Tales from the Lodge

Middle-aged friends gather at a remote lodge to scatter the ashes and honour the memory of one of their tight-knit group, who recently drowned in the nearby lake. With emotions running high, they make the most of the fraught situation by swapping spooky stories... as you do! Losing what little plot there is after urban legends about masked slashers, paranormal ghost hunters and post apocalyptic wastelands start rearing their haphazard heads, the film sees most of the eye-rolling reserved for its clumsily offensive climax. A game cast try their best to inject life into the underwhelming proceedings, tonally and stylistically all over the place because director Abigail Blackmore allowed her actors - Mackenzie Crook and Johnny Vegas the guiltiest parties - to virtually direct their own segments. Neither funny nor scary enough, this over-stretched anthology is no match for the likes of its clear inspirations, 1945's Dead of Night and 1972's Tales from the Crypt.