Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Rating: 9 Screams

A trio of sick and dark stories, done in an Asian flavor and style with Asian actors, to enhance any Halloween!

Story A – Dumplings

A former actress who finds herself without her husband’s desire, takes desperate measures to win back her youth and power, by going to one of those neighborhood Ama’s and eating her dumplings, which happen to contain a very sinister ingredient.

Please bear in mind, this movie is called Three Extremes for a reason. I won’t reveal the secret ingredient here, but it’s a sure bet that it will sicken both American and Asian audiences alike. And what the actress does at the end of the story is even worse, in my opinion, which is what makes Dumplings an amazingly atrocious story to start off with.

Story B – Cut

An embittered extra breaks into the house of a very successful movie director, and forces the director through all sorts of sick games and scenarios, on the threat that if he doesn’t, his wife, a famous pianist, will have her fingers chopped off one by one.

It occurs to me that these stories are kind of painting a portrait of the Deadly Sins, or at least commonly acknowledged sins of humanity. This one is a lot more zany, the extra flits from screaming fits to laughing jags, from demonstrations of his awesome performances to the director, to shrieking threats and blood flying. And the reactions of the pianist wife make it just that much harder to bear.

Story C – Box

The story of a young woman traumatized by horrific nightmares of being buried in a box in the snow, and in trying to confront these visions, comes to memory of the death of her sister and her father.

This one is the hardest to understand, most of it is done is a dreamlike sequence that’s broken and jagged but lovely to look at it, and the actors don’t say a thing, a lot of it is just implied. We have two young female contortionists working in a circus with their tyrant of a father, it’s only implied that he has an improper relationship with both his daughters and that’s why one of them is killed and the other one is haunted. Again, there are truly sick elements to this story, but not many.

Like I said, this movie lives up to it’s name. However, you don’t necessarily have to be a fan of, or even understand, Asian culturisms in order to appreciate the film, which is nice. It bears note that famed Takashi Miike directed the third story, too. Three Extremes explores the black boundaries of what we humans do, as far as horror-shows go, to each-other, without needing to resort to ghosts or demons. The fact that all of these stories are at least possible is what makes it truly extreme. Three Extremes gets a rating of 9 Screams!