John’s Horror Corner: Future Shock (1994), a Horror Anthology with a great cast… that I really wish I had skipped!

MY CALL: The only reason to watch this might be to see all the actors you may recognize from the 80s and 90s. But make no mistake. Nothing about this movie is good, average, or even forgivable. It’s awful. It’s not even fun to watch as a bad movie. Please abandon any interest in watching this.

Jenny Porter

After hearing her list her daily paranoia for her safety, Dr. Langdon (Martin Kove; The Karate Kid, Rambo II, Death Race 2000, The Last House on the Left, VFW) recommends virtual reality therapy to his patient Jenny Porter (Vivian Schilling; Soultaker, Terror Eyes), who is overwhelmed with fear of the modern world’s crime rates. Her husband Jack (Brion James; The Horror Show, Tango & Cash, The Fifth Element, Nemesis) struggles with her fears of the world, but must leave her alone while away on business. She sleeps with guns in her bed, fears her neighbor’s (Sydney Lassick; Carrie, Curse II: The Bite, Alligator, Ratboy) dog, and is religious about the house alarm.

Jenny cannot tell reality from dream from delusion. After watching a prophetic TV news story about “herself” being mauled to death by wolves, her house is under siege by the animals. The wolf attack scenes and violence are of very poor quality, and I already strongly regret this movie choice.

Dr. Langdon refers to virtual reality. But it appears that he is just using hypnosis. All Langdon does is flip on a “plasma light ball” from Spencer Gifts, have his patient lie down on the couch, and speak their feelings. Jenny was the first of his three patients, each with a story…

The Roommate

In our second story, a reserved coroner Georgie (Scott Thomson; Ghoulies, Parasite, Frightmare) unable to pay his rent puts up an ad to have it answered by Vince (Bill Paxton; The Vagrant, Frailty, Aliens, Near Dark, Mortuary), a pushy con-man who extorts Georgie from minute one. Vince is the roommate from Hell. He takes Georgie’s things, leaves filth in his wake, frames Georgie for a few crimes, and feels like a Monkey’s Paw curse… and this movie feels like that to me, too!

This movie is like a low-budget fever dream, and I want to wake up from it. So far, my favorite part is simply seeing James Karen’s (Invaders from Mars, Return of the Living Dead I-II, Poltergeist, The Unborn, The Willies, Girlfriend from Hell) cameo as Georgie’s boss. The part isn’t good, funny or interesting. I just like the guy and had a (false) “hope” that something good would come of him.

Mr. Petrified Forrest

For our final story, a man obsessed with his own death experiences a montage of various iterations of his own demise. I have little to say… this was horrendously boring. I mean, the entire movie was boring. But this was clearly the most boring segment of the anthology. I can’t believe this was written and directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In,The Batman, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes)! I guess we all have to start somewhere, right?

Awful. This movie is garbage. I’m upset that so many fine actors were squandered here. Don’t watch this.