Horror Movie Review: All My Friends Are Dead (2021)

All My Friends Are Dead is an anthology horror from director Brandon Guiles who co-wrote it with Mark Ginter. He also stars in it alongside Jaeleen Davis, David Waldman, Shelby Burhans, Austin Butterfield and Andrew Caldwell.

An indie horror flick made on a low-budget and with relative no-name actors, All My Friends Are Dead puts the effort in to rise above its obvious shortcomings. The end result is a solid, if uninspired, anthology horror that gets a nod of approval.

A group of friends have gathered in the woods for a camping trip to support one amongst them with spreading the ashes of her recently deceased father. Night falls and to pass the time, they decide to tell some scary stories around the campfire. It is these stories that make up the anthology shorts but it’s not the only place that horror exists. You see, there’s something or someone in the woods around these campers and slowly, over the film’s runtime, they are picked off one by one.

Don’t let the low-production values of this movie put you off. Everyone involved has done the best they could and it shows. The wrap-around story is tight, if unoriginal, there’s some good acting from a pretty big cast, plenty of blood and a twisted sense of humour that will get the occasional laugh.

All My Friends Are Dead’s shortcomings come from the anthology shorts which are uneven at best. The handful on show here vary in quality with some feeling rushed and ending just as they were getting good and others feeling dragged out. That there’s not really any original ideas here, resulting in far too many moments where you’re just hoping for something interesting to happen.

Considering the important component of any anthology are the stories, that is a problem. Except, no one of them are actually bad. In fact, a couple are quite good and memorable, it’s enough to make you want to praise the flick overall because of just how indie it is.

Props for effort, it may not completely pay off, but it sure tries.