#20 -- Terror Tract (2000)

Directors: Lance W. Dreeson & Clint Hutchison
Rating: 3 / 5

John Ritter, one of my favorite actors, was my main reason for watching this movie. The synopsis is a bit vague, so when you read it you're not quite sure if you'd like to see it or not. But I'm glad I did, and I'm here to tell you it's good. It's a nice little anthology where real estate agent Bob (played by Ritter) is trying to sell a house to a young couple. Each house, though, has history - it's own dirty little secrets. And as the seller, it is his job to fill them in on the little secrets.

Nightmare

Sarah is cheating on her husband, Lewis and having an affair with Frank. Lewis leaves for the day and Frank comes over for a little fun. But their little fun is interrupted when a shotgun-toting Lewis returns. He has known about the little affair for quite some time and was waiting on the perfect moment. He creates a noose for his wife, after forcing her to write a breakup letter to Frank. He then holds the gun to Frank's face and tells them his plan. Sarah has broken up with Frank, but Frank cannot take no for an answer. So he returns to try again and Sarah, defending herself, shoots him. Then, so distraught after what she's done, hangs herself. The note will be a nice touch, Lewis thinks; the cops won't suspect a thing. But his plan goes awry when Frank shoots him in the back and tosses him into the lake. 

Sarah is tormented by what they've done, and she begins having nightmares of Lewis returning from the grave to kill her. While Frank is trying to hide the murder, Sarah is trying to avoid the nightmares. When they realize that Lewis's car is still around, they hurry to try to hide it. But there's one problem - Lewis had the keys with him. So, while Frank is back at the lake fetching the keys from the body, Sarah is still having nightmares. She hears the doorknob turning, the door shaking, and she grabs the shotgun from underneath the bed. As soon as the door opens, she shoots...Frank. Upset about what she's done, she hangs herself. So, Lewis's plan has come to life, except it's not exactly the way he'd planned it. When the cops arrive to investigate and collect the bodies, Sarah is covered in some sort of green slime. So, were they just nightmares? Or was Lewis really returning from the grave to torment his adulterous wife?

Naturally, the young couple is not interested in buying that house. So it's off to the next.

Bobo

Ron's daughter, Jennifer, is his whole world. But one day, when she finds a little monkey in a funny red suit, his whole world changes. Jennifer falls in love with the little critter, but Ron knows that something just isn't right. The monkey starts misbehaving - nothing out of the ordinary; just a wild animal being a wild animal - and Ron wants it out of his house. Jennifer will have none of it, though, and she starts hiding Bobo in her bedroom. When Ron finds their family dog dead, he takes action. He tells his wife and daughter to leave the house, and he contacts animal control. A big man agrees to come to the house with him and catch the monkey. Ron is burying the dog in the backyard when he realizes a lot of time has passed. He returns to the house to find animal control dead - at least ten kitchen knifes stuck into his chest and stomach. He believes that Bobo is the monkey from Hell, and I think he might have been right. When he finds his wife dead from a slit throat, he can take no more. 

He finds Bobo back in Jennifer's room, and after a brief battle with the little monster, traps it underneath Jennifer's bureau. He looks around for the shotgun and realizes that it is in his daughter's hands. He begs her to give it to him, and she does...We hear a gunshot, and we know that Jennifer has just murdered her father.

For the fear of demon monkeys, the couple does not with to buy this house either. So it's off to the next.

Come To Granny

Sean needs psychiatric help, because he sees dead people. Well, not exactly...There is a murderer on the loose called The Granny Killer. No, he doesn't kill grandmothers. He kills women, while wearing a granny mask. And Sean has premonitions of the murders before they happen. So he goes to see the psychiatrist for help, because he feels he needs to tell someone. He tells her about each of the premonitions and how they've come true. The last of the premonitions is the love of his life, and he has just come from finding her dismembered body. He reveals to the psychiatrist that he's not come for help - he's come to warn her. He's had another vision, and she is the next victim. The doctor becomes afraid, thinking that Sean is trying to kill her. There is a struggle and the doctor ends up stabbing him. He chases her through her office and pulls out a gun. She is frantically punching the elevator butting, trying to get away. And when the doors open - The Granny Killer is waiting for her. Sean tries to shoot, but falls to the ground before he can. "It's all right," The Granny Killer says. "Come to Granny!"

The couple, strangely, does not want this house either. They become annoyed with Bob and tell him that they don't want to buy any house from him. He becomes angry, because his numbers are down and he must sell a house. He then gets a phone call from his boss, telling him that his time is up. He puts Bob's son on the phone. The little boy is crying, begging his father to sell the house. So it seems that there are very serious consequences for poor performance. Bob stabs the young man and chases the woman out of the house. She jumps into the car and, with bloodied hands, Bob slams against it yelling "make me an offer!" As she's driving away, she realizes that the entire neighborhood is crazy. She sees old ladies dumping bodies in trash cans, someone drowned in a kiddie pool, a man running over a cat with a lawnmower, and more grizzly scenes. 

The cover of the movie says: Real estate agent Bob Carter sells the American Dream...But in this neighborhood, dreams turn to nightmares. And I'm sure that terrified young woman would agree.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I'd never heard of it, and by the synopsis didn't expect much. There were some genuinely scary scenes - especially when Lewis returns to haunt his wife's nightmares. The stories are interesting and very well done. I enjoyed this quite a lot, and I think it's definitely worth a viewing.