from Daniel Boyd. Written, directed, and edited by Boyd, Chillers has seen home video release from Troma and was included on DVD sets such as the 10-disc “Toxie’s Blood Bank” and “Toxie’s Triple Terror Volume 2”. Chillers would later be adapted into a two-issue graphic novel by Tranzfusion Publishing and Caliber Comic in 2012. Boyd’s follow up would be 1990’s Strangest Dreams: Invasion of the Space Preachers. No, I haven’t watched it, but with a title like that, I probably should.

COLLECTORS’ NOTE: “Toxie’s Blood Bank” included a neat blood sack on the tin, as well as all three films featured on the “Triple Terror” set. As you can see from the included photo of my own copy of the release, the blood sack has dried out and semi-detached from the tin over the years.

Would-be travelers are forced to wait in a small bus depot after missing their connecting bus. To kill the time, they take turns recounting nightmares that they’ve recently experienced. The first of these is told from the perspective of a young woman named Lindsey, whose dream is just beginning as we meet her. An aspiring competitive swimmer, Lindsey is practicing at an indoor swimming facility (i.e. “public pool”) when she meets a young man named Billy. A diver for his school’s team, Billy is currently rehabbing an undisclosed injury.

Billy offers to help Lindsey with her technique, as well as her confidence. The two hit it off and are soon bumping uglies (keyword: “uglies”) in the pool’s shower room. Granted, this is a community pool, and anyone could walk in on them at any second, but hey…  sometimes. you feel like a nut. After getting dressed, Lindsey returns to the pool area just in time to watch Billy dive into the pool… and never surface. She reports the incident but is shocked to learn that the boy died in a diving accident 5 years prior.

Setting off a somewhat disjointed sequence, Lindsey falls and hits her head on the edge of the pool, her body slipping into the water. She resurfaces to find a very undead Billy, now sporting the gaping head wound that led to his demise. For whatever reason, he’s much more malicious and taunting in nature now that he’s a talking corpse. Dead people tend to be dicks. Accompanying him are other vengeful spirits of those that have died at the pool over the years. However, with as many deaths and other safety violations as this place has witnessed, one could argue that it should have been shut down long before now. The place has a death curse!

The segment ends with Lindsey waking from her nightmare, still sitting in the bus depot. Chillers quickly heads into the next sequence, this time relayed by a young boy who is traveling by himself to a summer camp. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the boy’s dream also takes place at the camp. To be fair, it’s less of a “camp” and more a small group of three scouts and their scout leader setting up a tent in the middle of the forest.

The campers are soon accosted by an angry poacher, the actor somewhat unsuccessful in his efforts to sell the whole “crazed backwoods hick” thing. The man threatens the campers, warning them to leave or face his wrath. Naturally, the scout leader ignores the warning and has the kids prepare their site for the evening.

The story doesn’t exactly play out as one might expect. However, the “twist” is revealed far too quickly, not only robbing the moment of any real surprise or shock but also neutering the remainder of the tale of any real sense of “suspense”. Unfortunately, the story just devolves into your standard “cat and mouse” chase sequence, albeit a rather brief one.

More dreams are divulged by the remaining travelers: A lonely woman’s fascination with a local TV anchorman comes back to bite her… literally. A young man (and possible Wendy’s employee, judging from the hat prominently featured in the segment) discovers that he has the power to resurrect the dead and attempts to use the gift for good. Turns out the dead aren’t too thrilled about being back. (Again, dead people are dicks.) Finally, a professor faces off against a coed possessed by an ancient deity.

The film’s fourth tale (the resurrectionist) does feature some comedic elements, which helps elevate the segment over most of the others. That said, though somewhat ambiguous, Chillers‘ first tale definitely seems the most developed and features what I consider to be the film’s strongest performances. The lonely woman’s tale starts strong, but drags in the middle, while the other two tales feel somewhat under-developed and almost come across as filler.

Chillers concludes with the group boarding a bus to their final destination. If you know anything about horror films, then you know that the last two words of that previous sentence never amount to anything pleasant. The film does attempt to present one final surprise in its closing scene, but only offers up a tired gimmick that’s never been appreciated by fans of horror films… or fans of TV’s “Dallas”.

Chillers also features quite a few prominent unibrows. While this isn’t exactly pertinent information, there was no way in Hell that I wasn’t going to point it out. Meanwhile, the film’s wrap-around sequence appears to have been filmed sometime after the individual segments as each of the cast has longer hair, trimmed brows, and the younger male actors do appear a little older.

For the most part, Chillers does feature mostly amateur performances, with supporting characters generally being the weakest. In my opinion, the film may have been better served by removing the camping story and expanding on the others as I found those to be far more compelling. That said, I still consider the film to be somewhat enjoyable. Somewhat. While I’d be hard-pressed to really recommend Chillers to anyone other than the most ardent of horror anthology fans or seekers of somewhat more obscure or/and forgotten 80’s horror films, there’s definitely some heart to be found here, and that’s not counting the one that gets ripped out of a guy’s chest.

In closing, there’s a reason that Chillers isn’t mentioned in the same conversation as those other 1980’s horror anthologies previously mentioned. It’s just not as good. Granted, you could still find worse to watch with your time. Chillers doesn’t seem to be available on any streaming sites as of this writing, but it is available to watch on YouTube. A link to watch the film has been included after this trailer for the film.